He Called Me His Stalker

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The sex had been slow and heavy, leaving a lingering heat in the air. Afterward, I watched Nate standing at the stove, his back to me as he hummed a tune and stirred a pot of midnight pasta. He was wearing nothing but his boxers and my floral apron, looking every bit the devoted partner. I caught the scene on videothe steam rising, the casual grace of his movementsand posted it to my feed before drifting off to sleep.

When I checked my phone the next morning, the view count had spiked over ten thousand. But as I scrolled through the analytics, something felt wrong. Every single view came from the same account.

I laughed, showing the screen to Nate while he sipped his coffee. "I think I have a superfan," I joked. "Or maybe its an obsessed ex-girlfriend? Ten thousand views on one video she really cant let you go, can she?"

Nate glanced at the screen. The relaxed expression hed worn seconds ago vanished, replaced by a sudden, icy tension. His jaw tightened.

"Delete it," he said, his voice dropping an octave.

I blinked, taken aback by his tone. "What? Nate, its just a video. Its cute."

Before I could process his shift in mood, Nates composure fractured. He grabbed my wrist, his eyes burning with an intensity that bordered on panic. "I said delete it, Tess! Sophie cant see things like this!"

The name hit me like a physical blow. My stomach did a slow, sickening flip. Sophie.

The girl hed spent seven years with. The girl hed told me was a closed chapter, a ghost from his twenties.

My hand began to shake as I gripped my phone. I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, to ask why he was still tracking her social media habits, but the words died in my throat. Nates eyes weren't just angry; they were watery, filled with a raw, agonizing protective instinct.

Nate, a man who usually moved through the world with unshakable confidence, suddenly looked small. He reached out, taking my hand in a plea.

"Shes fragile, Tess. Shes not like you. Dont do this to her. Don't trigger her. Please, Im begging you."

I stared at him, my brow furrowing in disbelief. Nate softened his voice, sensing my resistance.

"Sophie was diagnosed with severe clinical depression a few months ago," he whispered. "The doctors said shes on a knifes edge. One wrong move, one shock to her system, and... look, once shes stable, you can post whatever you want. Okay? Just give it time."

My throat felt tight, constricted by a thousand questions I was too afraid to ask. How do you know about her diagnosis? Why are you the one monitoring her triggers?

Before I could find my voice, his phone buzzed on the counter. Nate reacted with a literal reflex, snatching it up as if his life depended on it. I caught a glimpse of the contact namea string of digits I recognized. It was the private number his friends had once joked about, the one reserved only for Sophie.

He answered instantly. "Yeah? Slow down. Ill be there in twenty minutes. Tell them not to do anything until I arrive."

He hung up and grabbed his leather jacket from the sofa, moving toward the door with frantic energy. He paused at the threshold, his eyes landing on me with a sharp, warning glare.

"Remember. Delete the video."

I watched his car peel out of the driveway, my fingers curling into my palms.

Why?

Nate was my boyfriend. This was my life, my relationship. Why did I have to scrub my existence just because his ex couldn't handle the reality of him moving on?

I wasn't going to delete it. In fact, a petty, searing fire rose in my chest. I wanted to show her more.

I began scrolling through my camera roll, looking for a photo of ussomething romantic, something that proved he belonged to me. But as I scrolled, a cold realization settled in my bones. I couldn't find a single photo of us together.

Nate had always been "camera shy." Hed told me he hated the performative nature of social media, that he wanted to "live in the moment" with me. Id respected that. Id been the understanding girlfriend. My entire gallery consisted of stolen shots of his back, his hands, his shadow.

The bitterness in my mouth tasted like copper.

I refused to let her win. I took those candid shots of him and edited them into a montage, setting it to a song that felt like a heartbeat. I posted it, setting the privacy so that only one person could see it: Sophie.

Within two minutes, the notifications pinged. Two views.

