Chapter 106 Chapter 106

Chapter 106 Chapter 106
  Cass didn’t sleep that night.
  She tried.
  She lay there with the room dark, the ceiling above her feeling too close, too heavy, like it had lowered itself inch by inch just to press her down.
  But every time she closed her eyes, she saw fragments.
  Not full memories.
  Just flashes.
  A sound too sharp.
  A hand pulling her.
  A voice she couldn’t place but somehow recognized in her bones.
  And then—
  falling.
  She sat up fast, breathing uneven.
  Jace was still downstairs.
  He hadn’t left her alone.
  That should have made her feel safe.
  It did.
  And that was the problem.
  Because safety didn’t erase what was coming.
  Morning didn’t feel like morning.
  It felt like something paused.
  Like the entire world was holding its breath, waiting for something to drop.
  Cass walked into school with Jace beside her again.
  No one said much in the hallway.
  But people looked.
  Not openly.
  Not loudly.
  Just quick glances.
  Phones in hands.
  Whispers that stopped when she passed.
  Lena was already waiting by the lockers.
  She didn’t smile.
  Not her usual one.
  This one was smaller.
  Careful.
  “Okay,” she said as Cass approached. “So it’s officially everywhere.”
  Cass stopped.
  “What is?”
  Lena lifted her phone slightly.
  “Your name.”
  Cass’s stomach dropped.
  Jace’s jaw tightened instantly.
  Cass took the phone.
  Scrolled.
  And saw it.
  Not the full story.
  Not yet.
  Just pieces.
  Rumors dressed up as headlines.
  Old incident reopened.
  Unnamed student linked to past case.
  Private investigation initiated.
  Her fingers went cold around the device.
  She handed it back slowly.
  “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no…”
  Lena stepped closer.
  “Hey—hey, breathe.”
  But Cass wasn’t hearing it properly anymore.
  Jace took the phone from Lena and shut it off.
  “Stop reading it,” he said firmly.
  Cass looked at him.
  “It’s already out there.”
  Jace didn’t deny it.
  He just stayed close.
  That silence again.
  The same one from last night.
  Heavy but steady.
  Across the hall, Marvin appeared.
  And this time—
  people moved away from him.
  Not because he asked.
  Because they wanted distance.
  He looked… different.
  Not guilty.
  Not sorry.
  Just satisfied in a way that didn’t match anything around him.
  Cass saw him and her stomach twisted.
  He walked straight past them.
  But then paused.
  Just enough to speak.
  “Morning,” he said lightly.
  No one responded.
  Except Cass.
  “You’re insane,” she said.
  Marvin turned slightly.
  “Am I?”
  Jace stepped forward.
  “Stop.”
  Marvin smiled faintly.
  “I didn’t lie,” he said simply. “I just stopped protecting the lie.”
  Cass’s voice shook slightly.
  “You’re destroying everything.”
  Marvin tilted his head.
  “No,” he said. “I’m exposing it.”
  Lena muttered under her breath.
  “You’re enjoying this way too much.”
  Marvin glanced at her.
  “Maybe I’m just tired of pretending we’re all fine.”
  Then his eyes shifted to Jace.
  And something softened for half a second.
  Almost like regret.
  Almost.
  But not enough.
  “I told you,” Marvin said quietly. “It was always going to come out.”
  Jace didn’t answer.
  Because there was nothing to say to that.
  Marvin walked away.
  And the hallway felt colder after he left.
  Cass barely made it through the first class.
  Words on the board didn’t register.
  Her hand couldn’t write anything properly.
  At some point, Lena slid her a note.
  don’t spiral here. wait for after.
  Cass stared at it.
  Her chest tight.
  But she nodded slightly.
  Because she couldn’t do this alone.
  Not right now.
  After school, Jace didn’t take her home immediately.
  He brought her somewhere else.
  Not planned.
  Just instinct.
  A quieter place near the edge of town where the noise of everything felt far away.
  Cass stood near the railing overlooking empty space, wind pulling at her hair again.
  Jace stood beside her.
  Neither spoke for a while.
  Then Cass finally did.
  “I feel like I’m disappearing.”
  Jace looked at her immediately.
  “No.”
  Cass shook her head slightly.
  “You don’t get it. It’s like every version of me I thought I was… is wrong.”
  Jace’s voice softened.
  “You’re still you.”
  Cass let out a breath that almost broke.
  “I don’t even know what that means anymore.”
  That hit something in him.
  She could see it.
  He stepped closer.
  Not touching yet.
  Just close enough that she felt him there.
  “You’re the person who shows up even when everything is falling apart,” he said quietly. “You’re the one who cares even when it hurts you. That doesn’t change because someone else buried the truth badly.”
  Cass’s eyes stung.
  “I don’t know how to live with this.”
  Jace paused.
  Then—
  “Then don’t live with it alone.”
  That silence between them again.
  Different this time.
  Less heavy.
  More… choice.
  Cass looked at him.
  Really looked.
  And for the first time since everything started collapsing—
  she didn’t feel like she was standing at the center of something she couldn’t escape.
  Just at the edge of something she might survive.
  Jace finally reached for her hand.
  Slow.
  Careful.
  Like he was giving her the choice not to pull away.
  Cass didn’t.
  She held it.
  And the wind kept moving around them like the world didn’t know what it had just lost… or what it was about to become.
  And somewhere far away, a file was opened fully for the first time.
  Not rumors.
  Not fragments.
  The full case.
  And a name that hadn’t been spoken out loud in years finally appeared in black ink.
  Attached to Cass.
  Not as a victim.
  Not as a witness.
  But as something far more dangerous than either.
  A starting point.