--: Author's POV: --
The guest suite of the Watson Mansion had become a fortress of living muscle. The luxury of the room was forgotten, eclipsed by the raw, jagged intensity of the men guarding the bed.
They weren't just in the room; they were physically anchoring her to the present. Keifer sat against the headboard, Jay Jay pulled so tightly into his lap that there wasn't a breath of air between them.
Thyme sat right on the mattress on her left, his hip pressed against hers, his hand locked onto her wrist as if he were an anchor.
Ren sat on the other side of the mattress near her feet, his hand resting firmly on her ankle to keep her grounded.
Kavin and MJ were perched on the very edge of the bed, leaning in so close their shoulders touched Keifer's.
Angelo was looming over them, leaning forward from the head of the bed, his hand resting heavily on Jay Jay's shoulder.
Aries and Percy were crouched right at the bedside, their arms resting on the mattress.
Just behind them stood the rest of Section E, forming a secondary wall. Keiran and Keigan stood directly behind Angelo—their faces pale, their presence a silent, stubborn shadow.
Angelo looked around the crowded room, his eyes hard. The air was too thin, the room overflowing with volatile energy.
"Everyone, out," Angelo commanded, his voice vibrating with a quiet, lethal authority. "Section E, go to the common wing. Except for Aries and Percy—they stay. The rest of you, go."
Then Keifer's gaze landed on his younger brothers. "Keiran, Keigan. You too. Downstairs. Now. Go rest we'll take care of this."
There was an immediate ripple of hesitation. The boys of Section E didn't move, and her brothers looked ready to argue.
Yuri stepped forward then, He looked at Jay Jay's pale face with a grim expression. "Come on," Yuri said, his voice low and steady. "Angelo is right. It's better if we go out now. If she wakes up and sees all of us looming over her, she'll panic. Let's give them space. They'll tell us when she is willing to talk or if she's okay once she's stable."
David sighed, nodding reluctantly. "He's right," David added, looking at the rest of the squad. "If we stay like this, we're just suffocating her. Let's go guard the perimeter. We'll be ready the moment she needs us."
Slowly, the doorway cleared. Keiran and Keigan took one last, lingering look at their sister before following Yuri, David, and the rest of Section E out, leaving only: Keifer, Angelo, the F4, Aries, and Percy.
--: Keifer's POV: --
The room fell into a heavy, weighted silence once the others left. For a long time, no one spoke. We just watched her. I could feel Jay Jay slowly beginning to drift again; the sheer, bone-deep fatigue of the night was finally pulling her under. Her breathing slowed, and her eyes fluttered shut, but her grip never wavered. She was still death-gripped onto the front of my shirt, her knuckles white, as if she were terrified that the moment she let go, the darkness would take her back.
I waited until I was sure she was submerged in a shallow sleep before I dared to speak. I looked at Kavin, whose face was just inches from mine. My voice was a low, jagged whisper.
"The story didn't end before the scream, did it? I saw the look in your eyes earlier. What else did that monster do to her?"
The air in the room seemed to vanish. Thyme's grip on Jay Jay's wrist tightened, and I felt Angelo's hand on her shoulder turn into a white-knuckled claw.
--: Author's POV: --
Kavin leaned in, his voice a low murmur that seemed to vibrate through the mattress. "Her stepfather... he was a man hollowed out by debt. He didn't see a daughter; he saw a way out. The night we found her... it wasn't just about the locked rooms."
Kavin's voice hitched. "He had sold everything. And when the collectors came for his life, he brought a man to that house – a monster who saw a child as a transaction. He tried to... he tried to rape her."
The words hit the room like a physical explosion. Angelo let out a choked, guttural sound, his head dropping as he shook with a murderous grief.
Keifer buried his face in Jay Jay's hair, his eyes stinging. "Did he...?"
"No," Thyme rasped, his voice sounding like it was being dragged over broken glass. "We broke down that door seconds before. I had my gun to his head. I was young, and I wanted to see his brains on the wall. I had my finger on the trigger. But the police and my mother's security team swarmed the villa. They dragged me off him. In the chaos of the fire that broke out, he vanished. We couldn't find him. He just... disappeared into the smoke."
Thyme's eyes darkened, fixed on Jay Jay. "We spent years looking for him, Keifer. We tore apart every lead in Thailand, but he was gone. But recently, we got information. Reliable intelligence that he's here, in the Philippines. We've been trying to locate his exact position, but he's like a ghost. He knows how to hide. That's why we're here – to take her back to Thailand for a while, where we can protect her better while we hunt him down."
As the weight of the story settled, Keifer tried to shift Jay Jay so she could sleep on the bed properly. He moved to lay her down on the pillows, intending to stay by her side, but the moment he tried to create a few inches of space, her fingers clenched even tighter into the fabric of his shirt. Even in her sleep, she wouldn't let him go. He didn't want to leave her, and it was clear she didn't want to leave him either.
Angelo watched the exchange, seeing the desperation in his sister's grip. He didn't want her staying in this guest suite—a place that might trigger a memory of being a prisoner in an unfamiliar room.
"Take her to your room, Keifer," Angelo said softly. "If she wakes up again in this guest suite, the memory of being trapped might come back to her. She needs a place that feels like yours. A place that smells like safety."
--: Keifer's POV: --
I nodded silently, lifting her with all the care in the world. She didn't wake, but she anchored her fingers deeper into my shirt as I carried her down the hall to my master suite. The F4 and Angelo watched us with silent, heavy gazes before they finally retreated to their own rooms.
I laid her down on my bed, the sheets crisp and smelling of my cologne. As I lay down beside her, she immediately curled into my side. I looked at her pale face in the moonlight, my mind reeling.
"How did you do it, Jay?" I thought. "How did you carry all this? You forgot it... you buried the monster to survive. But you're still so afraid." I thought about the battle tonight, the way she led Section E, and the sheer strength it took to be the girl I knew while this horror was hidden inside her. I was exhausted—from the fight, from the fear, and from the crushing truth we had just uncovered. With my arm wrapped protectively around her, I finally drifted into sleep.