All Chapters of Before We Broke: Chapter 41 - Chapter 46

The night pressed in heavy, the kind that swallowed and wrapped the world in a suffocating stillness. Lila sat cross-legged on her bed, the pale glow of her phone the only light in the room. It illuminated her face like a cruel spotlight, highlighting the tension etched into her jaw, the tear-gloss sheen in her eyes.Her screen still showed the last message, waiting for her acknowledgment like a taunt.Does he tell you he loves you? Or does he just say it because you need to hear it?She hated how the words sank under her skin, how they poisoned the very place Anthony’s voice used to soothe her. She wanted to delete them, block the number, pretend this had never crawled into her world. But she couldn’t. She never could. Every time she silenced the phone, every time she told herself she was done, the messages found their way back to her like a shadow she couldn’t outrun.Tonight, though, she was done being passive. Tonight, she couldn’t shove it aside anymore. Somethi

Lila couldn’t hear the world around her. The music from her phone, the hum of the ceiling fan, even the faint traffic outside her window—all of it faded beneath the roar in her chest. Her hands trembled as she clutched the phone, the screen lighting up with the last unanswered message she’d fired off at the anonymous number.Who are you? Why are you doing this? Why him? Why me?The reply had come in seconds, like whoever was on the other side was waiting, breathing down her neck through invisible wires.You’ll see. He’s not who you think he is. And I’ll prove it.And then, as if to twist the knife, the photo.Her and Anthony. From two nights ago, walking down the block after leaving Nicole’s house. She hadn’t even noticed anyone near them, let alone close enough to snap a picture. But there they were—her head tilted toward Anthony, his hand brushing hers, both of them caught in a moment that had felt so safe.Now it was ruined.

The decision had been brewing in Lila’s mind for days, a knot of anxiety twisting tighter each time her phone buzzed. At first, she thought she could ignore it—block the number, delete the messages, pretend none of it was happening. But pretending didn’t stop the way her hands shook when her screen lit up, or how her stomach dropped at the sight of another photo she hadn’t consented to be taken. It didn’t stop the fear that whoever was behind it was watching her even now, cataloguing her life like a series of stolen moments.So on a cool Thursday morning, when the rest of the world felt caught in the slow hum of early spring, Lila marched herself into her phone carrier’s store.She sat in the plastic chair across from a clerk who looked hardly older than her, fingers flying across a keyboard as he pulled up her account. “So you’re wanting to change your number completely?” he asked, voice flat with the practiced tone of someone who’d asked the question a hundred ti