Chapter 16 The Weight of Secrets
“I need to check on the dogs first,” Kian said as he opened the passenger door of his SUV for me. “Just a quick stop. Is that okay?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. My wrist still ached, and my lungs still burned.
His flat was exactly as I remembered. The dogs greeted us at the door with excited whines and wagging tails.
Duska immediately flopped belly up at my feet, demanding attention despite the tension radiating off both of us.
“Hang tight,” Kian said, disappearing into the kitchen.
I sat on the floor with the dogs, letting Vex lick my face while Bran pressed his solid weight against my side. For just a brief, stolen moment, I could almost pretend everything was normal.
Kian returned with a bottle of water for me and bowls for the dogs. His hands were steady as he set the bowls down, but his eyes carried that haunted look I was beginning to recognize.
“Ready?”
I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway.
We drove in silence at first. The kind of heavy silence that didn’t stretch so much as settle.
I watched streetlights blur past the window, rain still clinging to the glass in golden droplets.
“How is your friend?” Kian asked.
My throat tightened. Of course, he’d ask about Amy first. Of course, he’d care even while I was falling apart.
“She’s stable,” I managed. “They’re keeping her for observation. More tests in the morning.”
He nodded, hands tightening on the wheel.
“And how are you?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “You really want to know?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.” Something in his tone, the sincere concern, made the words spill out before I could stop them.
“I’m scared, Kian,” I said, my voice barely audible over the hum of the engine. “I’m confused. I can’t sleep without dreams I don’t understand. I’m being followed, almost kidnapped, and the worst part is…” My voice cracked. “You know what’s going on, but you won’t tell me.”
He stiffened, his hands pressing harder against the wheel.
“I’m not stupid,” I continued, anger seeping in now. “You’ve been watching me, following me, maybe guiding me. But you never give me answers. I’m supposed to keep pretending that’s okay?”
Still nothing. Just the quiet tick of the blinker when he changed lanes.
“What happened back there with those men? You didn’t just fight them, Kian.
You destroyed them.” I twisted in my seat to face him fully.
“I’ve seen trained fighters. MMA, boxing, whatever.
That was something else entirely. You moved through them like—like they were nothing.
Like you’d done it a thousand times before. ”
He flinched, barely perceptible, but I caught it.
“And the shadows,” I said, quieter now, watching his face. “For a second, I could have sworn they moved with you like they were—” I stopped, because saying it out loud sounded insane.
But I’d seen it. I had.
“Are you part of Ekklesia Biotech?” The question came out trembling with fury more than fear.
His silence stretched too long, and something inside me snapped.
“Gods, Kian! People are getting sick. Amy almost died! I’m being stalked and cornered by masked psychos in the middle of the street, and the one person who actually knows something can’t even give me the dignity of the truth!”
His knuckles went white on the steering wheel. I thought he might snap it clean in two.
“You’re too smart to believe I’d hurt you,” he said.
“That’s not a no.”
He flinched, releasing a shuddering breath. He veered right, easing the car onto a dark side street about a block from my dorm. The engine idled, headlights casting dim yellow light across wet pavement.
He didn’t look at me right away. He stared out the windshield as if it might give him courage.
“When I tell you,” he said carefully, “you need to understand, it’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that it isn’t safe for you to know. Not yet.”
My chest tightened. “Safe from who?”
He exhaled. “Them. The ones watching you and me. You’re not paranoid, Melanie. You’re right to feel it.”
“Ekklesia,” I whispered.
His eyes darkened and flicked toward me. “Yes.”
The word sank like a stone in my stomach.
“You think lying to me keeps me safe?” My voice cracked on the edge of anger and exhaustion. “Because I don’t feel safe, I feel crazy. I feel like I’m losing myself piece by piece, and you—” I broke off, fists clenched in my lap. “You just keep giving me riddles.”
“I know.” His voice was soft, stripped of all pretense. “If I could tell you everything right now, I would. But the moment I give voice to certain truths, there would be no going back.”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry.
He turned then, meeting my eyes, and I almost wished he hadn’t. Because what I saw there was devastating grief.
“I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “Soon. I promise. But only when I know we’re safe, when I’m sure no one’s listening.”
I shook my head, tears burning hot behind my eyes. “Why do I feel like you’re already too late?”
He held my gaze, and his expression shifted with hope and fear.
