The old pier smelled like salt, rust, and bad decisions.
Elena arrived ten minutes early, heart hammering so hard she could feel it in her teeth. Vera was already there, leaning against a weathered railing, cigarette glowing in the dark. Leather jacket, boots, that raven tattoo stark against her throat. She looked like every warning sign Elena had ever ignored.
"You came," Vera said, voice low and warm, like they were old friends. "Good girl."
"Don't call me that." Elena's voice shook. "Just tell me what you know."
Vera flicked the cigarette into the water, stepped closer. Too close. Elena could smell her—smoke, leather, something sharp and expensive.
"Mia didn't just meet you by accident, Elena. She hunted you."
Elena's stomach flipped. "Bullshit."
Vera pulled out her phone, tapped once. A screenshot filled the screen—an old forum post from three years ago, under a throwaway username: "InkAndObsession." The post was a long, feverish rant about a woman named Elena whose writing had ruined the poster for anyone else. Detailed. Obsessive. The kind of post that would get someone banned today.
The username was Mia's old handle. Elena recognized the phrasing instantly—the same cadence Mia used when she was trying not to sound too desperate in bed.
Vera scrolled. More messages. Private DMs. Mia had found Elena's real name through her published stories, learned where she lived, where she wrote, where she drank coffee. Then she'd quit her stable tattoo apprenticeship across town and taken the barista job at that specific café—because Elena went there every Tuesday and Thursday at 2:15 p.m.
"She watched you for six months before Claire even left," Vera said softly. "She told me everything. We were still… tangled then. She'd come to me after her shifts, high on the fact that you'd smiled at her that day. She'd fuck me while moaning your name."
Elena's knees buckled. Vera caught her elbow, steadying her.
"But here's the part that breaks her," Vera whispered, lips brushing Elena's ear. "She didn't just wait for Claire to leave. She helped it happen."
Vera showed another screenshot: messages from Mia to Claire, under a fake account, planting seeds—"Your girlfriend seems distant lately, doesn't she? I saw her talking to someone at the café… maybe you deserve better."
Claire had believed it. Had started pulling away. Had left.
Mia had cleared the path. Then walked right in.
Elena's vision tunneled. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I still love her," Vera said simply. "And because I want her to lose the one thing she thinks makes her better than me." Vera's hand slid to Elena's waist, possessive. "And because… I want you too."
She kissed Elena.
It wasn't gentle. It was claiming—teeth, tongue, hunger. Elena froze for one second, then kissed back, furious and lost, hands fisting Vera's jacket. Wet heat flooded between her legs before she could stop it.
Vera groaned into her mouth, pressed her thigh between Elena's, grinding up hard. Elena whimpered, hips rolling once, twice—
Then she shoved Vera away, gasping.
"No."
Vera smiled, lips shiny. "Too late. You felt that."
Elena turned and ran.
She didn't stop until she was back at the apartment, slamming the door so hard the walls shook.
Mia was on the couch, phone in hand, face pale. She'd been tracking Elena's location the whole time.
"You went to her," Mia said, voice dangerously quiet.
Elena didn't speak. She just threw Vera's screenshots onto the coffee table.
Mia looked at them for one long second.
Then she stood, slow and deliberate.
"You weren't supposed to know."
The confession hit harder than any slap.