Chapter 45 Before I Knew You
The photo trembled slightly in my hand, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the cold air in the room or from something inside me unraveling.
I stared at it again, slower this time, like maybe I had seen it wrong the first time.
But I hadn’t.
It was me. Younger. Smiling in a way that felt unfamiliar now, like that version of me belonged to someone else entirely.
And beside me…
Kylen.
Younger too, but unmistakably him. The same eyes. The same presence. Just softer. Less guarded.
My chest tightened in a way I couldn’t explain.
“You were there,” I said again, quieter this time.
Kylen didn’t answer immediately. He stood a few steps away, his hands clenched at his sides, his gaze fixed on the floor like he couldn’t bring himself to look at me.
That silence said more than anything else could have.
Adrian shifted slightly behind me. I could feel his attention sharpen, feel the way the entire situation just became something else entirely in his mind.
“This wasn’t random,” Adrian said, his voice calm but edged. “You two were here together.”
I turned fully to Kylen now, the photo still in my hand. “How?”
One word. That was all I needed.
But it carried everything.
How was he part of a place I didn’t even remember?
How did he know something about my past that I didn’t?
How long had this been going on?
Kylen finally looked up at me, and the expression in his eyes… it wasn’t just guilt anymore.
It was regret.
“I didn’t think you’d find that,” he said quietly.
Something inside me snapped at that.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” I asked, my voice rising. “Not the fact that you’re in a part of my life I don’t even remember?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
He ran a hand through his hair, pacing once like he was trying to find the right words, like he was fighting himself.
And I was so tired of that.
“Stop thinking,” I said sharply. “Just tell me.”
Adrian didn’t interrupt. He didn’t move. But I knew he was listening to every word, taking everything in.
Kylen exhaled slowly, then finally spoke.
“We were here at the same time.”
My heart dropped.
“That’s obvious,” I said. “I can see that. What I want to know is why.”
His jaw tightened.
“Because we were both placed here.”
The words hit like a shockwave.
For a second, I couldn’t even process them.
“We?” I repeated.
Kylen nodded once, barely.
“You were here longer than I was,” he said. “But… yeah. I was here too.”
My grip tightened on the photo.
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would you be here?”
He didn’t answer that.
Instead, he looked at the file in my other hand, then back at me.
“This place wasn’t what you think it was,” he said.
I let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “I don’t think anything right now. That’s the problem.”
Adrian stepped forward slightly, his voice cutting in with quiet precision. “Then explain it to her.”
Kylen’s eyes flicked to him, irritation flashing for a second. “You don’t get to push this.”
“And you don’t get to keep lying by omission,” Adrian shot back.
The tension snapped again, sharp and immediate.
“Enough,” I said, my voice firm. “This isn’t about either of you.”
They both went quiet.
Good.
I stepped closer to Kylen, closing the distance he kept trying to create.
“If you were here too,” I said slowly, “then that means you’ve known about this place the entire time.”
He didn’t deny it.
“And you recognized me,” I added.
A pause.
Then, quietly…
“Yes.”
The word felt like it knocked the air out of me.
“You knew who I was before all of this?” I asked.
His silence stretched just long enough to hurt.
“Yeah.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“So everything… everything that happened between us…” My voice faltered for a second before I forced it steady again. “You already knew me?”
“It wasn’t like that,” he said quickly.
“It feels exactly like that,” I shot back. “It feels like I’ve been the only one in the dark this entire time.”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“Intentions don’t change what you did,” I said.
The room felt smaller again, the air heavier, like it was pressing down on all of us.
Adrian watched quietly, but I could feel his attention shift toward me now, not just the situation. Like he was trying to read how much of this I could take.
I didn’t feel strong.
I felt exposed.
Like pieces of my life were being handed back to me out of order, and none of them made sense.
“What was this place?” I asked again, softer this time.
Kylen hesitated.
Then, carefully, like every word mattered…
“It was a facility.”
I waited.
“For what?”
His gaze held mine this time, steady but conflicted.
“For people like us.”
My heart skipped.
“People like us?”
He nodded slightly.
“People they were watching.”
The same word Adrian had used earlier.
Watching.
A chill ran through me.
“Why?” I asked.
That was the question.
The real one.
The one everything seemed to circle around.
Kylen opened his mouth.
For a second, I thought he was going to say it.
Really say it.
But then his expression changed.
Sharp. Alert.
He turned his head toward the hallway.
Adrian noticed it too.
“What?” I asked.
Neither of them answered immediately.
Then we heard it.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Coming from somewhere deeper in the building.
My stomach dropped.
“We’re not alone,” Adrian said quietly.
Kylen’s entire posture shifted again, protective, tense, ready.
“Stay behind me,” he said.
I didn’t argue this time.
Because something about that sound…
It didn’t feel like coincidence.
It felt like we had just walked into something we weren’t supposed to find.
Or worse…
Something that had been waiting for us.
I tightened my grip on the photo, my pulse racing again.
The truth was right there.
I could feel it.
So close.
But something kept pulling it away at the last second.
And now…
We weren’t just looking for answers anymore.
We were being watched.