(Jayjay's POV)
We didn't waste a second. The moment Angelo told us Victor had escaped, the air in the classroom shifted — like the whole building had taken a cold breath. No one wanted to stay sitting and waiting. Words were useless; we all moved.
Keifer's car pulled up in a mess of elbows and backpacks. Ciel, Adrian, Valerie, Ci-N, David, Felix, Yuri and a few others piled in while Angelo stayed front-and-center, eyes like flint. I rode with Keifer in the front seat, my heart thudding as if it were trying to outrun us.
By the time we reached my house, my stomach felt hollow. The living room was too quiet when we spilled inside — everyone scanning my shelves like it was suddenly someone else's house. Angelo gave me that look: serious, business-like, no room for jokes. He told me to get my Snorlax plush from my room.
My fingers trembled as I climbed the stairs. That Snorlax had been with me through everything — a present Angelo gave me when I was twelve, stuffed and patched and smell of old detergent and school fairs. Why would Angelo need it now? I wished for a second that I could keep it soft and whole forever.
I grabbed it, my fingers finding the limp seam where I'd sewed a patch years ago. Back downstairs, Angelo took it from me like he was holding evidence. "I need you to be brave, Jayjay," he said softly. "This may hurt."
" huh Brave", I tried to be. He returned to his bag, took out scissors, and the whole room inhaled. Keifer came up behind me, thumb rubbing the back of my hand like the anchor he always is.
Angelo cut the seam carefully. The stuffing tumbled out, white and fluffed and smelling of cotton and memory. For a moment — absurdly — I worried more about the emptiness than what would be inside.
Then his fingers closed on something hard and metallic. He pulled it free.
A small, battered pen drive, wrapped in tape and smeared with old glue.
"You kept this five years?" I heard myself say, the memory rushing back — Angelo giving me the Snorlax when I was twelve, pressing it into my arms with a grin. "It's been in there since I was—"
Since you were twelve," Angelo finished quietly. "You never opened it. Good instinct." He placed the drive into his laptop and opened it for us to see.
The room went hush as the video loaded. A simple timestamp, shaky camera work — like something recorded quickly, on the run. Then two faces filled the screen: a woman and a man. My breath hitched before I even knew whose faces they were. The woman's eyes were tired and fierce but looked like ciel eyes ; the man's jaw set like he had never learned how to turn fear into anything but plans also who had similar eyebrows and lips.
Adrian's voice broke the silence before he could stop it. "Mom.."
Ciel whispered, "Dad…"
The woman — softer in the video than the memory of any lecture, softer than the way textbooks write "Mother" — looked straight into the camera.
"Son," she said. Her voice trembled, but she forced it steady. "If you are watching this, it means we are no longer alive."
Adrian's hand went to his face. He didn't say anything; the room held its breath.
The man — the father — leaned forward now, energy folding like steel. His words came measured, like he'd chosen each one to weigh a problem down into a detail.
"If you find this," he said, looking at Adrian, then at the camera as if the words could reach across years, "then someone tried to make sure we wouldn't speak again. Victor Voss is not the only one who wants what our family has. Protect Ciel. Protect each other. Do not trust the board. There is a file — and there are actions that only the family seal can unlock."
I felt the room tilt. Keifer's lips were white. Angelo's fingers trembled over the keyboard but kept the video steady. Valerie's hand covered her mouth. Ciel's eyes were glassy and far away.
The woman continued, and I could see Adrian's chest rise and fall with each word like he was trying to time himself to it.
"We hid a key," she said. "Not a physical key alone — a key to the files. If you ever feel you cannot find the truth, start with the toys we gave the children. Some things must stay hidden where people would never think to look. If Angelo's cousin Jayjay still has that Snorlax… check inside. We would never have known a child would carry our last hope, but that is what it is now."
Adrian gasped. "Mom—" His voice cracked. Ciel's knees buckled a little, fingers digging into the couch as if to hold herself together.
Angelo paused the video. He looked at all of us in the frozen living room — the laptop's light painting his face stern and hollow at once.
