( the main reason I split this Chapter is because of the length , I didn’t want you guys to get bored reading one full length Chapter with almost 5,000 words so please bear with .this would be the last part of this volu so please read and support with power stones , or golden tickets thank you I really appreciate you sticking with untill now )
The call connected after two rings.
For several seconds, Raina couldn’t speak.
The words were trapped sowhere between her lungs and her throat, buried beneath panic and shock. All that ca out were uneven breaths and broken sobs.
On the other end of the line, her grandfather remained silent.
Waiting.
Listening.
Patient.
"Himari?"
The familiar voice nearly shattered what little composure she had left.
"I..." Her voice broke. "I ssed up."
Silence.
Not surprised silence.
Not alard silence.
Just silence.
Then:
"What happened?"
The calmness in his tone sohow made everything worse.
Raina looked down at Felix’s motionless body.
At the blood spreading across the hardwood floor.
At the fragnts of shattered glass glittering beneath the apartnt lights.
And suddenly the reality of it beca impossible to ignore.
This was real.
This wasn’t a nightmare.
It wasn’t a misunderstanding.
It wasn’t sothing she could take back.
"I..." She swallowed hard. "I hit him."
Another pause.
"Who?"
"Felix."
The na ca out as little more than a whisper.
The silence that followed stretched for several seconds.
Then:
"Tell exactly what happened."
His voice never changed.
Never rose.
Never betrayed panic.
And sohow that steadiness beca the only thing keeping her from completely falling apart.
Piece by piece, she told him everything.
The argunt.
The photographs.
Felix discovering the hidden compartnt.
The threat to tell Ethan.
The snow globe.
The blood.
The collapse.
Every word felt heavier than the last.
When she finally finished speaking, the apartnt fell silent once again.
Raina could hear her own breathing.
The ticking clock mounted on the wall.
The distant hum of traffic outside.
Beside her, Felix remained motionless.
Then her grandfather spoke.
"Are you hurt?"
The question caught her completely off guard.
"What?"
"Answer the question."
"No."
"Good."
Raina stared at the phone.
Of all the things she expected him to ask, that hadn’t been one of them.
His voice remained calm.
Controlled.
thodical.
As if they were discussing a business problem rather than a bleeding man lying unconscious on her floor.
"Now tell exactly what Felix looks like."
Her stomach twisted.
She didn’t want to look.
Didn’t want to study the damage she’d caused.
But she obeyed.
"The side of his head is bleeding."
"How badly?"
"I don’t know."
"Himari."
The sharpness in his voice made her straighten.
"Look."
Slowly, she did.
The sight made her feel sick.
"There was a lot of blood."
"Was?"
"There still is."
"Is he breathing?"
Raina leaned closer.
Her hands trembled.
For a horrible second she thought the answer might be no.
Then—
"Yes."
Relief flooded through her so suddenly that she nearly cried again.
"Yes. I think so."
"Good."
His tone remained unchanged.
"Is he conscious?"
"No."
"Responsive?"
"No."
Another pause.
Then:
"Listen carefully."
Raina wiped at her eyes.
"Okay."
"Do not touch anything else."
Her stomach dropped.
"Grandfather—"
"Himari."
The warning in his voice imdiately silenced her.
"Listen to very carefully."
And she did.
Because she had nothing else.
No plan.
No solution.
No idea what ca next.
Only him.
Only the calm voice on the other end of the line.
For the next several minutes, he asked questions.
Precise questions.
Questions she didn’t understand at the ti.
Where exactly was Felix lying?
Which room were they in?
Who knew he was coming here?
Had anyone seen him enter the apartnt?
Had they argued loudly enough for neighbors to hear?
At the ti, the questions seed strange.
Looking back, she realized he had already begun constructing a solution.
A way out.
By the end of the conversation, her breathing had steadied.
Not because she felt better.
Because she was too exhausted to keep panicking.
"Stay where you are," her grandfather said.
"What are you going to do?"
A pause.
Then:
"I’m going to handle it."
The words should have frightened her.
Instead they comforted her.
Because for her entire life, whenever sothing went wrong, her grandfather had always found a way to fix it.
