Chapter 122 The Photo That Shouldn’t Exist
The silence in the living room didn’t break.
It just deepened.
Lenora stood holding the photo like it weighed more than paper should.
Pamela.
In a hallway.
Championship night.
The hockey boy stepped closer, eyes locked on the image.
“That’s not real.”
Lenora didn’t look away from it.
“It’s a timestamped camera still.”
He frowned.
“Then it’s edited.”
She finally looked up at him.
“You’re sure?”
That hit something in him. Not anger exactly. More like discomfort at how quickly certainty was slipping.
He took the photo from her carefully.
Studied it.
Longer this time.
The hallway lighting. The angle. The grain of the security camera. The school logo faintly visible in the corner.
His jaw tightened.
“Even if this is real,” he said slowly, “it doesn’t mean what it looks like.”
Lenora crossed her arms.
“That’s what people always say before it means exactly what it looks like.”
A beat.
He didn’t argue that.
Because he couldn’t.
Pamela arrived twenty minutes later.
Lilibeth and Kylen were with her this time, both unusually quiet.
She stepped inside, took one look at Lenora’s face, and immediately knew.
“You got it.”
Lenora held up the photo.
“Explain.”
Pamela stared at it.
For a long moment, she didn’t speak.
Then she exhaled.
“That’s from the night I tried to stop something.”
The hockey boy stiffened.
“Stop what?”
Pamela looked at him.
“Your father meeting someone he shouldn’t have.”
Silence dropped hard into the room.
Lenora’s grip on the photo tightened.
“Your father?” she repeated.
Pamela nodded.
“He was being followed that night.”
Kylen muttered, “Of course he was.”
Lilibeth shot him a look.
“Read the room, Sherlock.”
Pamela continued.
“I saw him in the hallway. He was arguing with someone about the gala documents. I followed because I thought he was going to leak something early.”
Lenora frowned.
“What documents?”
Pamela hesitated.
“The ones that proved the financial transfers between both families weren’t as clean as everyone thought.”
The hockey boy’s expression shifted slightly.
“What transfers?”
Pamela looked uncomfortable now.
“Money moved between your grandfather’s company and Lenora’s family trust years ago. Quietly. Illegally in some parts.”
Lenora’s stomach tightened.
“My family?”
Pamela nodded.
“And yours.”
The room tilted slightly.
Lilibeth blinked.
“Okay, this is officially above my emotional pay grade.”
Kylen nodded.
“Same.”
The hockey boy stared at Pamela.
“You’re saying our families were financially connected too?”
“Yes.”
Pamela met his gaze.
“And someone has been trying to expose it for a while.”
Lenora looked down at the photo again.
“So what does this have to do with you being in the hallway with him?”
Pamela didn’t answer immediately.
Then—
“I wasn’t meeting him.”
She pointed at the photo.
“I was confronting him.”
The hockey boy narrowed his eyes.
“About what?”
Pamela hesitated.
Then finally said it.
“He was meeting the person who’s been sending the messages.”
Silence.
Complete this time.
Lenora felt it like a drop in her chest.
Slow.
Cold.
“What?”
Pamela nodded once.
“The night of the championship wasn’t just a celebration. It was an opportunity. Multiple people were being watched.”
Kylen rubbed his face.
“I miss when school was about exams.”
Lilibeth whispered, “Same.”
Pamela looked at Lenora.
“I followed your boyfriend’s father because I thought he was going to hand over financial documents. Instead, I saw him meet someone else first.”
The hockey boy leaned forward.
“Who?”
Pamela swallowed.
“I didn’t see their face clearly. But I saw the exchange.”
Lenora’s voice went quieter.
“What exchange?”
Pamela looked at the photo in Lenora’s hand.
“A drive. Or something like it.”
The room went still again.
Lenora stared at her.
“And you’re only telling us this now?”
Pamela’s eyes tightened slightly.
“Because I didn’t realize what I was seeing until I saw the messages you received.”
The hockey boy stepped closer.
“You think someone’s been using that night to build a case.”
Pamela nodded.
“Yes.”
Lenora shook her head slightly.
“That doesn’t explain why I was told to ask about the championship night.”
Pamela looked at her.
“Because you were there.”
Lenora frowned.
“I was with him all night.”
Pamela’s gaze sharpened slightly.
“Were you?”
That question landed wrong.
The hockey boy reacted immediately.
“Yes.”
Firm.
Clear.
“No one left my side after midnight.”
Pamela didn’t argue.
Instead, she said something quieter.
“Then someone is trying to make it look like you weren’t.”
Silence returned.
But this time it felt worse.
Because it wasn’t confusion anymore.
It was direction.
Someone wasn’t just watching.
They were constructing.
Lenora turned the photo over again.
Her fingers tightened.
“This wasn’t sent to scare me.”
Pamela nodded slowly.
“No.”
“It was sent to redirect me.”
The hockey boy looked at her.
“To what?”
Lenora stared at the photo.
Then whispered.
“To him.”
Everyone looked at her.
She didn’t explain right away.
Instead, she pulled up the last anonymous message again.
Ask him about the night of the championship.
She held it up.
“This message assumes I doubt him.”
Her gaze lifted.
“But I don’t.”
The hockey boy exhaled slightly at that.
Lenora continued.
“So the goal isn’t to make me question him.”
She looked at Pamela.
“It’s to make me question everything else.”
Pamela nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Kylen muttered, “That’s psychotic.”
Lilibeth nodded.
“Respectfully, yes.”
The hockey boy rubbed the back of his neck.
“So what now?”
Lenora looked at all of them.
Then at the photo.
Then at the empty space where answers should be.
“I think we stop reacting.”
Pamela frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Lenora set the photo down.
“We stop chasing messages.”
Her voice steadied.
“And we start chasing the person sending them.”
Silence.
Then the hockey boy nodded.
“Finally.”
Lilibeth raised a hand.
“I just want to say I did not sign up for detective season but I am weirdly invested.”
Kylen sighed.
“I hate that I agree.”
Pamela looked between them.
“If we do this, it won’t stay small.”
Lenora met her eyes.
“It was never small.”
A beat.
Then Pamela nodded.
“Then we trace it properly.”
The hockey boy looked at Lenora.
“You ready for that?”
She took a breath.
Then nodded.
“Yeah.”
Because whatever game had been playing behind them
was finally stepping into the light.
And this time—
they weren’t just pieces on the board anymore.
They were moving back.