"It's what I thought," he said softly. "There are other things on that drive, documents — names, accounts, transfers tied to businesses you've all heard of. Keifer, some of the folder names match assets from your mither's old filings." He turned to me, his eyes sharp. "Jayjay, I had no idea Angelo had really done this five years ago — but if they hid a drive in the plush, someone wanted it out of sight. Whoever stole or killed them knew to look elsewhere. That was smart… and cruel."
Keifer kneeled beside me and squeezed my shoulder. "We'll get through this," he said. I didn't know if he said it to convince me or himself.
Adrian pushed to his feet, hands clenching at his sides. His voice was flat, iron-cold. "Play it." He sent that single word and Angelo hit the play button again. "We hid a key," she said. "Not a physical key alone — a key to the files. If you ever feel you cannot find the truth, start with the toys we gave the children. Some things must stay hidden where people would never think to look. If Jayjay still has that Snorlax… check inside. We would never have known a child would carry our last hope, but that is what it is now."
Adrian gasped. "Mom—" His voice cracked. Ciel's knees buckled a little, fingers digging into the couch as if to hold herself together.
Angelo paused the video. He looked at all of us in the frozen living room — the laptop's light painting his face stern and hollow at once.
"It's what I thought," he said softly. "There are other things on that drive, documents — names, accounts, transfers tied to businesses you've all heard of. "Keifer, some of the folder names match assets from your mother's old filings." He turned to me, his eyes sharp. "Jayjay, I had no idea Angelo had really done this five years ago — but if they hid a drive in the plush, someone wanted t out of sight. Whoever stole or killed them knew to look elsewhere. That was smart..... and cruel."
Keifer kneeled beside me and squeezed my shoulder. "We'll get through this," he said. I didn't know if he said it to convince me or himself.
Adrian pushed to his feet, hands clenching at his sides. His voice was flat, iron-cold. "Play it." He sent that single word and Angelo hit the play button again.
More faces, more footage — spreadsheets flashing, scanned papers, names and account numbers. After the video, a folder appeared on the drive labelled simply: 'Voss — Archive'. Inside were documents: transfer forms, drafts of letters, and a scanned image of a stamped family crest. Several PDFs had details that connected companies, shell accounts, and — horrifyingly — lists of properties under different names.
Angelo scrolled quickly, eyes blurring as the pattern became clear. "This isn't just corporate greed," he murmured. "This is a map. A map of how they hid control. If Victor's people are trying to reclaim what they think is theirs, these files tell us how."
Adrian spun, gaze burning hotter than I'd seen in weeks. "They staged a crash," he said, not a question. It landed with us like a verdict.
Ciel shouted, tears finally breaking free, "You were behind it. Victor… you put my parents on that plane!" Her voice shattered and the room tilted under the weight of it.
Victor's name hung in the air. We all knew, suddenly and horribly, that the escape wasn't just a coincidence — it was a threat reawakened.
I had the oddest, childish flash: the Snorlax, patched and squishy, now somehow heavy with secrets and dead people's final words. I wanted to hold it and sew it back whole, to stuff the feeling of horror right back into the toy and keep it there.
"Why would they hide it in a toy?" Ci-N whispered. "Who would think the plush of a kid would carry the last proof?"
Angelo's jaw tightened. "Because if anyone searches the house, they'll look for bank boxes, not for a child's stuffed animal. It was smart. It was old money thinking. Whoever hid this knew the family would never throw that plush away."
Valerie reached for Adrian's hand without thinking, and he let her. There was so much to do, so many names to track, people to warn; but for a beat, we were all just kids again with an old stuffed animal and an answer the world hadn't wanted to give us.
Keifer stood and looked at me with something fierce and steady. "We move carefully. We protect Adrian and Ciel. We find who helped Victor escape. We trace these accounts. We don't let them take another person from us."
I swallowed thickly, the Snorlax stuffing rustling in my lap like a small, ridiculous soundtrack to a very large, terrible truth.
Five years had passed since that plush had been packed away. Five years of my childhood sleeping against something that held the first clue to everything that had been stolen from them — and now, it had finally been found.
The room exhaled. No one could say what came next, but in that quiet we all knew the same thing: nothing in our lives would be the same again.