Chapter 37 The Trap Line
Becca’s POV
For the first time in months, the morning felt almost gentle.
Sunlight crawled across the small kitchen, touching the mugs Danielle had set out.
She hummed under her breath while slicing strawberries. The sound was soft
I hadn’t realized how long it’d been since I’d heard something so ordinary.
It felt safe.
I shouldn’t have believed it.
We sat together, the quiet wrapping around us like a fragile blanket.
Danielle’s laugh was warm, real. For the first time, I saw her not as a ghost from my childhood, but as a person, alive, flawed, and trying.
“Do you think Mom would’ve recognized you?” she asked, stirring her coffee.
I smiled faintly. “She’d probably scold me for my hair first.”
Danielle laughed loudly.
It felt good hearing it.
For a moment, I allowed myself to believe that maybe the worst was behind us.
That maybe peace could last.
Then my phone buzzed.
Once. Twice. Then it froze.
“Ugh,” I muttered, tapping the screen.
The text I’d tried sending to Mark hadn’t gone through.
Message failed.
My battery was just at 9%, even though I’d charged it all night.
When I power on the phone, the screen flickered white, then black and a strange ID flashed across the top corner:
MA-Vault.
I frowned. “What the hell is that?”
“Is something wrong?” Danielle asked.
“No… just the phone acting weird.”
I put it down, but unease rippled through me.
I couldn’t explain why, but it felt like someone was standing too close.
Watching, breathing down my neck through a screen.
I tried to ignore it. Pretending my instinct was kicking me.
By afternoon, the air in the apartment had changed.
We sat at the living room, Danielle was watching her favourite romcom while I scroll on the laptop trying to find a new job.
Suddenly, the front door banged open.
The slam was enough to shake the frame. I didn’t need to look to know who it was.
Only one mad man slams a door like that.
Asher.
My pulse stuttered. Danielle froze mid-step, her eyes darting toward the hallway.
She had gone to get popcorn.
He stumbled in, reeking of whiskey and arrogance, the kind that always made my stomach knot.
“Becca,” he said, dragging out my name like an accusation. “You think I wouldn’t find out?”
You drunk addict
I stood slowly. “Find out what?”
He waved his phone, his voice sharp. “The message you tried sending to Mark. It didn’t deliver but I saw it.”
My mind blanked. “I didn’t…”
“Don’t lie!” he roared. The sound cut through me, raw and violent. “You think you can run around behind my back and not pay for it?”
He was directly opposite me and before I could say a word, his palms slam through my cheeks.
The hit came fast, the sting burst into heat. The second one landed near my mouth.
I tasted blood.
“Asher, please,” I whispered.
He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “You like recording things, huh?”
His lips curled into something cruel. He shoved his phone in my face, my image flickered on the screen.
My most dreaded night. The night he raped me.
“I'm going to post this and the whole world would see what a great body you have,” he smirked.
“My friends are already complimenting your show, they would pay for a night,” he blabbed .
I curled my fist in anger, I hated this man and a misery of a life he had created for me.
His thumb hovered over the “Post” button.
“No, please, don’t,” I begged, voice shaking. “You’ll ruin me.”
“That’s the idea,” he sneered.
Tears blurred my vision. I could hear Danielle’s muffled breathing from the corner.
She was hiding behind the counter, silent, trembling. I prayed he wouldn’t notice her.
“Asher, I swear I didn’t…”
“Shut up!” He pushed me hard. My back hit the edge of the table, knocking the breath from my lungs. Pain bloomed across my ribs.
He raised the phone again, thumb ready to end me.
And then…
A sharp, sickening crack.
The sound of glass and bone colliding.
Asher spun, confusion flashing across his face. Blood smeared down the side of his head.
“Oops,” Danielle covered her mouth with her palms.
Her hands were shaking violently.
He swayed. “You—”
He didn’t finish. His knees buckled. He hit the floor, motionless.
The silence that followed was unbearable. I could hear our breathing; ragged, fast, afraid.
Danielle dropped the baton, backing away. “Oh my God… oh my God, Becca, what did I do?”
I crawled to him, pressing my fingers against his neck.
His pulse was there though it was weak, but steady. “He’s alive,” I whispered, relief flooding me so fast it made me dizzy. “He’s not dead.”
Tears streaked down Danielle’s face. “I didn’t mean to…he was going to….”
“I know,” I said, grabbing her trembling hands. “You saved me.”
But saving me came with a cost. It always did.
My phone was still on the floor, its cracked screen blinking faintly. I grabbed it and called Kira.
She picked up on the second ring. “Becca? What’s wrong?”
I told her everything in a rush. The words fragmented.
She didn’t panic. Kira never panicked.
“Good,” she said sharply. “You did the right thing by calling me. Don’t worry about him. We’ll handle it.”
When she arrived, her eyes went first to Danielle. “You did well,” she said, voice low but steady. “You protected your sister.”
Danielle didn’t answer. She looked numb, like she’d left her body somewhere behind the fear.
We lifted Asher between us, half-dragging, half-carrying him down the back stairwell to his car.
Every sound made my heart jump, the clack of heels in the hall, the hum of the elevator. It felt like the entire world was watching.
His head lolled against the seat when we laid him there.
Kira on the engine and drove recklessly to his place.
Shock number 1; Kira was an expert driver, the way she navigated, wowe
The second shocker, she knew her way perfectly to Asher's place.
There, Kira adjusted him carefully on the floor, wiping the blood from his forehead. “We’ll make it look like he got drunk,” she murmured. .
She broke a bottle from the backseat, scattering shards across the floor.
Danielle placed a jagged piece by his hand. Her fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. “Will it work?”
“It’ll have to,” I said quietly.
Kira shot me a look. “He’ll wake up with a headache and no memory of what happened. Just make sure you two stay invisible for a while.”
Invisible.
I wished I could.
As we shut the door and walked away, a faint red light blinked from the corner of the car’s windshield.
And none of us noticed it.
A camera.
Hidden
Recording every single thing.
That night, I sat on the edge of my bed, my body aching, my mind spiraling. Danielle was asleep beside me, her hand clutching mine even in her dreams.
The scent of blood still clung to my skin.
My phone buzzed once more, screen flickering like a dying flame.
For a split second, that strange ID flashed again—MA-Vault.
Then it vanished.
What the hell did this message mean?