Secretly Married (English)

Chapter 26

This explains the odd phone call that Harley made last night to Phoebe before she finally fell asleep.

"Isabelle?"

"Harley? What time is it? Why are you calling?"

"Do you really love Kent?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I love you."

"No, you don't know what you're saying—"

"I do know what I'm saying. I've fallen for you.

And I don't want to watch on the sidelines while you get hurt . . . I just want to know, why did you kiss me that night?"

"Harley . . ."

"Do you feel anything for me at all?"

"Harley . . ."

"How much do you love Kent?"

Phoebe didn't even have to think. She simply said, "More than I can possibly express."

She heard him sigh. Phoebe was still confused.

She didn't know if Harley was playing with her mind even though she knew he wouldn't. Without a word, he dropped the call. If Phoebe hadn't been so tired, this would've kept her up.

It all started to make sense.

Kent took the phone away from her. She didn't have to read too far into the released statement. She'd read enough. In it, Harley was saying that he was indeed trying to steal Phoebe from Kent—a classic case of rivalry. He went even further and said that he was the one who initiated the kiss, but that it was nothing more than that.

"I don't get it," she said.

Kent finished reading and was quiet for a while. Then he started the car.

"Why did he do this?"

"Let's just go to school, okay?" He drove off.

"How can you just ignore this?"

Kent would not look at her. "Don't stress out about it."

"I feel guilty! Why'd he have to lie like that?"

"He had to!" Kent shouted.

This shocked Phoebe into silence. She tried to avoid Kent's gaze because she didn't know how to feel about everything. Right now, to everyone, Harley seemed like the villain—the guy who wanted to steal somebody's girlfriend for no other reason than his ego—and it was so far from the truth.

Phoebe heard Kent sigh. She then felt him hold her hand. She didn't refuse. He squeezed it.

"You—you can talk to him later."

Phoebe looked at him. He was frowning. At that moment, she had the urge to kiss him.

"I mean, you will just talk, right?"

Phoebe saw Kent sneak a glance at her with worry in his eyes. She squeezed his hand. "Of course." When they arrived in school, Phoebe tried to open the door, but Kent stopped her. "I'll open the door for you. Don't be stupid."

"But . . ."

"Let them see who you are to me."

Phoebe tried to suppress her smile, but she couldn't. She watched as Kent got off the car and opened the door for her. As soon as she got out, he took her hand and led her toward the building. Soon enough, people were whispering, and their whispers built up to form that weird undercurrent of indecipherable noise.