I leaned back against the headboard, a dark sense of satisfaction blooming in my chest. I imagined her on the other side of the screen, crumbling, feeling the same phantom limb pain I felt every time Nate mentioned her name.

But then, the "New Post" notification popped up. Sophie had updated her story.

There were no flashy effects, no trendy music. Just a slideshow of high-resolution photos. Nate and Sophie in a dimly lit bookstore, his arm draped over her shoulder. Nate and Sophie at a theme park, both of them grinning at the camera, their faces pressed together. Nate looking into the lens with a warmth I had never been able to capture.

Photo after photo of the life I had been told he was "too private" to document.

The caption was a single line: You always said we were the only ones who belonged in the same frame.

The phone slipped from my hands, thudding onto the duvet. My breath hitched.

He didn't hate cameras. He didn't hate the "performance" of being a couple. He just didn't want to be seen with me.

I felt like a clown, a temporary placeholder in a theater where the lead actress had never truly left the stage. With trembling fingers, I opened my profile and deleted every single video Id ever posted of him. I wiped the slate clean until there was nothing left but a hollow digital silence.

Nate didn't come home until the early hours of the morning.

I stayed under the covers, my back to the door, my mind a repetitive loop of a single thought: This is it. If he doesn't choose today, Im gone.

The bedroom door creaked open. The scent of the cold night air and a faint, floral perfumenot minedrifted toward the bed. He stood there for a long time before speaking.

"Tess. I know you're awake."

I didn't move.

"Sophies in a bad way," he continued, his voice strained. "She saw the video you posted yesterday. She... she tried to end it. Her mom found her just in time. Shes out of the hospital, but she can't be alone."

I threw back the covers and sat up, the anger finally boiling over. "And what does that have to do with us, Nate?"

"I'm bringing her here," he said, his tone flat, as if he were discussing the weather. "Just for a few weeks. Until shes stable enough for a facility. Its the only way shell agree to keep fighting."

"Are you insane?" I stood up, my voice rising. "This isn't a halfway house, Nate! You expect me to live under the same roof as the woman youre clearly still in love with?"

A muffled conversation drifted in from the living room. I pushed past him, my heart hammering against my ribs.

The living room lights were blindingly bright. Sophie was sitting dead center on our sofa, wrapped in an oversized cardigan that I recognized as Nates. She looked pale, her eyes vacant and rimmed with red. Next to her sat an older womanher mother.

When the mother saw me, she stood up, her face a mask of practiced desperation. "You must be Tess. Im so sorry to intrude like this, especially so late."

I didn't answer. I just looked at the scenemy home, invaded by the ghost of a dead relationship.

Then, the mother did something I never expected. She moved toward me, clutching my hands, her voice breaking into a sob.

"Please, Tess. My daughter is drowning. Nate is the only anchor she has left. Just let her stay for a little while. Treat her like a stray, like a guest you never see. Once shes better, Ill take her away, I swear. Don't let my daughter die."

It was a trap. A perfectly laid emotional ambush. I looked past the mother, past the weeping girl on my sofa, and locked eyes with Nate.

"Its her or me, Nate. Choose. Right now."

Nates face contorted. He looked between us, the weight of seven years pulling him one way and our year-long romance pulling him the other. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then finally looked at Sophie.

"Im sorry," he whispered, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at them. "Tess is right. This is her home too. Its not appropriate."

Sophies eyes finally found mine, and for a split second, the vacancy vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp spark of resentment. Then, the tears began to fall again.

"Ill take them back to their place," Nate said, his voice hollow.

I didn't say a word. I stood in the middle of the room, watching the three of them disappear into the hallway. The door clicked shut, and the silence that followed was deafening.

I waited. I sat on that sofa from dawn until the sun began to peek through the blinds. Nate didn't come back.

I checked my phone. No texts. No calls. Just a new notification from Sophies account.

I opened the video. The camera panned around a familiar roomthe hardwood floors, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the specific shade of navy blue on the walls.

It was the condo. The one Nate and I had just put a deposit on. Our "forever" home.

