The search for Jay's past was hitting brick walls at every turn.
Every lead Keifer and Sophia followed seemed to evaporate into thin air, as if a powerful hand had reached back in time to erase Jay's history.
But while the truth remained hidden outside, the internal walls of the Watson manor were crumbling in ways no one—especially Keifer—could have predicted.
The most shocking transformation was Mr. Watson.
The man was a fortress of ice and iron, yet Jay's quiet, tireless devotion during his illness had done the impossible. It hadn't just softened him; it had humbled him.
The moment that changed everything happened on a Tuesday evening. The family was gathered in the grand hall as Jay was rushing to manage three things at once.
She was holding a stack of business documents for Cheska, a specific herbal tea for his mother, and trying to answer a ringing house phone.
In her haste, she slipped on the polished marble. To save the tea and the files, she performed a clumsy, frantic dance—hoisting the tray onto her head like a street performer while pinning the files to the wall with her elbow, all while letting out a startled, "Whoops-a-daisy!"
The sight was ridiculous. The "perfect, ghostly" Jay looked like a circus act gone wrong.
A sound erupted from the head of the stairs that stopped everyone in their tracks. It wasn't a cough or a groan.
Mr. Watson laughed.
It wasn't a polite chuckle; it was a genuine, booming belly laugh that echoed through the high ceilings.
He gripped the banister, his face turning red as he watched Jay struggle to regain her dignity.
"Jay!" he managed to choke out between laughs. "I have hired world-class security, but I think I should have hired a juggler! You look like a baby giraffe on ice!"
The entire room froze. A maid dropped a polishing cloth in shock.
Sophia's jaw literally dropped, and Keifer stood paralyzed with a glass of water halfway to his lips.
His father hadn't laughed like thus ever.
Jay blinked, her face flushing a deep red.
But then, seeing the genuine joy in the old man's eyes, a tiny, hesitant smile finally ghosted across her own lips.
For a brief second, the exhaustion vanished, replaced by a spark of the "sunshine" she used to be.
As Jay hurried toward the kitchen to hide her embarrassment, an old butler who had served the Watsons for thirty years approached Keifer and his mother.
He had tears in his eyes as he looked at them.
"Master Keifer, Ma'am," the old man whispered, his voice trembling with emotion.
"I had to say it. Watching the Master laugh like that... it's a miracle. You really did find a sunshine for this house. She's the light we didn't know we were missing."
Keifer looked at the doorway where Jay had disappeared. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand.
The old man was right—she was their light.
But as he remembered her broken, hollow screams at the cemetery, he realized with a pang of agony that while she was lighting up their world, her own was still burning to ashes.
_________________________
"Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Keifer hissed, his voice low as he ducked behind a row of overgrown hedges.
"Because we were looking for a high-profile mystery," Sophia whispered back, her eyes fixed on the crumbling, two-story house.
"We forgot that nightmares usually start at home."
They waited until the rusted gate groaned shut and the heavy, uneven footsteps of Jay's stepfather faded down the street.
The man looked like a shadow of a person, smelling of rot even from a distance. As soon as he was gone, Keifer didn't hesitate.
He broke the lock on the back door with a sharp, practiced kick.
The air inside was thick—not just with dust, but with the suffocating stench of stale alcohol and neglect. Empty bottles littered the floor like landmines.
"God, Keifer," Sophia gagged, covering her nose. "She lived here? She came from this to our house every day and acted like everything was fine?"
"She wasn't living, Soph," Keifer said, his jaw tight as he looked at the grime on the walls. "She was surviving."
They climbed the creaking stairs, avoiding the soft spots in the wood, until they reached a small door at the end of the hall.
It had a heavy bolt on the outside. Keifer's blood boiled as he slid it back.
The room was tiny. A thin mattress, a single window with bars, and a chilling silence.
It was a cell, not a bedroom.
"Look everywhere," Keifer commanded.
They tore the room apart quietly. It was Sophia who found it. She was on her knees, reaching into the deep, dark gap under the bed frame. "Keifer! There's something here."
She pulled out a wooden box, covered in a thick layer of grey dust. Her hands shook as she set it on the mattress.
Keifer sat beside her, his heart hammering against his ribs. He slowly lifted the lid.
The first thing they saw was a photograph. A woman with the same gentle eyes as Jay was laughing, holding a toddler in her arms.
On the back, in elegant, fading ink, it read: My sunshine, Jay. Love, Mom.
"She looks so happy there," Sophia whispered, a tear hitting the photo.
Beneath that was a stack of colorful, handmade cards.
Sophia gasped, pulling one out. It was a birthday card, drawn with glitter and markers. "To my bestie Sophia—one day we'll travel the world together. Love, Jay."
"She kept them," Sophia sobbed, clutching the card to her chest.
"She kept every single one I gave her, even when she was being pushed away. She never forgot me."
Keifer reached deeper into the box. His fingers brushed against a set of polaroids. As he pulled them out, he froze.
They were pictures of him.
Not professional shots, but candid ones from their college days.
Him laughing with his friends in the cafeteria. Him brooding in the library.
One was a blurry shot of him playing basketball, his hair messy with sweat.
They were taken from a distance, by someone who was hiding in the crowd, too afraid to step into the light.
"She's loved you since the beginning, Keifer," Sophia said, looking at the photos over his shoulder.
"Even back then, when she was living in this hell, you were the only thing she was looking at."
Keifer stared at his own face in the photo, his vision blurring.
He realized now that while he had been angry at her for "playing" him, she had been worshipping him from a cage, praying for a life she thought she'd never be allowed to have.
"We have to get her out," Keifer whispered, his voice dark and dangerous. "We have to end this today."
A/n :
Hey buddies, I was a bit busy today 🥱 , that's why I couldn't upload early.