All Chapters of Rival Hearts: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

By the end of the week, Harper understood something brutal:Space didn’t heal anything.It just gave the pain room to echo.Emery stopped sitting near her in lectures. Not dramatically—just enough to make the absence obvious. When Harper laughed with someone else, Emery didn’t react. When Harper walked past her on the quad, Emery didn’t look away—but she didn’t reach out either.That restraint hurt more than anger ever could.The almost-exposure returned on Friday night.A party spilled out of one of the older campus houses—music loud, lights too bright, bodies pressed together. Harper hadn’t planned on going. Maya had dragged her, claiming she needed “normal.”Normal felt impossible.She hadn’t been there ten minutes before she felt it.Eyes.People watching her reactions instead of the room.And then she saw Talia, leaning close to Emery near the kitchen counter, laughter deliberate, fingers brushing Emery’s arm just a little too familiarly.Harper’s chest seized.Maya swore under h

The campus didn’t explode.That surprised Harper most.There was no dramatic confrontation, no official announcement, no viral reckoning. Just a slow, uncomfortable shift—as if the ground beneath everything had tilted a few degrees and never leveled back out.People looked at her differently now.Not openly. Not always unkindly. But aware.Some smiled too quickly. Some avoided her altogether. A few nodded in quiet understanding, like they’d seen something brave and weren’t sure how to say so.Almost-exposure had turned into quiet confirmation.Harper sat in the back of her lecture hall, heart pounding, when someone slid into the empty seat beside her.Maya.She didn’t say anything at first. Just leaned over and whispered, “You okay?”Harper nodded, then shook her head. “I don’t know.”Maya exhaled slowly. “That’s fair.”After class, they walked together. The air felt heavier than usual, weighted by what had changed.“I was angry,” Maya admitted. “Not because of who you like. Because y

The first time it happens in public, it’s almost small enough to miss.Almost.Emery is halfway through answering a question in seminar when the professor pauses, eyes flicking from her to Harper—sitting two rows back, notebook open, pen frozen mid-word.“And Miss Lawson,” the professor says lightly, “perhaps you can add to that.”The room shifts.Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just enough.Harper feels it—the collective awareness snapping into focus. She answers smoothly, academically, but when she finishes, the silence afterward is sharper than any applause. Someone in the back exhales a laugh that might have been accidental. Might not have been.When class ends, conversations resume too fast. Too normal.Outside the building, Emery waits.She doesn’t grab Harper’s hand. Doesn’t lean in. Just stands there, solid, unmistakably beside her.It’s the most deliberate thing she’s done all semester.They walk across campus together, eyes forward, shoulders brushing. Harper’s heart pounds—no

The campus felt smaller than usual.Every glance, every whisper, every shadowed smile pressed down on Harper and Emery like weight they couldn’t set aside.By mid-morning, the forum post from last night had exploded. Screenshots of lab projects, side-by-side images of Harper and Emery walking across campus together—nothing explicit, but enough to fuel rumor mills.Almost-exposure had become real visibility.People stared. Some with curiosity, some with judgment, and some with malicious intent.Harper felt it in her chest—a tight, panicked sort of pressure she couldn’t shake. She met Emery in the quad, eyes scanning the crowd. Emery’s jaw was set, her stride purposeful. Not fear. Not yet. Defiance.“Everyone’s talking,” Harper said quietly. “I can feel it. We’re…under a microscope.”Emery’s hand brushed hers, deliberately, grounding her. “Then we show them what they’re looking at. But we do it on our terms.”Before Harper could respond, Talia emerged, leaning against a tree with her us

Harper woke to the early morning light slanting through the blinds, soft but sharp against her face. She lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the email that had arrived late last night.The formal notice from Student Academic Affairs wasn’t accusatory. Not yet. But it didn’t need to be. It was the kind of language that hovered, threatening without a name, implying scrutiny, whispering “your life will now be judged.”She rolled over and saw Emery still asleep, soft lines of vulnerability softened in the dim morning light. The sight stabbed Harper with longing, but it also reminded her why she had to act today. Waiting had been its own trap. Watching the tides of rumor, watching Talia manipulate the edges of their lives, pretending they could stay quiet—Harper realized she was done pretending.She left Emery sleeping, tiptoed to her desk, and pulled open her laptop. Notes, documents, timelines—all of them laid out across weeks of careful record-keeping. This wa