Chapter 131 CHAPTER 132: The Hidden Truth

Chapter 131 CHAPTER 132: The Hidden Truth
COLE’S POV

The desk lamp was the only light on in my bedroom, casting long shadows across the stack of printed documents and old digital files spread out before me. My eyes burned with exhaustion, but I couldn't stop. Cole continued investigating quietly without telling Aria anything. The more information he collected, the stranger everything became.

"You're going to go blind staring at those screens all night," Reed said, walking into my room without knocking. He tossed a fresh cup of black coffee onto the corner of my desk before leaning against the doorframe.

"I don't care about my eyes," I muttered, rubbing my face with both hands. "I care about what I'm looking at. He originally expected to find evidence connecting everything back to Bianca, but that wasn't what he found."

Reed's expression shifted, his dark eyes narrowing slightly. "You still thinking this goes way beyond Bianca's little revenge games?"

"It has nothing to do with Bianca," I said, sliding a specific folder across the wood toward him. "Instead, he kept running into old references connected to Aria herself. Some of the information was years old and existed long before the current problems started."

Reed picked up the papers, skimming the faded text. "Years old? What kind of references?"

"Financial tracking, digital archives, and old surveillance notes," I explained, leaning back in my chair. "That immediately caught his attention because it suggested people had been paying attention to Aria long before she became involved with Bianca or the brothers."

"That's impossible," Reed muttered, flipping the page. "She lived in a tiny, cramped apartment with her mom. She was a complete nobody at her old school. Who was watching her back then?"

"That's the million-dollar question," I sighed. "Look closer at the names mentioned in the margins of those logs. One particular name appeared repeatedly throughout the information he was collecting."

Reed frowned, squinting at the small print near the bottom of the page. "A name? Who?"

"At first he ignored it because he didn't recognize it, but after asking questions and doing more research, he discovered the name belonged to a powerful pack elder who disappeared years ago," I said quietly.

Reed looked up sharply, his jaw tightening. "A pack elder? Disappeared how?"

"Vanished off the grid about fifteen years ago," I answered. "Someone with that kind of influence should have had no reason to be connected to a wolf-less omega like Aria. The connection made no sense no matter how many times he looked at it. Instead of answering questions, it only created more."

"An elder tied to an ordinary omega," Reed repeated, shaking his head slowly. "It doesn't add up. Elders only care about pure bloodlines, high status, and pack dominance. They wouldn't waste five minutes looking at a girl with no wolf."

"Unless she isn't what everyone thinks she is," I whispered.

Kai pushed his way into the room just then, looking just as exhausted as the rest of us. He grabbed the edge of my desk, his eyes darting to the papers. "Are you guys finding anything useful, or are you just chasing ghosts?"

"We found something," Reed said, handing the file to Kai. "An old pack elder's name keeps popping up in her background checks from years ago."

While continuing his search, Cole found another detail that immediately stood out. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the desk. "One of the reports mentioned a child who survived an attack that should have been impossible to survive."

Kai stopped reading, looking up at me intently. "A child? An omega child?"

"The report was old and didn't mention Aria directly, but the timing was suspiciously close to events he already knew about," I said. "The date of that brutal attack matches up with the exact year Aria's family supposedly fell apart and her mother dragged her into hiding."

"You think the child in that report was Aria?" Kai asked, his voice dropping into a low growl.

"I spent a long time rereading the information because something about it bothered me," I admitted. "The file talked about a massive pack massacre in a distant territory. Everyone at the compound was wiped out. Every single wolf. But a baby—a very young female child—was somehow pulled from the ashes alive, even though her parents had no wolf protection to shield her."

"That sounds like a miracle," Reed murmured.

"Or a cover-up," I replied. "The more connections he started making, the less he believed in coincidence. He began feeling like multiple pieces of information were pointing toward the same hidden truth."

"What kind of truth, Cole?" Kai demanded, stepping closer. "Just spit it out."

By the time he finished his research for the night, Cole was convinced that Aria's missing wolf wasn't the entire story.

"Something important had happened during her childhood, and somebody had gone to great lengths to make sure nobody looked too closely at it," I said, tapping my finger against the desk. "Her medical records, her school transfers, her mother's employment history—everything has been scrubbed, altered, or buried under layers of fake identities."

"Does she know?" Reed asked quietly.

"I don't think so," I shook my head. "I didn't have enough evidence yet to prove anything, but his instincts told him he was getting close to something significant. For the first time, he started wondering if Aria herself might not know the truth about her own past."

Kai let out a heavy breath, running a hand through his dark hair. "If she doesn't know, and her mother lied to her about everything... what happens when she finds out? What happens when these professional guys find her first?"

"They aren't going to find her," I said firmly, standing up from my chair. The cold determination settled deep in my chest. "We keep digging. We find out who that missing elder was, what happened during that attack, and why people are willing to pay millions for her bloodline."

"And Aria?" Reed asked, watching me closely. "How long can we keep her in the dark?"

"As long as it takes to keep her breathing," I answered, looking toward the door that led out toward the hallway where her bedroom was. "For the first time, he started wondering if Aria herself might not know the truth about her own past."