He had taken her there.

The humiliation was a physical weight, crushing the air out of my lungs. I reached for my phone and dialed my best friend, Jade.

"I need you to come with me," I said, my voice like flint. "Now."

Thirty minutes later, Jade and I were standing in front of the condo. I didn't use my key. I pounded on the door.

Sophies mother opened it. When she saw me, her eyes darted nervously, but she braced herself in the doorway. "What are you doing here?"

"This is my house," I spat, pushing past her. "And Im here to evict you."

Sophie was reclining on the designer sofa wed picked out together. She was wearing a silk robe that definitely didn't belong to her. She looked up, a slow, taunting smile spreading across her lips.

"Tess," she purred, standing up slowly. "Do you want to know why Nate brought me here? To our house?"

She let the silence hang, relishing the moment.

"Because Im pregnant, Tess. With Nates baby."

The world tilted. My heart stopped.

"I think it happened... let me see... right around your one-year anniversary?" she continued, her voice dripping with malice. "He didn't really have to work late that night, did he? He was here. With me."

Our anniversary. The night Id spent three hours cooking a five-course meal, wearing the red dress hed bought me, only to receive a text saying he was stuck in a board meeting.

Hed been here. Consummating a betrayal that was now a living, breathing thing inside her.

"You lying bitch!" Jade exploded, stepping in front of me. "Youre really going to pull the 'pregnancy' card to keep a man who doesn't want you? Have some dignity."

Sophie laughed, a high, chilling sound. "Oh, honey. The person who isn't wanted here is Tess. If he loved her, would he have been in my bed while she was waiting for him with candles?"

The noise of our shouting had drawn the neighbors out into the hallway. People were peering through their cracked doors, whispering.

Then, Nate appeared. He ran up the stairs, breathless, his face pale with panic.

The moment he saw him, Sophies demeanor shifted. The predator vanished, and the victim returned. She stumbled back, grabbing a steak knife from the kitchen counter that was sitting near some fruit.

"Nate!" she screamed, her voice trembling. "I can't take it! Tess broke in, she started calling me a whore, an interloper... everyone knows now! I can't live with this shame!"

Nate lunged forward, gently prying the knife from her hand. "Stop it, Sophie. Don't say that."

The neighbors were murmuring now, their eyes landing on me with judgment. One of them, an older man, called out, "Hey kid, who's the girl? Who's the one causing the trouble?"

Nate looked at me. For five long seconds, his gaze was unreadable. Then, he turned to the crowd and spoke with a terrifying, cool detachment.

"Shes just someone whos been pursuing me," he said, gesturing toward me. "An obsessed ex-fan, basically. Ive told her its over, but she won't stop harassing my girlfriend, Sophie."

I stood frozen. The air in the room felt like lead.

Jade was shaking with rage, her finger inches from Nates nose. "You pathetic coward! You cheated on her, lied to her, and now youre calling her the stalker? Youre a monster, Nate!"

She wanted to say more, but I reached out and caught her wrist. My voice was dry, cracking like old parchment.

"Don't, Jade. Lets go."

I needed to leave before I disintegrated. But as we turned to the door, Sophies mother blocked our path.

"You don't get to ruin my daughters reputation and just walk away, Tess. You owe her an apology. Right now, in front of everyone."

The neighbors chimed in, fueled by Nates lie. "Yeah, apologize! Leave the poor pregnant girl alone!"

I closed my eyes, a wave of nausea rolling over me.

"Tess," Nates voice came from behind me, soft and commanding. "Just apologize so we can all move on. Please."

I looked at himthe man I had loved, the man I had planned a future with. He looked back at me with nothing but cold calculation.

I took a breath and looked Sophie dead in the eye.

"Im sorry," I said, my voice echoing in the hallway. "Im sorry I ever looked at your boyfriend. Im sorry I wasted a year of my life on a man who belongs exactly where he is right now. It won't happen again."