📱🔥 RHEA WENT LIVE 📱🔥 - PART 6
Updated: Aug 13
“So?”
“So every time she posts something vague, you answer.”
“Because she’s talking about me.”
“Maybe.”
“She is.”
“Okay, she is. Then what?”
Rhea frowned.
“What do you mean, then what?”
“She posts. You go Live. You bring ten thousand people. Reaction pages clip it. Her followers go up, your followers go up, everybody spends three days talking about it and then somebody sells a story, somebody starts a podcast and somebody drops a song.”
Rhea looked ahead.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I don’t think you’ve thought about it.”
Rhea went quiet.
Shan continued.
“People know exactly which buttons to press with you.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m serious.”
“Not tonight.”
“When then?”
Rhea tightened her grip on the wheel.
“When I’m not on my way to possibly murder somebody.”
“Exactly why tonight might be useful.”
Rhea nearly laughed.
Then Shan’s phone buzzed.
She looked down.
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Oh.”
“What now?”
“Keys is Live.”
Rhea nearly mounted the kerb.
“WHAT?”
“Drive!”
“Why is he Live?”
“How would I know?”
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Shan.”
“Eyes forward.”
“Tell me what he’s saying.”
Shan opened the Live.
Keys was sitting in his car with his hood up, his face tight as the viewer count climbed.
“I’m not doing internet back-and-forth,” he said.
Rhea barked a laugh.
“Then why are you on the internet?”
Shan raised a finger.
“He says people are spreading lies.”
“Ask him which lies.”
“I am not commenting.”
“Use Mum’s account.”
“No.”
“Coward.”
Keys continued.
“I’ve been trying to keep things private for years, but some people don’t know when to stop.”
Rhea’s jaw dropped.
“Some people?”
Shan turned the volume down.
“Nope.”
“Put it back.”
“No.”
“Shan.”
“He’s baiting you.”
“Put it BACK.”
Shan reluctantly raised the volume.
Keys was reading comments.
Then:
“No, me and Tia are friends. That’s it.”
Rhea scoffed.
Then he said:
“And certain people need to remember they’re not my girlfriend.”
That one hit.
The car went quiet.
Rhea looked ahead, her face barely moving.
Shan reached over and ended Rhea’s Live.
Rhea immediately looked at the phone.
“What did you do?”
“You’re done.”
“Turn it back on.”
“No.”
“Shan.”
“No.”
“You can’t end my Live.”
“I did.”
“Twelve thousand people were watching.”
“And they’ll survive.”
Rhea reached for the phone.
Shan held it against the door.
“Drive.”
“Give me my phone.”
“No.”
“I swear to God.”
“You told me not to involve Him.”
“That was before.”
“Drive.”
Rhea laughed despite herself.
Then the laugh collapsed.
Her eyes suddenly looked wet.
Shan saw it and said nothing.
Because that was the part nobody online ever saw properly.
They saw Rhea shout.
They saw Rhea drag women by name.
They saw Rhea post screenshots at three in the morning, delete them at seven and re-upload them at lunch with more context. They saw wigs, holidays, designer bags, court stories, friendship fallouts and Rhea announcing that she had entered her healing era every four months.
They did not see this.
The few seconds after the performance ended, when the car became quiet and Rhea remembered she had loved Keys for eleven years.
Loved him badly.
Loved him proudly.
Loved him through cheating rumours, breakups, reunions, a pregnancy, a miscarriage before Amari, moving houses, moving apart, moving back together, passwords changed, passwords shared, neighbours calling police because arguments sounded worse through walls, family meetings, counselling they attended twice and sex that had restarted relationships both of them knew should have stayed dead.
They had spent so long being toxic that sometimes Rhea could no longer tell where love ended and habit began.
She wiped quickly beneath one eye.
Shan pretended not to notice.
Then a message appeared on the dashboard.
From Tia.
Since you’re already coming, bring my charger. You still have it.
Rhea stared.
Shan stared.
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