All Chapters of Dirty Little Secret : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Two days.That’s how long we lasted after my mom almost caught us.Two days of silence.Two days of avoiding eye contact. Of locking our doors. Of pretending nothing had happened on that couch. That he hadn’t been inside me while she stood ten feet away.And then it came.A single message.From Avery.One photo.And one line:“She deserves to know.”I saw it on Jace’s phone first.Then I saw the same message land on mine.And then my mom’s scream from the kitchen.I bolted down the stairs just in time to find her standing by the counter, phone shaking in her hand.The photo.Of me. Straddling Jace.Our mouths open. Our bodies bare. Faces blurred, but the meaning unmistakable.My dad stood beside her, face unreadable, until he turned to Jace who was standing frozen halfway down the hall.“Get out,” my dad said coldly.“Wait” Jace started.“Get out of this house. Out of our lives.”He didn’t yell.He didn’t need to.My mom turned to me next, her voice brittle. “Tell me this isn’t real.”

The hallways at school had never felt so suffocating. Every glance from a classmate felt loaded, every whisper seemed pointed directly at me. I knew Avery was still out there, scheming, watching, waiting for the perfect moment to ruin us.But the worst part? Jace was here, and I could feel him everywhere I went. The faint brush of his hand on mine in class, the shared glance across the cafeteria that made my pulse spike, the way he seemed to appear exactly when I needed him or didn’t like he was reading my thoughts before I even had them.By lunch, the tension had built so high I could barely sit still. I found myself wandering the quiet hallway near the library, trying to avoid the cafeteria chaos. I wasn’t alone for long.“I thought I told you to stay out of trouble,” Jace murmured from behind me, voice low and teasing.I spun around, heart thumping, only to find him leaning casually against the wall, arms crossed, that familiar dangerous smirk playing on his lips.“You think I can?

The weekend arrived like a storm, heavy and impossible to ignore. Every glance, every touch, every stolen moment between Jace and me felt amplified, like the world outside had melted away and left only the two of us.Avery hadn’t backed down. If anything, she was worse whispering in the hallways, laughing too loudly with her friends whenever we passed, sending subtle threats that kept us both on edge. Every time I felt safe with Jace, a chill reminder reminded me we weren’t.But danger only made him more magnetic.It started in the backyard. The sun was just dipping below the horizon, turning the sky a deep orange. Jace and I had found a quiet corner, behind the old fence where the trees shaded us from anyone passing.“I hate that she’s still out there,” I whispered, watching a leaf flutter in the wind.He stepped closer, brushing a hand along my arm in a way that made my pulse spike. “Then ignore her,” he said, low and teasing, “because she doesn’t matter.”“Easy for you to say,” I m

The morning felt wrong from the moment I woke up.Not dangerous, not loud just wrong.A quiet kind of tension, like the world was holding its breath.I could feel it in the hallway as I walked toward the kitchen. The house seemed too silent, too still, and for a second my chest tightened as if it already knew something I didn’t.Jace was already downstairs, leaning against the counter with a mug in his hand, brow furrowed. He looked up as soon as he heard me.“There you are,” he said quietly.Something in his voice made my heart drop. “What’s wrong?”He didn’t speak at first. He just set the mug down and slipped something from his pocket. A folded piece of paper. My stomach twisted.“Avery,” he said, jaw tight. “She left this in my locker.”My breath hitched. “What does it say?”He handed it to me.A short message, neat handwriting, sharp words:“I know your secret.You have until Friday.”My hands trembled. My heart hammered in my chest. “Friday? What does she mean? What does she wan

Jace didn’t say much on the drive home.Avery sat quietly in the passenger seat, staring out the window as the late afternoon sun stretched shadows across the road. The silence wasn’t awkward it was thoughtful, heavy with everything they had just said and everything that still needed to be faced.“So,” Avery finally spoke, breaking the quiet. “What happens now?”Jace exhaled slowly. “Now I tell the truth. All of it.”Her head snapped toward him. “To her?”“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “She deserves that much.”Avery studied his face, searching for doubt. There was none. Only resolve.“You’re sure?” she asked. “Once you say it, there’s no taking it back.”“I know,” he said quietly. “But I can’t keep pretending anymore. Not with you. Not with myself.”The house felt smaller than usual when they walked in.Their parents were out for the evening, leaving the place wrapped in an uneasy quiet. Jace paused in the hallway, fingers flexing at his sides like he was preparing for impact.“S