Chapter 69 The Signature Problem
The walk back from the rink didn’t feel normal for any of them. Not because of anything dramatic happening on the road, but because nobody was fully talking anymore.
Kylen broke off first when they reached the junction near the school gate.
“I have training later,” he said. “Coach is already irritated.”
He looked at Lenora for a second longer than necessary.
“Don’t stay alone too long,” he added.
Then he left.
Lilibeth didn’t leave immediately. She stayed beside Lenora as they walked through the school gate.
“You’re carrying that paper like it matters more than it should,” she said.
“It does matter,” Lenora replied.
Lilibeth glanced at her. “Or you just want it to.”
That made Lenora look at her.
“Do you always do that?” Lenora asked.
“Do what?”
“Try to reduce everything I find into something small.”
Lilibeth didn’t answer straight away.
They entered the school building. Hallways were filling up now. Normal morning noise. Lockers. Students. Teachers calling out.
It almost made everything from earlier feel disconnected.
Almost.
Lilibeth finally spoke again.
“You think your grandmother signed something dangerous,” she said.
“I think she signed something she never mentioned,” Lenora replied.
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It becomes the same thing when people start showing up because of it.”
That stopped Lilibeth for a second.
They reached Lenora’s locker.
She opened it, slipped the paper inside a folder, then shut it again.
Lilibeth leaned against the lockers beside her.
“You’re not scared of what it is,” she said.
Lenora looked at her. “What makes you think that?”
“Because you’re trying to solve it instead of avoiding it.”
That was said simply. Not criticism. Not praise. Just observation.
Before Lenora could respond, a voice came from behind them.
“You should stop discussing that in hallways.”
They both turned.
A teacher stood a few steps away. Holding papers. Watching them.
Not angry. Just alert.
Lilibeth straightened slightly. “We weren’t discussing anything important.”
The teacher looked at Lenora briefly.
Then at her locker.
Then nodded once and walked off.
That was enough to make the silence between them tighter.
Lilibeth pushed off the lockers.
“I have class,” she said.
She started walking, then paused slightly.
Without turning fully back, she added:
“Just don’t make yourself the center of every problem you find.”
Then she left.
Lenora stayed where she was for a moment longer.
Then turned to head toward her class.
Halfway down the corridor, someone stepped into her path.
Not Kylen.
Not Lilibeth.
The boy with the paper.
Again.
“You’re everywhere,” Lenora said.
“I had questions,” he replied.
“I thought you said you confirmed enough.”
“I did,” he said. “But I didn’t say I was done.”
He looked around briefly, then lowered his voice slightly.
“I checked something else,” he added.
Lenora stopped walking.
“What?”
He hesitated.
“The signature isn’t just on that one file,” he said. “It appears in other archived approvals too. Different years. Different departments.”
That landed differently.
Lenora frowned slightly. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if she wasn’t doing it alone,” he said.
That changed the angle.
Before Lenora could respond, Kylen appeared at the end of the hallway.
Hockey bag still on his shoulder.
He saw them.
Then walked over.
“What now?” he asked.
The boy didn’t move.
“I’m just finishing what I started,” he said.
Kylen looked at Lenora. Then at the boy.
“This is turning into obsession,” Kylen said.
The boy shook his head. “No. It’s turning into consistency.”
That didn’t help.
Lenora spoke finally.
“Show me,” she said.
Both of them looked at her.
Kylen frowned slightly. “Show you what?”
“If there are multiple records, I want to see them.”
The boy hesitated.
“That’s not easy access,” he said.
“I didn’t ask for easy,” Lenora replied.
Kylen shifted slightly beside her.
“This is getting too far into admin territory for normal students,” he said.
Lenora looked at him. “Then stop calling it normal.”
That ended that part of the argument.
The bell rang in the distance.
Students started moving faster through the hallway.
But none of them moved.
The boy finally nodded.
“I can show you one,” he said. “After school. Old archive room.”
Kylen immediately responded. “No.”
The boy looked at him. “You’re not part of this decision.”
Kylen didn’t back down. “She is not going into some closed archive with you alone.”
Lenora looked between them.
Then spoke.
“I’m going.”
That stopped both of them.
Kylen exhaled slowly. “Then I’m coming.”
Lenora shook her head slightly.
“No,” she said.
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because if this is as messy as it looks, I don’t need noise around it.”
That was all she said.
The boy looked between them.
Then nodded once.
“After school,” he said again.
Then walked off.
Kylen stayed where he was.
“You’re not thinking this through,” he said.
“I am,” Lenora replied.
“That’s the problem.”
She didn’t argue further.
Just walked past him toward class.
And for the first time since all of this started, it wasn’t about secrets in the background or people moving quietly.
It was direct now.
A file. A signature. A room she was about to enter.
And answers that were no longer hiding.
They were waiting.