Hundred and nineteen

Tristan’s presence in Henry’s house felt like a slap to the face. His dark, imposing figure made the room feel smaller, suffocating even. I barely had time to register my shock when he opened his mouth, his voice cutting through the air.

“What are you doing here?” My words felt too weak, a feeble attempt at regaining control of the situation. I tried to keep my composure, but my heart was hammering in my chest, and every muscle in my body screamed for release.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Tristan replied smoothly, his lips curling into that infuriating smirk of his. He was far too comfortable here, too sure of himself. “What’s a little eavesdropping between friends?” he added with a mock cheerfulness that made my stomach churn.

I crossed my arms, fighting the overwhelming urge to flee. My eyes darted to the hallway, hoping to see someone... anyone.. who could diffuse the tension. But there was no one. Just me and Tristan, locked in this strange standoff, and the lingering presence of the house that had been Henry’s sanctuary... until now.

“You don’t belong here,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, but the words were firm.

Tristan’s grin only widened. He took a step closer, his presence crowding the space between us. “I was invited, actually,” he said casually. “You, on the other hand, have been trying to dig up something that’s none of your business.”

Before I could respond, I heard the familiar sound of high heels clicking against the polished floor. Alexandra appeared, her phone still pressed to her ear, her gaze flickering between Tristan and me. There was something cold in her eyes, a glint of warning.

She finished her call with a quick, clipped word, her voice soft but commanding. As soon as she hung up, her attention was fully on me. “What’s going on here?”

Tristan pushed himself off the doorframe, his stance relaxed, almost too confident. “I found our dear Sophia here, lurking in the hallway, trying to overhear your conversation,” he said, his voice dripping with amusement. “A little snooping never hurt anyone, right?”

Alexandra’s expression shifted in an instant. A flicker of uncertainty crossed her face before she masked it with a cool indifference. She turned to me, her gaze sharp. “What exactly did you hear?”

I could feel my pulse quicken, the weight of her gaze pressing down on me. There was a sharp edge to her words that made it clear she wasn’t asking for the truth. She was demanding it.

I fought to keep my composure, but my mind was racing. What had I actually heard? What did they want me to say? A thousand thoughts collided in my head, and none of them seemed coherent.

I couldn’t admit that I had only caught fragments. That I didn’t know enough to make sense of it all. I couldn’t show weakness. Not now.

I stood straighter, lifting my chin as I looked her in the eye. “I heard everything.”

Alexandra’s eyes narrowed, her lips pressing into a thin line. Her silence was more dangerous than any words she could have spoken. She was calculating, analyzing.

“You heard everything?” she repeated slowly, almost as though she was savoring the words, testing them for their truth.

I nodded, trying to maintain my confidence even though my heart was hammering in my chest. “Yes. Everything.”

Tristan’s smirk faltered for just a moment, a flicker of something unspoken passing between him and Alexandra. Then he spoke again, his voice laced with an unsettling calmness. “If you really heard everything, then tell us what you heard. What exactly did Alexandra say?”

The challenge in his voice made my stomach drop. My mind scrambled for a thread of what I had overheard. The conversation had been brief, urgent fragments of sentences that I hadn’t fully understood at the time.

But there was one word that stood out. One word that had stuck with me.

“File,” I said, almost without thinking. The word was a lifeline, something to grasp onto. “You were talking about a file,” I repeated, my voice firmer now. “You said something about making sure it was handled. That she wouldn’t be a problem much longer.”

The silence that followed was thick, heavy, suffocating. I watched as both Tristan and Alexandra absorbed my words, their expressions unreadable. There was a flicker of something in Alexandra’s eyes... fear? Anger? I couldn’t quite place it. But it was there, lurking beneath the surface.

“You’re bluffing,” Tristan said finally, his voice low, dangerous. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But I could tell that he wasn’t as certain as he pretended to be. His eyes searched my face, looking for any sign of hesitation. Any crack in my façade.

I held his gaze, refusing to back down. “Maybe not,” I said, my voice steady. “But I know what I heard. And I know it had something to do with a file.”

Alexandra’s lips parted slightly, but she didn’t speak. Her silence was almost more telling than anything she could have said.

Then, the realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.

The file.

The file I had found in my mother’s office, the one that revealed Henry’s autopsy results, the one that said he had been strangled, not killed in an air accident. The one that seemed to be connected to everything.

The question hit me hard, knocking the breath out of me. Was it the same file they were talking about?

My blood ran cold as I processed the thought. Had they known about it? Had they planted it? Or was it just a coincidence?

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice steady. “Is that the same file you were talking about?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Alexandra’s eyes flashed with something unreadable, and Tristan’s smirk vanished completely. For a split second, I saw real fear in both of their eyes.