The Alpha Faked Depression to Win My Love Chapter 04
LYRA
After Kieran left, I began clearing the clutter from the apartment.
I planned to return to school the following week.
By the time I finished, it was long past midnight.
I collapsed onto the sofa, and my gaze fell on a box in the corner of the closet.
It was locked.
It held the things Rowan had left behind.
Rowan and I were Omega twins.
After our parents divorced, they each started new families.
We became the costly mistake of their reckless youth.
No one wanted to pay for us.
No one wanted to look back.
So from middle school onward, Rowan and I survived on the smallest amount of child support they were legally allowed to send.
We only had each other.
My chest ached as I tightened my grip around the jewelry box in my hand.
Rowan had given it to me for my birthday the year he died.
Inside was a six pointed star necklace set with tiny diamonds.
He had smiled so brightly when he fastened it around my neck himself.
“I bought it with money I earned, Lyra. Do you like it?”
“It looks so beautiful on you. Better than it did on the model.”
“It isn’t expensive, but one day I’ll work hard enough to put every beautiful jewel in the world on you.”
His eyes had been so sincere.
I had poked the dimple in one of his cheeks and nodded.
Rowan, I believed you.
That was why I was still waiting.
Something rattled beneath the foam lining of the jewelry box.
I lifted it and found a key.
It had not been there when Rowan gave me the necklace.
He must have hidden it later.
My eyes moved to the old box in the corner, its paint already peeling.
The key fit.
The lock clicked open.
There were only four things inside.
An oil painting filled with wilted sunflowers.
An album by Midnight Echo, Rowan’s favorite band.
A diary.
And a slip of paper with an account name and password.
I picked up the black diary and rested it across my knees.
The first pages held nothing but ordinary pieces of his life.
Classes.
Band rehearsals.
Another girl confessing that she liked him.
That part did not surprise me.
Rowan had been pale and beautiful, with peach blossom eyes that always seemed to be smiling.
Ever since we were children, I had been the one collecting the love letters and snacks girls pushed into his hands.
But perhaps because we had been abandoned so young, admiration had never made him secure.
He remained sensitive.
Careful.
He wrote down the things he could not say aloud.
After entering Blackthorn Academy, Rowan’s natural voice quickly made him the lead singer of the school band.
At every performance, crowds screamed his name.
I kept reading, sinking deeper into old memories.
Then my fingers stopped on one page.
Sabrina’s name was written there.
And after that, it appeared more and more often.
I had known returning to school would not be easy.
I had beaten Kieran in front of Sabrina.
She was never going to let that go.
I simply had not expected her revenge to come so quickly.
When I stepped into my dorm room, my bed was buried beneath empty takeout containers and torn delivery boxes.
Someone had painted two words across the desk underneath it in red.
BITCH.
WHORE.
Tessa, one of the few classmates I was friendly with, stood beside me looking helpless.
“Lyra, I tried to stop those senior girls. They wouldn’t listen.”
“They said you offended someone you should never have touched.”
She took some of the trash from my arms, guilt tightening her voice.
I gave her a small smile and continued cleaning.
“And, Lyra… have you seen the school forum?”
“People are saying you came between Sabrina and Kieran, the Alpha from the business school.”
“There are already hundreds of comments attacking you. And the evidence they posted looks… pretty convincing.”
My hand stopped against the bed frame.
I frowned and took her phone.
Most of the post was made up of photographs of Kieran and me entering or leaving campus together.
There were also screenshots of conversations between him and Sabrina from the summer after our freshman year.
The two of them had never announced a relationship.
Now, at the perfect moment, they had suddenly become lovers.
It was obvious what Sabrina wanted.
She had arranged the timeline so everyone would believe I had knowingly stolen another woman’s man.
I did not answer Tessa’s question.
Instead, I thought for a moment, took out my phone, and called Sabrina.
She answered after the third ring.
“This is Lyra. Meet me at the cafe by the north gate at three.”
The laughter in the background stopped.
Then Sabrina scoffed.
“Well, look who it is. Has the great art prodigy finally decided to apologize?”
“Too late.”
“I don’t have time to meet some motherless little ”
“It’s about Rowan.”
The filth on her tongue vanished.
Silence stretched between us.
At last, she said, “Fine.”