Vanessa stood up slowly.

Her cheeks were pink.

“I’m fine.”

Leo nodded solemnly.

“Thank goodness. Emma worries about her roommates.”

He pulled out my chair.

Only mine.

Vanessa’s expression twitched.

Dinner began.

For twenty minutes, everything remained surprisingly peaceful.

Then Vanessa started phase two.

“Leo, could you help me open this bottle?”

She held out sparkling water.

Leo examined it.

Then he pushed it toward me.

“Emma is stronger.”

I opened it.

Vanessa smiled stiffly.

Ten minutes later:

“Leo, could you pass me a napkin?”

He handed the entire napkin holder to me.

“Love, could you pass Vanessa one?”

I stared at him.

He smiled innocently.

I passed her a napkin.

Julia was already shaking with silent laughter.

Vanessa didn’t surrender.

When dessert arrived, she leaned forward.

“Leo, try mine.”

She lifted a spoonful of cake toward his mouth.

Leo immediately leaned backward.

“Oh.”

He touched his stomach dramatically.

“Emma, I suddenly feel full.”

“You ate two burgers.”

“Your love nourishes me.”

Nora choked on her drink.

I kicked Leo lightly beneath the table.

He looked delighted.

Vanessa finally put down the spoon.

“You two are… very close.”

“Extremely,” Leo said.

Her smile disappeared for half a second.

After dinner, we walked back toward campus.

Vanessa deliberately slowed until she was beside Leo.

I was talking with Julia several steps ahead when I heard:

“Oh!”

I didn’t even turn immediately.

I knew.

When I finally looked back, Vanessa had grabbed Leo’s sleeve.

“My ankle hurts.”

Leo stared at her hand.

Then he looked toward me.

His eyes brightened.

I knew that expression.

No.

Absolutely not.

“Emma!”

Too late.

He limped dramatically toward me.

“My ankle suddenly hurts too.”

Vanessa stared.

“You didn’t even trip.”

Leo looked offended.

“Emotional sympathy pain.”

I covered my face.

Julia whispered:

“Your boyfriend is insane.”

“I know.”

“Keep him.”

Unfortunately, I intended to.

But Vanessa wasn’t amused anymore.

That night, after everyone went to sleep, she approached my desk.

“Emma.”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you really trust Leo?”

I stopped typing.

There it was.

Phase three.

“If you’re going to tell me something, just say it.”

She sat on my bed.

“Men change.”

“So do weather forecasts.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

Vanessa lowered her voice.

“I think Leo was looking at me tonight.”

I turned my chair.

“He was.”

Her expression brightened.

“He was?”

“Yes. Mostly because you kept falling near him.”

The brightness disappeared.

She stood.

“You think you’re funny.”

“Occasionally.”

“Don’t be so confident, Emma.”

Now her sweet voice was gone.

“You don’t know men as well as you think.”

I looked at her.

“And you do?”

She smiled.

“I’ve never met a boyfriend I couldn’t make interested.”

There it was.

Finally.

The truth.

“Julia’s boyfriend?”

She shrugged.

“Nora’s brother?”

Another shrug.

“You do it intentionally.”

Vanessa leaned closer.

“I just like knowing whether someone’s relationship is actually strong.”

“And if it isn’t?”

“That’s not my fault.”

I almost admired the arrogance.

Then she said:

“Leo will be the same.”

I smiled.

“Try.”

She blinked.

“What?”

“Go ahead.”

“You’re giving me permission?”

“No.”

I returned to my laptop.

“I’m giving you enough rope to embarrass yourself.”

The next week became ridiculous.

Vanessa suddenly loved basketball because Leo played.

Then she discovered his favorite band.

Then she started buying the coffee he liked.

Finally, she obtained his number from our roommate group chat.

Leo showed me her first message immediately.

Hi! It’s Vanessa. My laptop is acting strange. Emma said you’re good with computers.

I stared at him.

“I never said that.”

“I know.”

He typed:

Sorry, I’m terrible with computers. Emma is much smarter.

Five minutes later:

Actually, maybe you could come look anyway? I’m alone.

Leo replied:

That sounds scary. I’ll send Emma.

I threw a pillow at him.

The next attempt came two days later.

Vanessa sent him a selfie.

