"Looking for this?"
Ethan's father stood beneath the trees.
Calm.
Composed.
Holding a thick brown folder.
The kind of calm that only made him more frightening.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The wind rustled through the leaves above us.
Then Ethan stepped forward.
"Dad?"
The older man looked at him.
For a moment his expression softened.
Only for a moment.
Then it vanished.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Lucas laughed.
A sharp, bitter laugh.
"Twenty years."
His voice trembled.
"Twenty years and that's the first thing you say?"
Ethan's father turned toward him.
"I hoped you would stay gone."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
The words hit harder than any confession could have.
Even Ethan looked stunned.
Lucas nodded slowly.
"As I thought."
My stomach twisted.
Because suddenly...
This wasn't a misunderstanding.
This wasn't confusion.
These two men knew exactly who each other were.
And exactly what had happened.
"Give me the folder," Lucas said.
"No."
"Those documents belong to the truth."
"They belong buried."
The answer came instantly.
Without hesitation.
Without guilt.
And somehow that scared me more than anything.
Then Ethan finally spoke.
"What happened that night?"
His father looked at him.
Really looked at him.
As though deciding whether to lie.
Or finally tell the truth.
Then he sighed.
The sigh of a man carrying a secret for too long.
"The death was real."
The world stopped.
I felt my knees weaken.
Vanessa grabbed my arm.
A death.
Not a rumor.
Not an accident.
A real death.
Lucas closed his eyes.
As though hearing it out loud still hurts.
"Who died?" I whispered.
Nobody answered.
Until Ethan's father finally spoke.
"A journalist."
The air left my lungs.
"A journalist investigating corruption."
Vanessa looked horrified.
Lucas nodded.
And suddenly pieces started falling into place.
The secret meetings.
The hidden deals.
The arguments.
The fear.
The cover-up.
Everything.
"He discovered something," Lucas said.
"Something powerful people wanted hidden."
Ethan looked sick.
"Are you saying someone killed him?"
His father remained silent.
That was enough to answer.
Then Lucas pointed at the folder.
"The proof is inside."
Again, silence.
Then Ethan's father did something unexpected.
He handed the folder to Ethan.
Just like that.
No fight.
No argument.
No resistance.
Everyone stared.
Including Ethan.
"What are you doing?" Lucas asked.
The older man looked tired.
Older than before.
Much older.
"Running."
The word barely escaped his lips.
Before anyone could react—
A gunshot echoed through the forest.
BANG.
Birds exploded from the trees.
I screamed.
Vanessa ducked.
Ethan spun around.
Lucas froze.
For one terrifying second nobody understood what had happened.
Then Ethan's father looked down.
At the red stain spreading across his shirt.
My blood turned to ice.
Someone had shot him.
From the woods.
From somewhere we couldn't see.
His eyes widened.
The folder slipped from Ethan's hands.
And as he collapsed to the ground...
He grabbed Ethan's wrist.
Pulled him close.
And whispered four words.
Four words that changed everything.
"It wasn't me, son."
Then his eyes closed.

Who fired the shot?
A. The real killer
B. Someone protecting a secret
C. A member of Vanessa's family
D. Someone we've already met