Putting away my phone, I let the adrenaline fuel me as I hop out of my car and quickly jog across the street. Ryan and Kaitlyn are in line inside, waiting to place their order, and Kaitlyn catches my eye. She gives me a quick nod, then turns to Ryan, who’s looking at the menu on the board behind the counter. I spy an empty plastic ice-cream cup sitting on a table and pick it up.

“Ow! Ryan!” Kaitlyn shrieks. “Why would you shove me like that?! That hurt!”

I can’t see his face, but I’m sure he’s confused. “What are you talking about? I didn—”

“How would you like it if I shoved you?”

I’m standing directly behind him when she shoves him. We bump into each other and I pretend to fumble around a bit, before straightening up and grunting a quick “Watch it,” over my shoulder as I walk to the front door. I throw the empty ice-cream cup in the garbage placed beside the door to make it look like I was on my way out anyway.

I don’t know what happens next, but I’m hoping Kaitlyn is arguing with Ryan to distract him from the fact that I lifted his phone out of his back pocket during our “fumble.”

My heart beats loudly in my ears as I move over to a quiet side of the parking lot and unlock his phone. His passcode really is just 000000, which, considering he has two girlfriends and is trying to hide them from one another, isn’t very smart. Since I don’t have much time, I open his photos and click Select All, then hit Delete. I click on his Recently Deleted folder and do the same thing.

This is almost too easy, I feel like he’s going to jump out and catch me in the act, but a quick glance around tells me I’ve still got time. Though the parking lot is filled with cars, no one else is there except a few teenagers, huddling beside a car on the other side of the lot from me.

A notification pops up: Are you sure you want to delete all photos? These cannot be recovered.

Perfect, exactly what I want. And if he has anything important, he can back it up from his computer.

Confident I’m not going to get caught, I hit Yes, and breathe out a sigh of relief when the pictures disappear.

I look into the window where Kaitlyn is looking out for me to give her a signal, and send her a thumbs-up, waving Ryan’s now pictureless phone in the air.

She smiles, the maliciousness and hostility that’s been lacking from her eyes lately flooding back into them tenfold. It’s like she grows triple her size and manages to loom over Ryan even though he’s taller than her—the confidence in her shoulders and her posture that of a woman on a mission, of a person freed from the chains holding them back, and who’s savoring their vengeance. It’s a transformation as she turns from the tired, shadow version of herself into Kaitlyn fucking Anderson.