Chapter 50 Daphne declares war

Chapter 50 Daphne declares war

By morning, the campus felt louder than usual, too many voices, too many footsteps, too much bright sun for how tired Daphne felt. She walked across the courtyard with her usual sharp grace, but inside, she was wired, alert.

Daphne didn’t hide her mood. She didn’t bother softening her face or pretending the night before hadn’t changed anything. She had spent hours talking with Michael until her chest felt too full.

She was ready for whatever came next.

She hadn’t expected it to come this quickly.

Mia.

Standing right in her path.

Her backpack was half-zipped, her hair a little messy, and her eyes were swollen from either lack of sleep or too much of it. She wasn’t smiling. Not pretending to be polite. Not pretending to be harmless.

She stood like someone who had run out of ways to hide her fear.

“Daphne,” Mia said.

Her voice wobbled.

Daphne stopped. Slowly. Carefully. A single pause that made the people around them sense something was about to happen.

Michael was in the hallway too, far enough not to hear, close enough to see everything.

Daphne didn’t look at him. She kept her attention on Mia.

“What do you want?” Daphne asked.

Her tone wasn’t cruel. It wasn’t warm either. It was flat, as if she were talking to someone she didn’t have the patience for.

Mia swallowed, hands tightening on the straps of her bag.

“You’re playing with him.”

The words came out too fast, like they had been choking her all night.

Daphne blinked once.

Mia pushed through her fear. “You need to stop acting as if you own him.”

A few students slowed their steps. Not enough to form a crowd, but enough to make the space around them charged.

Daphne tilted her head, almost curious.

Then she stepped closer. Close enough that Mia took half a step back without meaning to.

“Stop acting?” Daphne repeated quietly.

Her voice dropped. The hallway didn’t get quieter, Daphne simply felt louder.

She looked Mia in the eyes, unblinking.

“I’m not acting,” she said.

Mia’s throat worked. “Daphne…”

“I own him.”

The words came out soft. Too soft. The kind of softness that hit harder than shouting.

Mia’s face twisted, hurt, mixed with humiliation. “You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to treat him like…like property.”

Daphne leaned in a little, her expression unreadable.

“Do you think I have to treat him like anything?” she asked. “He chooses to stay with me.”

Mia froze.

Daphne added, “And from where I’m standing, it’s you who keeps circling him as he owes you something.”

Mia’s jaw trembled. “I care about him. I’m trying to protect him…from you.”

“Protect him from what?” Daphne asked. “From someone he actually wants?”

The words hit Mia like a slap.

She blinked rapidly, breathing shallow. “He doesn’t see it. You confuse him. You make him…”

“Feel?” Daphne cut in softly. “You mean I make him feel.”

Mia’s face fell.

Because she knew it was true.

Daphne stepped closer again. Mia didn’t move this time; she couldn’t.

Daphne didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t need to.

“Two can play whatever game you think you’re starting,” she said.

Then she leaned in, her lips near Mia’s ear, it felt so cold and Mia could feel goosebumps around her body.

“But I play to win.”

Mia flinched. Her breath caught.

Daphne straightened, composure flawless.

She didn’t shove past Mia. She didn’t even brush her shoulder. She just walked forward.

The hallway parted for her without thinking, quiet rippling behind her like everyone sensed a shift in the air.

~

Michael watched the whole thing.

He hadn’t heard every word, but he didn’t need to. He saw the tension in Mia’s face. Saw the steadiness in Daphne’s shoulders. Saw something in Daphne he had never quite put into words before, this unsettling mixture of elegance and danger.

He wasn’t sure whether it frightened him or pulled him in deeper.

As Daphne walked past him, he moved without thinking. His feet simply followed, as if his body knew its place before his mind caught up.

He didn’t touch her, he didn't speak and he didn't ask the reason she had to hold a stage with Mia.

He just walked with her.

Side by side.

Behind them, Mia stood in the middle of the hallway, shoulders tight, fingers trembling as she tried to keep her face from crumpling.

Students passed her, glancing, whispering, staring too long before pretending they saw nothing.

Mia’s eyes stayed locked on Daphne’s back.

She didn’t notice her nails digging crescent marks into her palms.

She didn’t notice her breath shaking.

She only noticed one thing:

He followed Daphne.

Not her.

Never her.

Something snapped inside her chest; she had to do something about it, or she would lose to Daphne. This wasn't about having Michael anymore, it was about who was going to win.

Something darker. Something that tasted too much like desperation.

War wasn’t just beginning.

It was already in motion, and Mia realized she was the only one who still thought she had a chance to stop it.

Her voice trembled when she whispered, “She’s going to take everything.”

She wasn’t wrong.

~

Michael kept walking until they reached the stairwell. Daphne stopped suddenly, turning toward him.

He braced himself without knowing why.

She looked at him long enough for heat to rise in his throat.

“You shouldn’t have followed me,” she said quietly.

He swallowed. “I know.”

“Then why did you?”

He opened his mouth, closed it again, searching for something that didn’t sound pathetic.

“I didn’t want you to walk alone,” he finally said.

Her eyes softened, just barely. Enough for him to feel it.

“You think I can’t handle her?” Daphne asked.

“That’s not what I…”

“After class, come pick me up. We're living together starting today”

He froze.

Her gaze held his, calm yet unguarded in a way that pulled him apart slowly, with precision.

Michael’s pulse pounded against his ribs.

Daphne stepped closer, she didn't want to touch him, not even brushing him, just closing the air between them until breath felt difficult.

“You don’t need to protect me from Mia, she's not what you were hired for” she said softly. “But if you want to walk with me… that’s different.”

His breath caught. He didn’t know why her voice did that to him. He didn’t know

Why he felt like he was choosing something irreversible.

But he nodded.

She watched him for a moment longer, then turned toward the stairwell.

This time, He stopped following her.