Even this.
Especially this.
At least, that was what she desperately wanted to believe.
The call ended.
And Raina remained sitting beside Felix’s body.
Waiting.
Watching.
Listening to the silence.
Minutes passed.
Then hours.
Eventually people arrived.
People her grandfather sent.
People whose nas she later learned during her stay in Japan
People who spoke very little and asked even fewer questions.
The mory blurred after that.
Not because she forgot.
Because she chose to.
So events were easier left locked away.
Buried beneath years of denial.
Years of rationalization.
Years of pretending the past no longer mattered.
The mory dissolved.
And suddenly she was back in the present.
Back in her room.
Back staring at the ssage that had started all of this.
I know what happened to Felix.
The words seed heavier now.
More threatening.
Because they weren’t vague anymore.
Not after reliving the mory.
Not after rembering every terrible detail.
A glance at the clock told her it was already 4:57 p.m.
Almost ti.
Slowly, she stood.
The room felt smaller than before.
The air heavier.
For the first ti in years, she found herself wondering whether the past had finally caught up to her.
Then she picked up her phone and called Frank.
He answered almost imdiately.
"Boss."
"I received a ssage."
The mont she explained the situation, his tone changed.
The casual friendliness vanished.
Replaced by professionalism.
Concern.
By the ti she finished speaking, she could already hear him barking orders in the background.
"I’ll have n watching the area."
"Good."
"You think it’s a setup?"
Raina walked toward the window and stared out into the fading afternoon sunlight.
"I think anyone who knows about Felix is a problem."
Frank didn’t argue.
Because he understood exactly what that ant.
"We’ll be close."
"Make sure of it."
"We will."
The call ended.
At exactly 5:02 p.m., Raina left the house.
The drive to Rose Valley felt endless.
Every red light seed determined to delay her.
Every slow-moving vehicle felt like a personal insult.
The entire ti, only one question occupied her thoughts.
How much do they know?
The ssage suggested knowledge.
The phone call suggested confidence.
Neither was reassuring.
By the ti she reached Rose Valley, the sun was already sinking beneath the horizon.
Long shadows stretched across the quiet neighborhood.
The houses looked ordinary.
Peaceful.
The kind of place where nothing bad was supposed to happen.
111 Old Lane sat near the edge of the district.
A modest two-story house partially concealed behind overgrown trees.
Nothing about it stood out.
Nothing about it looked threatening.
Which sohow made it worse.
Raina parked across the street.
And waited.
Watching.
Studying.
Searching for any sign of movent.
There was none.
No lights.
No voices.
No visible cars.
Just silence.
Eventually she stepped out of the vehicle.
The evening air felt colder than before.
Her heels clicked softly against the pavent as she crossed the street.
One asured step after another.
She refused to appear nervous.
Refused to give whoever was inside the satisfaction.
Yet her pulse betrayed her.
Each heartbeat seed louder than the last.
By the ti she reached the property, she could hear it pounding inside her ears.
Then she noticed the front door.
It stood slightly open.
Not wide.
Just enough.
Waiting.
Inviting.
Or warning.
She couldn’t decide which.
Raina stopped at the foot of the porch steps.
Every instinct she possessed told her to turn around.
To get back in the car.
To let Frank’s people handle this.
Instead she moved forward.
The wooden porch creaked beneath her weight.
The dark doorway lood ahead.
Silent.
She had almost reached it when a sound drifted from sowhere inside.
A floorboard.
Groaning beneath soone’s weight.
Raina froze.
The noise had been faint.
Almost imperceptible.
Yet in the silence of the evening it sounded deafening.
Soone was in there.
Waiting for her.
Watching her.
A second floorboard creaked.
Closer this ti.
Then, from sowhere inside the darkness, a voice spoke.
"You’re late."
And despite everything she had faced over the years...
Despite Malcolm.
Despite Susan.
Despite Felix.
Despite all the secrets she’d buried...
The voice sounded familiar.
Very familiar.
Raina’s blood ran cold.
Because she knew that voice.
And that should have been impossible.
(To Be Continued in volu three...)
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