“Because,” he said, “you’re finally starting to remember.”
The words hollowed me out.
“Remember what?” My voice came out thin, desperate.
But he just sighed. “Soon. I promise.”
He looked like he wanted to reach for me, to take my hand or pull me close and make promises he couldn’t keep. His fingers twitched on the console between us, then curled into a fist.
The restraint hurt worse than rejection.
I turned back toward the window, unsure of what I even wanted anymore. Answers, comfort, or something far more dangerous.
He pulled back onto the road, rounding the corner toward my dorm. The familiar campus buildings came into view, softened by rain streaking across the windshield. The headlights swept across a figure on the sidewalk, holding a bright green umbrella.
My stomach plummeted.
“Shit,” I whispered, sitting up straighter. “I completely forgot.”
Candace, standing rigid beneath her umbrella, her mouth already pressed into a hard line. She was glaring at the car like it had personally offended her.
As we slowed, her voice cut through the drizzle. “Melanie? Melanie!”
I winced, fingers curling into the hem of my sleeve. Kian’s hands tightened on the wheel, and I could see his discomfort in the stiffness in his shoulders and the way his eyes flicked toward mine.
“She doesn’t look thrilled,” he muttered.
“You think?” I shot back under my breath, heat creeping up my neck.
Then she was at the car, rapping on the window like she was ready to drag me out.
“You’re being summoned,” Kian said, trying for levity, but the tension strangled it.
I shot him a look, somewhere between a wince and a glare. “Wish me luck.”
I opened the door, and Candace was on me immediately, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward her. She slammed the car door shut so hard I flinched.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, her voice trembling but furious.
I yanked my arm from her grip. “Mom, stop! I’m fine.”
“Fine?” Her voice cracked. “Our call dropped, and I couldn’t reach you again. I’ve been standing here in the rain, wondering if you were dead in a ditch somewhere. And then you pull up in his car—” She gestured at Kian’s retreating taillights. “—like that’s somehow normal?”
“It’s not what you think. He offered me a ride—”
“Do you even hear yourself? Do you know what you sound like? You sound like every girl who’s ever said, ‘but he’s different’ right before she gets hurt.”
I clenched my fists at my sides. “He’s not trying to hurt me. He’s my professor.”
“You don’t know anything, Melanie!” Her voice rose, harsh enough to make a couple of students under a nearby awning glance our way. “You’ve known him for what, three weeks? And suddenly he’s picking you up at night, and you’re just… what? Playing along?”
“He saved my life!”
She froze. “What?”
“After our call dropped, I started walking home,” I explained.
“But I was being followed by a group of men. They cornered me in an alley. They—” My voice caught, a wave of nausea washing over me at the memory.
“—they wanted to take me to their boss, or something. Kian, Professor Ward, happened to be driving by and saw the whole thing. He got me out of there.”
All the blood drained from my mother’s face.
“Oh, my God, Melanie!” She exclaimed, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice. “Are you serious? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Her hands trembled as they moved over my arms, my shoulders, checking for injuries. “Who were they? Did you see their faces?”
“No, they wore hoods,” I said. “But they knew my name. They were waiting for me.”
“Ekklesia,” Candace whispered, her entire frame shaking. “It has to be. God, they’re escalating.”
She began to pace, talking more to herself than to me. “Okay. Okay. This is happening. This is real. They’re targeting you like they targeted Reenie.”
My chest constricted. “What?”
Candace’s voice turned raw. “You think I’m being controlling? Paranoid? I watched my sister disappear into something she couldn’t control. I watched her chase stories that made her scared, made her think people were following her, and I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t save her.”
“That’s… Mom—”
She grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at her.
“She started seeing patterns everywhere. Connections that didn’t make sense.
She stopped sleeping and eating. Started saying people were trying to silence her.
” Her voice cracked. “And I thought she was having a breakdown. I thought she was just… stressed and overworked. I didn’t take her seriously until it was too late. ”
“Mom—”
“She died thinking I didn’t believe her,” Candace whispered.
“She died alone and scared, and I wasn’t there because I thought she was being paranoid and crazy.
” She released me, stepping back. “So, forgive me if I see my daughter exhibiting the same symptoms and I learn that men in hoods are hunting you in the street, that I lose my god-damn mind trying to keep you safe.”
The words hung between us, sharp as broken glass.