Nothing inappropriate.

Just carefully casual.

Does this dress look strange? Be honest.

Leo showed me.

“What should I say?”

“Whatever you want.”

He thought seriously.

Then typed:

Emma has better fashion judgment.

I started laughing.

But something changed after that.

Vanessa stopped flirting openly.

She became quiet.

Too quiet.

Then one Friday evening, I returned from class and found her crying.

Julia and Nora weren’t there.

“What happened?”

Vanessa wiped her eyes.

“Nothing.”

I hesitated.

Then handed her tissues.

She looked genuinely miserable.

“My boyfriend cheated on me.”

I froze.

“You have a boyfriend?”

She nodded.

“For two years.”

That changed everything.

“Does he know what you’ve been doing?”

Her face tightened.

“He does the same thing.”

Suddenly her strange behavior made a terrible kind of sense.

“He flirts with other girls to make me jealous,” she whispered. “So I started proving I could do it too.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.”

“I know.”

For once, she didn’t argue.

“He always says every man will cheat if the right woman tries hard enough.”

“And you’ve been testing that theory.”

She nodded.

Then she looked at me.

“Leo ruined it.”

I nearly laughed.

“How?”

“He never hid anything.”

She wiped her face.

“Every message I sent, he showed you.”

“Yes.”

“He didn’t even enjoy making you jealous.”

“No.”

Vanessa looked genuinely confused.

“I thought all couples played those games.”

I sat opposite her.

“Healthy ones don’t.”

The following morning, Vanessa apologized to Julia.

Then Nora.

Then me.

I believed the apology was real.

Mostly.

But Leo didn’t.

“She’s hiding something,” he told me.

“What?”

“I don’t know.”

Three days later, he discovered it.

We were eating lunch when he placed his phone in front of me.

A message from an unknown number.

Stay away from Vanessa.

Below it was a photograph.

Leo and Vanessa.

Except the image had been edited to make it look as though he was holding her waist.

My stomach tightened.

“Who sent this?”

“No idea.”

Then another message arrived.

Ask your girlfriend what Vanessa gets if you two break up.

I looked at Leo.

He was no longer joking.

That evening, we confronted Vanessa.

The moment she saw the photograph, she went white.

“Where did you get that?”

“Who sent it?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You recognize it.”

She sat down slowly.

“Yes.”

Then she whispered:

“My boyfriend took the original.”

Silence.

“Why?”

Vanessa covered her face.

“Because this wasn’t supposed to be about Leo.”

My skin prickled.

“What does that mean?”

She looked at me.

“I didn’t choose your boyfriend randomly.”

Leo stepped closer.

“Then why me?”

She shook her head.

“Not you.”

Her eyes returned to mine.

“Emma.”

I stopped breathing.

“Someone paid my boyfriend to get close to me before university started.”

“What?”

“He told me yesterday. He said he’d forgive everything if I completed one last job.”

“What job?”

Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.

“To break you and Leo up.”

The room became silent.

“Who would pay someone to do that?”

Vanessa reached into her bag.

She removed an envelope.

Inside were screenshots of bank transfers and several printed messages.

The sender’s name was hidden.

Except for the final page.

One line had been left uncensored.

Leo Bennett cannot marry Emma.

My hands went cold.

Because beneath it was a family name I recognized immediately.

Bennett.

I slowly looked at Leo.

He was staring at the paper too.

“That’s my father’s private account.”

I thought that was the worst revelation.

Then Vanessa shook her head.

“No.”

She turned over the final page.

“Your father sent the money.”

Her finger moved toward another message.

“But Emma’s mother was the person who hired us.”

I stared at her.

“That’s impossible.”

My mother had never met Leo.

Vanessa looked almost frightened.

“She has.”

Then she placed an old photograph on the table.

Leo’s father stood on the left.

My mother stood beside him.

And between them was a little boy I had never seen before.

On the back, someone had written:

Leo’s fifth birthday.

I looked at my boyfriend.

His face had gone completely white.

Because according to the date on that photograph, my mother had known Leo’s family for years before Leo and I supposedly met by accident in high school.

And suddenly Vanessa trying to steal my boyfriend wasn’t the mystery anymore.

The mystery was why both our families were so desperate to keep us apart.