Chapter 37 — The Third Name
The room was still dim.
Nova's small flashlight sat on the table, its weak yellow beam stretching across the scattered photos. Outside the mansion, the wind rustled softly through the trees. The power still hadn't come back.
No one spoke for a while.
The album lay open in the center of the group.
The photo with three children stared up at them like a quiet secret.
Ash.
Lyra.
And the unknown girl with the jade pendant.
Care sat very still beside Nova, her eyes fixed on the photograph as if she were trying to dig something out of it.
Something buried deep.
Something that refused to come back.
Ben finally broke the silence.
"Okay… wait."
He pointed at the picture.
"Who is she?"
Ash rubbed the back of her neck.
"I… don't remember clearly."
Kevin immediately frowned.
"You don't remember your own childhood friend?"
Lyra shifted uncomfortably.
"It's not like that."
"Then what is it like?" Daisy asked softly.
Ash sighed.
Her voice dropped.
"…Her name was Carolyn."
The name settled into the room.
Care's fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the album.
Carolyn.
Something about that name made her chest feel strange.
Like a distant echo.
But she said nothing.
Joong leaned forward.
"Carolyn… what?"
Ash shook her head.
"I don't remember her surname."
Lyra nodded slowly.
"We only knew her as Carolyn."
Alex looked at the photo again.
"She lived with you?"
Ash nodded.
"Yeah."
Lyra added quietly,
"We all grew up in the same neighborhood."
Kevin tilted his head.
"So the three of you were childhood friends?"
Ash gave a faint smile.
"For years."
Her finger touched the photo.
"That girl…"
Her voice softened.
"She was always the smartest among us."
Lyra smiled faintly too.
"And the bravest."
Ash chuckled slightly.
"She used to come up with the craziest ideas."
Ben leaned closer.
"Like what?"
Lyra laughed softly.
"Building a treehouse."
"Starting a science club when we were nine."
"Entering competitions way above our age."
Joong raised his eyebrows.
"She sounds intense."
"She was," Ash admitted.
"But she was also…"
Lyra hesitated.
"…lonely."
The group quieted.
Nova frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
Ash stared at the photo.
Her voice lowered.
"Her family was complicated."
Lyra nodded.
"There were always fights in her house."
Daisy whispered,
"That must have been hard for her."
Ash looked down.
"It was."
"She used to come to our house almost every day."
"Sometimes she would stay for hours."
"She hated going back home."
Care listened silently.
Her chest felt heavier with every word.
Ben asked slowly,
"So what happened to her?"
The question hung in the air.
Ash and Lyra exchanged a look.
One filled with guilt.
Lyra spoke first.
"…Her family left."
Kevin blinked.
"Left?"
"They moved away suddenly," Ash said.
"No warning."
"No goodbye."
Alex frowned.
"And you didn't keep contact?"
Lyra shook her head.
"We were kids."
"We didn't even know where they went."
Joong asked,
"You tried to find her?"
Ash's shoulders stiffened.
The silence that followed answered the question.
Kevin frowned.
"Wait."
"You didn't?"
Ash looked down.
"We tried… for a while."
Lyra's voice was softer.
"But our parents told us to stop."
Ben looked confused.
"Why?"
Lyra sighed.
"They said her family had too many problems."
"And that it was better to stay away."
Nova crossed her arms.
"So you listened?"
Ash nodded slowly.
"We were twelve."
"What were we supposed to do?"
Kevin exhaled sharply.
"Not abandon your friend?"
The words came out harsher than intended.
Ash flinched.
Lyra looked away.
Daisy gently nudged Kevin.
"Kevin…"
But the tension had already filled the room.
Joong spoke carefully.
"She must have been alone."
Ash swallowed.
"…Yeah."
Ben asked quietly,
"What happened to her after that?"
Lyra shook her head slowly.
"We never found out."
Silence fell again.
The flashlight flickered slightly.
Care hadn't moved.
Her eyes remained fixed on the picture.
Carolyn.
That name kept echoing inside her mind.
Like a memory trying to surface.
But it never did.
Nova watched her carefully.
Something about Care's expression worried her.
Meanwhile Alex spoke again.
"So let me understand this."
"You had a best friend."
"She disappeared."
"And none of you ever saw her again?"
Ash nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Daisy whispered,
"That's really sad."
Joong sighed.
"She must have thought you guys forgot her."
Ash's jaw tightened.
"We didn't forget her."
Kevin muttered,
"But you stopped looking."
Ash suddenly snapped.
"What do you want from us?"
"We were kids!"
The room went quiet again.
Lyra placed a hand on Ash's arm.
"It's okay."
Ash rubbed her eyes.
"I know how it sounds."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"But things were complicated back then."
Ben spoke more gently.
"Did she at least know you cared?"
Ash stared at the photo again.
Her voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"I hope so."
Lyra looked at the picture too.
"She used to wear that pendant everywhere."
She pointed at the jade pendant around the girl's neck.
"She said it was one of a kind."
Alex frowned slightly.
"One of a kind?"
Lyra nodded.
"Her father gave it to her."
"She loved it more than anything."
Care's heartbeat skipped.
That pendant again.
Something about it made her uneasy.
But she still couldn't understand why.
Nova noticed her staring.
"You okay?"
Care nodded slowly.
"…Yeah."
But her voice sounded distant.
Meanwhile Kevin leaned back.
"So basically…"
"You guys had a third best friend."
"And then she disappeared from your life."
Ash closed the album slowly.
"…Yeah."
Lyra whispered quietly,
"And we never saw her again."
No one laughed now.
The room felt heavy.
Nova glanced at Care again.
Care still looked strangely quiet.
Too quiet.
Something about that worried Nova deeply.
But no one noticed the biggest truth sitting right there among them.
No one realized that the girl they were talking about…
Was sitting in the room.
Listening to her own story.
Because no one knew one simple thing yet.
Care's full name…
Was Carolyn Patel.