"Xaviers-" the word came out through a strangled vocal cord as Mom dropped to the sofa.

Tears willing to flood froze in her eyes from the petrifying effect.

"Lucas he did not-" she struggled to utter the words.

"He did it-" Mr. Amberson said in a downhearted voice, empathy prevailing in his face.

"He was working with Joseph."

"Amy-" Jonas called in a broken tone.

It's cruel that a heart still keeps on beating even after it has been stabbed by a knife. The pain is just too much. My heart twinged to hear that the recording was fraud. It couldn't be real because Uncle Josh had asked Kelvin at the end about attacking me, but Kelvin never attacked-

Or wait, did he-?

I knew who could answer my question. I groped for my phone in my bag and instantaneously called Sierra.

"Amy sissy!" she spoke first after picking up the call.

I didn't know how to talk to her after what her father did. She probably didn't even have a clue about it.

"Sierra, will you help me?" I asked away directly.

"Me? How can I help?" she sounded shocked, at the same time worried.

"Just answer a question I'm going to ask, please."

"Yea, sure..."

"The night you were attacked in my room"- I paused for her to recall it –"did you see anything about the man who attacked you?"

"Not entirely," she replied after a minute of thought. "I did see a bit though, but I didn't tell anyone because mom-"

"What did you see?" I asked instantly, not bothering to hear about Aunt Lucy's over caring part.

"A tattoo on his wrist," she answered.

Little did she know that those few words plunged the knife deeper into my heart.

Everything ended with that. There was no way I could find another excuse to convince my treacherous heart.

Yet, I dared to ask, "What-tattoo?"

I think I knew the answer, but I just yearned for the slightest chance, the slightest chance that she would say something else.

"Something like flames," she answered. "I couldn't make it out properly since it was partly hidden by his sleeves."

I dropped the phone from my hand. A loud thud echoed as it hit the solid marble floor.

I wish I could describe how it feels when your heart rips apart into two in just a split second, but unfortunately, it's impossible. Some things just can't be expressed in words; you just know it when you feel it.

"Amy!" Jonas cried out. "Are you alright?"

How could I be?

"He"-I choked at the words-"tried to..."

I loved him so much. He was the first person I loved like this, without any bounds. I had loved the man who...

Did he ever love me? He never said he did. And this clearly proved that he didn't.

Jonas supported me by the arms, trying to calm me down. Mr. Amberson and mom were talking in hushed voices on the other side of the room. I could see mom weeping.

I couldn't relate to how all those fitted, or more like, I didn't want to. How could Kelvin be involved in this when he himself gave me Pappa's autopsy report-?

Wait, he didn't give it to me. He had just shown it; he took the autopsy report with him while leaving. Maybe he had never intended to give it to me in the place.

So Kelvin had just taken up this case to help Uncle Josh. It was their plan from the very beginning. Very coincidentally indeed, I ended up taking shelter in the house of the same person who had plotted all these. Now I could understand how Uncle Josh managed to carry it out so perfectly even under two detectives' noses. That's why I always used to wonder how come senior detective Kelvin Xaviers, the man who never missed to solve a single case, gave up on this one so easily. Because he was behind it himself. He didn't take up the case to find the culprit, he took it to hide the culprit, which he carried out really smoothly. Indeed, who else could have played such a smart game but Kelvin's clever brain?

I just hated him now. Hated him with all the broken fragments of my heart.

Did Jonas know about it from the start too then? Had he also been betraying me all this while?

"June," I muttered. "You had joined the case with Kelvin, right? So did you also-"

"I didn't have a clue about it, trust me," he clarified.

"All I knew was that we took up the case to investigate whether the deaths were murders, and to find out the culprit if it was one. I never imagined in my dream that..."

I trusted him.

"You have the bike tracker with you, right?" I inquired.

He nodded.

"Can you please track where Kelvin is, right now?"

Jonas hurried to the lawn to get the tracker from the car and returned in a jiffy.

He turned on the tracker and read aloud, "Xav Bro's at the bur-"

"No-" he stopped.

His eyes widened as he revealed, "He's at Valdez office building."

That was the last thing in the world I wanted to hear.

Everything was a lie. Every single thing. He had gone to meet Uncle Josh.

"June, let's go," I said sharply, putting the tape inside my bag.

"But where?"

"Valdez office building."

I needed to end this today.

I was already on my way towards the door when mom called back.

"Amy! Where are you going?"

"Just outside- nearby," I lied.

I knew she wouldn't let me go if she got to know where I was venturing out to.

"Mr. Amberson," I called him for the first time ever.

"Will you please complete Uncle Nick's work and send the evidence to the court?"

The tape was still with me.

Not that I didn't intend on presenting it to the court, it's just that I wanted to get an explanation out of Kelvin first. Then I would hand him over to the law myself if circumstances call for it.

"You can call me dad, you know," Mr. Amberson said in a soft voice to my surprise.

"And yes, I'll do that today," he added.

"Thank you," I muttered, preparing to turn around.

For some reason, I looked back at him as I added a whisper, "Maybe someday."

I wasn't prepared to call him dad yet.

"Jonas, stay with Amyra," Mom enjoined. "And don't go too far. It might rain soon."

Only if she knew where we were going.

"Yea, I will," Jonas responded.

A brisk icy squall stung my delicate skin on our way towards the car. My ears were deafened temporarily by the roar of the gale.

I stared vaguely at Kelvin's jacket on the back seat as Jonas started the car. Was there anything left now except this jacket?

Maybe there was.

Why didn't I think of this before- Kelvin's letter.

I fumbled for the letter in my pocket. There it was.

I held the parchment in front of my eyes. Maybe it was a last single hope?

Open it only when I'm not there with you anymore- that's what he had said.

If it wasn't now, then I didn't know when.

"What's that Amy?" Jonas inquired.

"A final letter from Kelvin," I replied. "He gave it to me this morning."

After a short silence, Jonas whispered, "You never know what's written inside it. Open it."

I unfolded the parchment inches per second, anticipating every second what it might end up revealing. I really didn't know what I had expected it to be, but regardless of whatever I expected, it wasn't surely this.

It was just a blank piece of parchment.

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