Chapter 78 Pressure Doesn’t Wait
The house didn’t calm down after that.
No one slammed doors. No one stormed off. It was worse than that. Everyone stayed, just quieter, like the argument hadn’t ended, it had only shifted into something colder.
Lenora didn’t stay in the dining area. She walked out before anyone could try to control the conversation again.
Upstairs, her room felt smaller than usual.
Not suffocating.
Just… crowded with everything she now knew and everything they still refused to say properly.
Her phone buzzed.
Kylen.
You good?
She stared at it for a second, then typed back.
Come outside.
She didn’t wait for a reply.
She grabbed her jacket and stepped out through the back door.
The night air felt different. Cooler. Quiet in a way the house wasn’t.
Kylen was already there by the time she reached the gate.
Leaning against it like he’d been thinking too much.
“You move fast,” she said.
“You sound like something’s off,” he replied.
She stopped in front of him.
“Everything’s off,” she said.
He nodded slightly. “Yeah. I figured.”
Lenora leaned against the gate beside him.
“They know more than they’re saying,” she continued. “Not just about the file. About today too.”
Kylen looked at her. “The lab?”
She nodded.
“What did they say?” he asked.
“Nothing direct,” she replied. “But they reacted.”
He let that sit.
“That means it’s connected,” he said.
Lenora didn’t argue.
Footsteps approached from behind.
Lilibeth.
Of course.
She didn’t greet either of them.
Just stepped out and leaned against the opposite side of the gate.
“You always meet like this now?” she asked.
Kylen didn’t respond.
Lenora didn’t either.
Lilibeth exhaled softly. “My mom’s already on calls,” she said. “Not casual ones.”
Lenora looked at her. “About Pamela?”
Lilibeth shook her head slightly. “About exposure.”
That word again.
Kylen straightened a bit. “So they’re not even hiding it anymore.”
“They never were,” Lilibeth replied. “They just expected us not to notice.”
Lenora looked between them.
“They knew something would happen,” she said.
Lilibeth nodded once. “Or they knew something could.”
Silence.
Kylen spoke again. “We need to stop reacting and actually move ahead of this.”
Lilibeth looked at him. “And how exactly do you do that?”
He glanced at Lenora. “We go back to the source.”
Lenora already knew what he meant.
“The archive,” she said.
Lilibeth shook her head immediately. “No. Not like last time.”
Kylen didn’t argue that part. “Not like last time. But we’re not waiting for them to shut everything down either.”
Lenora pushed off the gate.
“They’re already trying,” she said. “The printing, the lab, the way everything is being handled.”
Lilibeth looked at her carefully.
“You think they’re covering something up right now,” she said.
Lenora met her gaze. “I think something already slipped.”
That line held.
Kylen ran a hand through his hair. “Then we stop chasing the file itself.”
Both girls looked at him.
“What do you mean?” Lenora asked.
He held her gaze.
“We look at what it affects now,” he said. “People. Access. Movement.”
Lilibeth tilted her head slightly. “That’s broader.”
“It’s real-time,” he replied.
Lenora considered it.
It made sense.
Too much focus on one document when everything around it was already shifting.
Lilibeth spoke again.
“Pamela said she didn’t take anything,” she said. “But she signed into the lab.”
Kylen nodded. “So either she’s lying, or someone made sure she’d say that.”
Lenora added, “Or she didn’t get what she went in for.”
That possibility landed differently.
Lilibeth straightened slightly. “So whatever she was looking for… might still be there.”
Kylen looked between them. “And now it’s locked down.”
Lenora shook her head slightly.
“Not completely,” she said.
They both looked at her.
“The archive wasn’t fully locked,” she continued. “The lab wasn’t fully secured before this happened. They’re reacting, not controlling.”
Lilibeth’s gaze sharpened. “So there’s a gap.”
Lenora nodded once. “Yes.”
Silence settled for a moment.
Not empty.
Focused.
Kylen spoke first.
“Then we find that gap before they close it.”
Lilibeth didn’t argue this time.
She just looked at Lenora.
“You’re serious about this,” she said.
Lenora didn’t hesitate.
“Yes.”
That was enough.
From inside the house, voices started rising again.
Not as loud as before.
But not calm either.
Lilibeth glanced back briefly.
“They’re not done,” she said.
Lenora didn’t turn.
“They won’t be,” she replied.
Kylen stepped away from the gate.
“Then neither are we,” he said.
No one disagreed.
Because now it wasn’t just about finding something hidden.
It was about catching something that was already moving.
And this time…
They weren’t going in blind.