Bound by the Past, Locked by the Heart novel Chapter 176

Randal emerged from the kitchen carrying a plate of sliced fruit. Noticing her grim expression, he asked casually, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Willa tossed her phone aside and popped a cherry into her mouth. "Just spam."

Randal sat down beside her, shooting her a glance but deciding not to press further.

They leaned back against the couch, watching TV in comfortable silence.

Willa rested her head on his shoulder. He draped an arm around her, his fingers idly playing with her hair.

Just as she closed her eyes and drifted toward sleep, her phone buzzed again.

"Wills, someone just sent you a friend request," Randal pointed out.

Willa jolted awake. She grabbed the phone and opened the screen, the notification glaring back at her like a warning sign.

*My dad told me he's not your boyfriend at all. He's your sugar daddy, right? Well, I'd like to get to know him too.*

Willa's face darkened, and she blocked the account right in front of Randal.

Catching a glimpse of the message, Randal asked, "Is that the girl we bumped into earlier today?"

She placed the phone face-down on the coffee table. "Yeah. Ignore her."

Willa thought that would be the end of it, but the next day, Stella used a burner account to send another request. The message attached was sickeningly bold.

*If you could hook him, I definitely can—I'm way younger than you. A guy like that isn't going to stick to just one woman anyway, so there's no need to be so defensive.*

Trembling with anger, Willa screenshotted the message and sent it to Sophie with a single word attached: *Look.*

Sophie immediately sent back a string of voice notes. Willa didn't even click play; just reading the auto-transcripts was enough to know she was swearing up a storm.

A text followed right after: *You just wait. I'll have someone track down where this bitch hangs out, and I'll go pay her a little visit.*

Willa hurriedly typed back: *No, stay out of this. I'll handle it myself.*

*How are you going to handle it? You can't reason with shameless trash like that!*

Honestly, she didn't know how to handle it either.

*Fine. Just don't let it blow up too much.*

When Randal came home that night, Willa was in the kitchen cooking.

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