Forbidden Ties

Chapter 6: Shattered Trust.

Sam's P.O.V.

The words rang in my ears as if the world had stopped around them. "I know what you’re doing. And I’m closer than you think." The phone slipped from my hand, my heart racing, and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn't think.

"Sam?" Jax’s voice was tight with concern, but I couldn't focus on him. I couldn’t focus on anything except the message. Whoever was behind this—whoever had been pulling the strings, messing with us, keeping us on edge—was closer than we thought. I was drowning in the weight of it all, suffocated by the impossible situation we were in.

“I can’t— I can’t take this anymore,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I took a step back. The cold air of the night hit me again, but it didn’t cool the heat rising in my chest.

“I’m scared, Jax,” I admitted, finally letting the terror I’d been holding back spill out. “I don’t think we can do this alone. I don’t think we can find the answers on our own.”

Jax was quiet for a moment, his eyes scanning the darkness as if he expected someone to emerge from the shadows. Then he turned to me, his expression unreadable. “Then who the hell do you suggest we trust, Sam? Who can we turn to?”

I felt my pulse quicken. My mind raced, searching for any semblance of a solution. We were out of options. There was no one left to trust. But there was one person—one person who might be able to help, even if it meant tearing apart the last piece of normalcy I had left.

I swallowed hard. “My mom,” I whispered.

Jax’s eyes snapped to mine, his jaw tightening. "Your mom? Sam, that’s—"

“I know,” I cut him off, shaking my head. “It’s risky. But... she’s the only one who could help us. She’s the one person who could get us out of this mess, and maybe—just maybe—keep us safe from whoever this is.”

Jax’s expression darkened as he processed my words. “You want to come clean to her? About what, exactly? The kiss? That’s it?”

I nodded, the weight of it pressing down on me. I knew what I was asking, and I hated myself for it. But what else could we do? We couldn’t live like this forever, constantly looking over our shoulders, never knowing who we could trust.

“We tell her the truth about the dare. About the kiss,” I said, the words feeling heavier with each breath. “We don’t have to tell her everything, just that. We tell her it was a mistake. It’ll be a lie, but... it’s better than what’s happening now. We can’t keep pretending this is just some prank.”

Jax looked at me, his anger flashing in his eyes. “And you think your mom will just—what? Believe us? You think she’ll buy this story?”

“We don’t have a choice, Jax!” I snapped, my frustration boiling over. “We’ve tried everything else, and we’re getting nowhere. This is the only shot we’ve got.”

For a moment, there was silence between us. Then Jax exhaled a long, tired breath and nodded. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. But I’m telling you now—it’s a dangerous gamble.”

“I know,” I whispered, my voice cracking as I felt the full weight of what we were about to do.

When we finally went inside, my heart was pounding in my chest. We’d plotted everything out, tried to make sure our story was air-tight. It had to be perfect. There was no room for error.

The kitchen light flickered overhead as we stepped inside. My mom was standing by the stove, humming to herself, completely unaware of the storm about to hit.

“Mom,” I began, my voice trembling with every word, “we need to talk.”

Her eyes flickered up, surprised. “What’s going on, honey? Is something wrong?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Jax beat me to it. “It’s about the dare. Sam and I... we got caught up in it. The kiss—it wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. And we... we don’t want things to get out of hand. We just wanted you to know, okay?”

I could feel the lie slipping out of my mouth, the guilt eating at me from the inside. But I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t tell her the truth—not yet.

My mom stood frozen for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then, finally, she spoke, her voice tight. “So, you two kissed, huh?” She sighed, rubbing her temples. “I thought you were smarter than that, Sam.”

Jax shot me a glance, his confusion mirroring mine. But before either of us could speak, she continued. “I knew something was off. I knew you two were hiding something from me, and I couldn’t just let it slide.”

I stared at her, my breath catching in my throat. “What do you mean?” I asked, barely above a whisper.

She looked back at us, her face hardening with an intensity I had never seen before. “I knew you were both playing with fire. So, I took matters into my own hands.”

My stomach dropped. “What?” I whispered. “What are you talking about?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I was the one sending the messages. The threats. I did it to make sure you didn’t go too far. I had to keep things under control. You think I don’t know what kind of trouble you could get into? I had to protect you, protect this family.”

My head spun. The world around me seemed to blur as I tried to process what she was saying.

“You... you did that?” Jax’s voice was cold, his eyes wide with disbelief. “You violated us, Mom. You invaded our privacy. You made us think we were being hunted by someone else. And for what?”

My mom stood there, calm, almost eerily composed. “To keep us safe. To protect the family from society’s judgment. You don’t understand, Sam. You don’t see how dangerous things can get when people start talking. And that dare—no matter what, it had to be stopped. I couldn’t risk having people think something was going on between you two. We couldn’t have that scandal.”

I couldn’t believe it. My own mother had orchestrated the entire thing. The messages, the fear, the paranoia—it had all been her. My trust in her had been shattered in one moment.

But just as anger and betrayal swelled inside me, my phone buzzed again. Another message.

'Peekaboo!'

I glanced at the screen, my blood running cold.

“Who else knows?”

As the silence stretched between us, my mom finally spoke, her voice shaking.

“I... I thought I was the only one who knew. I thought it was all under control, that I could keep an eye on things, protect you both.”

I watched as her words hung in the air, thick with confusion and regret. She was unraveling before our eyes. Her facade, once so confident, now cracked with the weight of the truth.

“I did it to keep you safe,” she continued, almost pleading now.

“I needed to be sure that nothing would get out of hand. That... that no one would find out about that... that kiss. I never meant for things to get this far.”

I could feel Jax beside me, the tension in his shoulders radiating as he clenched his fists. “You thought you could control us? Monitor our every move like we’re children?” His voice was low, dangerous. “You violated our trust. You didn’t keep us safe at all. Instead you put us in even more danger with all your senseless mind games!”

His words echoed in the living room, and my mom flinched at the venom in his tone. But before she could respond, another faint buzzing broke through the tension.

I reached for my phone, my heart in my throat. The screen lit up, revealing a message—one that sent ice running through my veins.

'You’ve exposed your secrets. Now I’m watching. Be careful who you trust next. They won’t protect you for long.'

I let the phone drop from my hands, the world around me spinning as I struggled to catch my breath.

Mom looked at the phone at the very same time that Jax reached for it.

Her face draining of color as the words sank in.

Jax moved forward, his eyes burning with a new fire.

“So now what? Who the hell is behind all this? If you’re not the one sending the messages, who the hell is?”

But there was no answer. Mom just stared at the phone, trembling as if the weight of the truth was finally dawning on her. The realization that there was someone else out there—someone who knew everything, who was closer than we had thought—had shifted the ground beneath us.

And now, we had no idea who to trust.

We were more vulnerable than ever.