Chapter 004

Cassie’s POV

Lily leaned over my shoulder, her eyes wide enough to swallow the whole room. “Cassie… you need to respond.”

“I can’t.”

“You have to.”

I shook my head, heat pulsing under my skin. “Lily, I can’t talk to him. He knows something.”

“Correction,” she said, lifting a brow. “He knows what Katie posted. He doesn’t know everything unless you tell them.”

She wasn’t wrong, and that terrified me more.

Just as I thought of a befitting response, I saw another message pop up on my screen.

It was Asher.

‘Cassie, is this you?’

I could swear my heart skipped a beat.

“Lily, Lily, Lily.” I called her, while tapping her continuously till I showed her the message.

“Cassie…..”

I stood up pacing back and forth, “What do I do? My whole life is practically ruined.”

I stared at the screen again, hoping the messages would vanish like mist. They didn’t. Another notification slid across the top.

‘Hi Cassie, Caspian here, we need to talk’

“Caspian just texted me,” I threw my phone across the bed. Thinking of a solution.

And then Lily became quiet, I looked over at her and when she noticed my gaze, she slowly put the phone away.

“What is it?” I questioned.

“It is nothing, don't check your phone.” I picked up my phone and scrolled to the anonymous gossip page again.

The Quiet Girl’s Unquiet Heart.

Katie struck again.

I opened it before I could stop myself. I regretted it immediately. Another page from my diary. Not the worst one… but still bare and raw.

The comments were already exploding.

‘This girl is in love with half the school’

‘These entries feel real. Whoever wrote this is a real lover’

‘This is the only reason I still check this page’

Lily snatched the phone from me and threw it onto my pillow. “Do NOT spiral. Don’t do that wolf-quiet thing where you disappear inside your own head.”

I slumped back against the wall, my pulse thudding like distant pawbeats. “Why is this happening to me?”

“Because Katie is spiteful and bored.”

“That diary was the only place I felt safe.”

“Ouch. And here I thought I was your safe space.”

“You are,” I whispered. “But I wrote things I could never speak. Things I didn’t even want to admit to myself.”

“I know, Cassie.”

My voice dropped. “I described them. Explicitly.”

Lily’s wince said everything. “Yeah… yeah.”

A cold realization hit me so hard I almost folded. “Lily. If Katie keeps posting, she’ll reach the most sensitive pages.”

Lily hesitated—just for a second—but I saw it. That flicker of doubt that said maybe this was my fault. I didn’t call her out. I didn’t have the strength.

“We have to get that diary back,” she said.

I laughed, but it cracked somewhere inside me. “How? She hates me.”

“She hates everyone. Hating you is just her favorite hobby.”

“Great.”

Lily sat straighter. Determined. “Cassie, the boys know something is off. Maybe you should reply.”

I picked up my phone, thumb hovering over the messages.

“So… what now?” she asked.

“I need air.”

I stepped outside. The evening breeze blew my skin. The neighborhood was quiet, unnervingly so, as if even the moon was holding its breath. I leaned against the railing, trying to steady myself.

I thought embarrassment would be the worst part of this. It wasn’t.

Those pages were the only place I dared want anything. And now they were public property.

“I wasn’t meant to be seen like this,” I whispered into the night.

My phone vibrated again. I ignored it. Whoever it was could wait. I sat on the porch steps, burying my face in my palms. My eyes burned from crying for seventy-two straight hours. I felt emptied out, scraped raw.

Lily came outside and nudged me with her shoulder. “Cass. Hiding won’t stop them.”

“I know. But sitting out here also won’t break me.” A weak laugh escaped me.

We stayed there in silence until the sky deepened into midnight blue. When I finally picked up the phone again, the notifications were flooding in.

The gossip page posted another teaser.

Lily inhaled sharply. “Cass. You’re trending again.”

“I don’t want to trend.”

“I know. But you are. And at least… people aren’t mocking you.”

“But they think I want three Alphas at once.”

“Do you?”

“Lily.”

She held up her hands. “Fine. Not my business.”

I sighed. “It was never about wanting them.”

“Then what was it about?”

“It’s too complicated.”

She nodded slowly. “Then maybe it’s time to put those feelings somewhere else. Like getting back at Katie.”

Another notification lit up my lock screen.

Anonymous Drop:

‘The next entry is the one everyone has been waiting for. Posting at midnight.’

Lily’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Cassie. What entry is that?”

I felt my blood go cold.

Midnight meant she had reached those pages. The ones filled with the kind of confessions that could shatter reputations.

“I need to stop her.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But I will.”

Another vibration buzzed through my palm.

“Oh Goddess… not again.”

“Cassie,” Lily said gently, “maybe just turn it off.”

But I didn’t. I opened it, Lily held my shoulders.

“I can’t keep running.”

My phone buzzed again.

This time it was a picture. A single photo that made my stomach fall straight through the earth.

It was my diary, opened on a desk and a message below it,

‘If you want it back, come alone.’

Katie.

My throat tightened. I curled my hands into fists.

I was going to get that diary back. No matter what, even if I have to fight Katie for it.