Chapter 114 Chapter 114

Chapter 114 Chapter 114
  The phone kept ringing.
  Once.
  Twice.
  Then it stopped.
  But the silence that followed wasn’t relief.
  It was warning.
  The man stood in the dim room, staring at the dark screen like it had just said something out loud. Then he finally picked it up.
  “They found the file,” a voice said on the other end.
  The man closed his eyes briefly.
  So it had started.
  “Which file?” he asked anyway, though he already knew.
  A pause.
  Then—
  “The Adrian record.”
  That name landed heavier than anything else so far.
  The man exhaled slowly.
  “…Of course they did.”
  Back at the school, Cass hadn’t moved from the cabinet.
  Her fingers still held the edge of the file like letting go would make it disappear again.
  Jace watched her carefully.
  “You’re pale,” he said quietly.
  Cass blinked once.
  “I’m fine.”
  Lena gave her a look. “No, you’re not.”
  Cass didn’t respond.
  Because her mind wasn’t fully here anymore.
  It was inside the file.
  Inside the name.
  Adrian.
  It didn’t feel unfamiliar.
  That was the worst part.
  It felt like something her brain had brushed against before and been told to drop.
  Like a door she had once reached for and been pulled away from.
  Cass finally whispered, “Why does that name feel like I’ve heard it before?”
  Jace stiffened slightly.
  Lena frowned. “Cass, you just saw it for the first time—”
  “No,” Cass cut in softly. “I didn’t.”
  Silence.
  Jace stepped closer.
  “What are you remembering?”
  Cass shook her head slightly, like she was trying to clear fog.
  “I don’t know,” she said. “Not clearly.”
  Then—
  “A voice. I think.”
  Her breath caught.
  “Someone saying my name… but not like now. Like I was… small.”
  Lena went quiet.
  That changed the air.
  Not dramatically.
  But completely.
  Jace took the file gently from her hands.
  Cass didn’t resist.
  He flipped through it once more.
  Faster this time.
  More focused.
  Then stopped at a page near the back.
  His expression changed.
  Cass noticed immediately.
  “What?” she asked.
  Jace didn’t answer right away.
  Then quietly—
  “This isn’t just oversight.”
  Cass stepped closer.
  “What is it?”
  Jace handed her the page.
  And Cass saw it.
  A structured document.
  Not school.
  Not police.
  Something older.
  Internal.
  Controlled.
  And at the bottom—
  a signature.
  Adrian.
  Not just mentioned.
  Authorizing.
  Cass’s breath caught.
  Lena leaned in. “That’s… administrative approval?”
  Jace nodded slowly.
  “Before the incident.”
  Cass’s voice dropped. “He wasn’t just involved after.”
  “No,” Jace said. “He was involved before everything.”
  Silence.
  That changed the shape of everything they thought they knew.
  Cass felt her stomach twist.
  “So why erase him?” she whispered.
  Jace didn’t answer immediately.
  Because the answer wasn’t simple.
  Finally—
  “Because if he exists,” Jace said, “then this wasn’t an accident that spiraled.”
  Lena’s voice turned quiet.
  “It was planned.”
  Cass didn’t deny it.
  Because the file was already telling them that.
  Cass stepped back slightly.
  Her hands curled into fists.
  “So I wasn’t just protected from the truth,” she said slowly.
  Jace looked at her.
  “No.”
  Cass’s voice sharpened.
  “I was kept away from someone who was part of it.”
  Lena exhaled. “Cass…”
  But Cass wasn’t stopping now.
  Her chest rose and fell faster.
  “Why me?” she asked. “Why does it matter if I remember him?”
  Jace hesitated.
  That hesitation said everything.
  Cass saw it.
  “You know,” she said.
  Jace didn’t deny it.
  “I’ve heard the name,” he admitted quietly.
  Cass’s eyes widened slightly.
  “You never said anything.”
  “I didn’t know where it fit,” he said.
  Lena muttered, “That’s not reassuring at all.”
  Cass turned away.
  Walked a few steps.
  Then stopped.
  Because something was shifting again.
  Not externally.
  Inside her.
  Fragments aligning.
  Not memory fully.
  But direction.
  “I think,” she said slowly, “he knew me.”
  Silence.
  Jace stepped closer. “Cass—”
  “No,” she said, firmer now. “Not in the way they know me now. Before. When I was younger.”
  Her voice shook slightly.
  “I think he was there before everything changed.”
  Lena frowned. “But if he was important, why erase him instead of just explaining—”
  “Because explaining isn’t the goal,” Jace interrupted quietly.
  Cass looked at him.
  He continued.
  “Control is.”
  That word settled heavy.
  Control.
  The room felt smaller again.
  Cass looked down at the file.
  Then whispered—
  “So I was never meant to find him.”
  Jace nodded once.
  “That’s what it looks like.”
  Cass let out a slow breath.
  Then something in her expression changed again.
  “Then I’m going to find him anyway.”
  Lena blinked. “Cass—”
  But Cass was already moving.
  Jace stepped in front of her slightly.
  “Cass,” he said more firmly now. “You don’t even know what you’re walking into.”
  She looked at him.
  And for the first time—
  there was no hesitation in her eyes.
  “I already am in it,” she said quietly. “I just didn’t know his name until now.”
  Silence.
  Long.
  Then Jace stepped aside.
  Not because he agreed.
  But because he understood something else now.
  She wasn’t chasing truth anymore.
  She was recognizing it.
  And somewhere, far beyond the school walls, a file drawer opened in a room that had been locked for years.
  Another copy of Adrian’s record.
  Already marked.
  Already flagged.
  Already active again.
  Because Cass wasn’t just remembering.
  She was triggering something that had been waiting to wake up.