The message sat on my screen like a loaded gun.
Unknown Number:"Hey, you don't know me, but I think we need to talk about Michael."
I froze..my heart thudded once…twice..then started pounding hard. I stared at the text like it might disappear, like it wasn't real.
I read it again.
And again.
Who was this?
How did they have my number?
And what did they know about Michael?
My mind swirled with questions I wasn't ready for. I hadn't even processed what had happened at the café, now this?
I typed back quickly.
Who is this?
Three dots… Typing…
I'm Amy,we need to talk. Please!.
The name didn't ring a bell.
" Amy?"
Was she a friend of his?
An ex?
A stranger caught in the crossfire?
I hesitated, then replied: "About what?"
Her answer came fast.
"Michael."
" And the lies he told both of us."
I agreed to meet her the next day..neutral ground, a public spot near campus. I chose a small smoothie shop, quiet enough to talk but public enough to feel safe.
I arrived first, my nerves already unraveling.
Ten minutes later, a girl about my age walked in. She was tall, slim, with short curls and minimal makeup.
She looked composed but there was tension behind her eyes.
She spotted me immediately and walked over.
"You're Mimi?" she asked.
I nodded. "You're Amy?"
She sat down and didn't waste time.
"I don't want this to feel like some dramatic girl-versus-girl thing. It's not, I just thought you deserved to know the truth."
I stayed silent.
She opened her phone, scrolled, then turned the screen toward me.
It was a picture.
Michaellll..
Smiling,arm around her.
The double shock was that the picture was posted two weeks before we ever slept together.
My stomach dropped like a deflated hot air balloon.
"I was with him for nearly a year," Amy said calmly.. "I found out about you when he left his Instagram open one night. He had deleted most of your messages, but I saw enough."
I gulped my saliva like a hungry sheep regurgitating.
"You were… together?"
She nodded, "Yes!, we weren't perfect, but I loved him.I thought we were serious,until I saw your name."
Something twisted in my chest.
"I confronted him".
At first, he denied it. Then he said it was 'a one-time mistake".
She rolled her eyes bitterly.
"You were not a mistake. You were a whole other life he was hiding."
I gripped my smoothie cup until my knuckles whitened.
Amy continued, her voice softer. "He told me he ghosted you because you got too clingy, that he didn't lead you on."
Tears stung my eyes but I didn't let them fall.
Not here,not now.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that," she added gently.
I shook my head.
"No. I needed to."
We sat in silence for a few moments, the truth settling like dust.
"I broke up with him the day I saw your messages," she said. "But he came back a week later.
Said he missed me.
That he cut things off with you clean.
That you were fine."
I nearly laughed…
"I was falling apart."
"I figured."
I looked at her, "so why are you telling me all this now?"
Amy took a deep breath.
"Because last night, after you two met up… he called me."
I blinked… "What?"
"He said you were still into him, that you might want to try again."
I felt like the air had been knocked out of me.
"No," I said firmly.."That's not what happened."
"I didn't believe him," she added.
"That's why I reached out. I realized I'm not the only one who was lied to."
Silence poured in again.
Then she added, "I don't know what he wants anymore.
Maybe he wants both of us.
Maybe he's just scared of being alone."
I shook my head, jaw clenched.
"No!!, he wants control."
Amy met my eyes…"exactly."
Something inside me hardened. This wasn't just heartbreak, this was betrayal..layered, deliberate, and manipulative.
"I needed to know the truth," I whispered.
"And now you do," she said.
We parted ways with a quiet nod.
Not friends but no longer strangers.
That night, I didn't sleep.
I replayed everything in my mind..every message, every kiss, every word Michael ever said. How he looked at me, how he disappeared and how he came back only when he wanted to.
It all made sense now.
He had been lying from the start.
Worse than that he had made me feel like the problem. Like I had expected too much or like I had ruined things by caring too deeply.
But he was the coward.
He was the one who couldn't love without deceit.
I opened my journal and wrote: He made me think I was hard to love but he was just too weak to love me right.
Then I did something I never thought I would.
I called him.
He answered on the second ring.
"Hey," he said, voice low.
"We need to talk," I said.
"About what?"
"About Amy."
Silence…Then: "What did she say?"
"Everything."
He sighed…"Mimi.."
"Don't lie."
"I'm not lying."
I laughed bitterly.
"Really? So you didn't date her while you were with me? You didn't lie to her and me?"
He didn't answer.
"I trusted you," I said, my voice cracking. "You let me believe I was special.
That what we had meant something but you were just ..what? Passing time?"
"No, it wasn't like that…"
"You said you weren't with anyone else. You looked me in the eye and said it."
"I was confused…"
"Don't insult me,you weren't confused. You were selfish."
He went quiet.
"You knew exactly what you were doing. You chose silence because it was easier than being honest. You played both of us."
Then I paused.
Took a breath.
"But I'm done letting you control the narrative."
He tried to speak again, but I ended the call.
Then I blocked his number.
For real this time.
I thought that would be the end.
But the next morning… I woke up to a message from a fake account.
No name.
No profile pic.
"You think you're smart? This isn't over."
The moment I read that message, my hands started shaking.
Who sent it?
Michael?
Someone else?
And what exactly wasn't over?