The First Red Flag

Grandpa Parker left to give the two sisters some place. As much as Evelyn didn't wish to be left alone at presence of a menace that Annalise was, she couldn't let the man know the relationship between them was off.

Annalise had that signature evil smirk on her face as she revealed, "Do you know who called help for you?"

Evelyn did faintly recall Annalise crying for help. Maybe there was someone else too. She couldn't exactly remember. Her memory was too blurry, and the freezing temperature made it difficult for her to focus back then.

"Landon," Annalise continued, "it's because of him that I called for help or else I would have left you to die there."

Unexpectedly, Evelyn was not surprised that Annalise could even kill her. Maybe in her eyes, Annalise had long turned into a monster, having no signs of humanity.

But why was Annalise telling her this now?

It couldn't be that Annalise wanted Evelyn to know how deep her hatred for the girl ran.

"And Landon was there with me when we reported about the incident to the headmaster. At first, I was nervous. I thought he would let out about how I pushed you. After all, he saw me do so. But he remained silent and let me do the talking. Strange, right?"

Evelyn's eyes widened in disbelief before she decided to disregard Annalise's words as lies. That girl was filled with tricks, and Evelyn would be damned if she trusted her words. Even if Landon was there, chances were high he didn't see it.

After all, the boy had helped her so much up until now. He wouldn't be so cruel.

However, back then, this was a big red flag she failed to notice.

Once Annalise was done taunting, she left. Probably for show, her so-called family came to visit her only to look at her with distaste in eyes, and not wishing to visit her daily, they urged the doctor to get her to be released early.

Although the Stone family wanted to take her home to take care of her according to their words, Grandpa Parker was against it, and Evelyn felt happy at that.

The next few days at school had been relatively silent for Evelyn. Her near death must have scared many, and they decided to lay low for a while. Of course, it didn't mean they would totally leave her alone.

They merely resorted to smaller tricks like tripping or pushing her, or spilling food over her— something that could be easily excused.

Evelyn, on the other hand, felt like she turned into a stalker. Whether online or offline, she was always following news on Landon, and she even joined a group chat consisting of his fans. Not only that, she had a large number of pictures saved in her phone solely of his.

Maybe Evelyn was a little too obsessed, but the joy she found from this made her unable to extricate herself. Every time she added a new photo of Landon to her collection, she would kiss her phone screen and roll in the bed in excitation.

In the mansion, Landon maintained a polite yet distanced attitude, and she didn't honestly mind, knowing this was his personality. Yeah, it did disappoint her to learn in the beginning that she was no one special, but she soon found herself being alright with the idea.

After all, it was her who would get engaged to Landon.

On one Tuesday, Evelyn was going through her phone bored when two students approached her. They called her name, and this got Evelyn to raise her head. It was surprising that they had no malicious intent in their eyes.

She didn't have much memories related to the two of them. It should be because of lack of involvement of theirs in her harassment. After all, while some found sadistic joy in tormenting her, rest just stayed indifferent.

"We were partnered for biology project."

Evelyn recognized them as May and Ashley. They showed a certain amount of nervousness in their mannerism.

Evelyn nodded, not understanding what they wanted. Although she was partnered up with others for project, she did the work usually while the rest of her teammates slacked off for most part. Of course, she appreciated them doing that.

If not so, then they would torture her by ruining the project over and over again, extending the time taken and not care on how this was mutual destruction.

"Let's work on it together, alright?" May asked.

Evelyn was caught off guard. Instead of welcoming the idea, she only felt suspicious of the two. What did they have up their sleeves?

Even if they didn't glare at her or use a harsh tone, she was unwilling to believe they came with friendly intentions.

Of course, she couldn't turn them down either, so she nodded.