Aria couldn't breathe.
The words hung in the air like smoke that wouldn't disappear:
"The people who know who you really are."
Her?
Who she really was?
Her pulse hammered in her ears as she looked from Liam to Kayden, waiting—needing—one of them to explain. But instead, they exchanged this heavy, silent look that told her something terrifying:
Both of them knew.
Both of them had been hiding things.
And whatever the truth was… it wasn't small.
"What do you mean?" Aria whispered. "What does that even mean—who I really am?"
Neither spoke.
The only sound was the faint creaking of an old bookshelf settling.
Finally, Liam exhaled—slow, shaky. Not the confident, strong Liam the school worshipped. This version looked like someone holding a secret that was slowly poisoning him from the inside.
"Aria…" He rubbed the back of his neck, as if searching for the right lie—but then his eyes met hers, and he flinched. "There are people watching this school. Watching you."
Kayden scoffed under his breath. "Understatement of the year."
Aria's throat tightened. "Watching me for what?"
Kayden stepped closer—not in an intimidating way, but like he couldn't bear the distance anymore. His voice softened, but the edge didn't leave it.
"Because you're not a random transfer student. Not to them."
Her blood ran cold.
"That's not possible," Aria said. "I moved here because—because my mom—"
Her voice cracked.
Her mom never talked about their past. Never about her father. Never about the reason they moved so often. Aria always told herself it was financial stress, or maybe bad luck, or maybe her mom just liked fresh starts.
But now—now the doubt slid into her bones like ice.
Kayden watched her too closely, like he was reading every micro-expression.
"Tell me what you're implying," Aria demanded, voice trembling but firm.
Liam stepped forward. "You deserve the truth, but you deserve it safely. This isn't the place."
Aria shook her head. "You're not dragging me into another dark room to say half-sentences I have to decode. If you know something about me, about my life, you tell me here."
Kayden's jaw flexed. "It's not safe here anymore. Someone was just trying to hurt you."
Aria looked at the shattered pieces of wood on the floor.
Pieces that would've crushed her skull if Liam hadn't pulled her away in time.
She swallowed hard.
Still—she pushed her fear down. She was tired of being protected from the truth.
"No more secrets," she whispered. "Not from either of you."
Kayden's expression shifted—pain, frustration, something else. Something darker.
Liam exhaled sharply, then nodded toward the back of the library.
"Fine. But we walk and talk. Quietly."
They moved between the shelves, Aria in the middle, both boys flanking her like two shadows with their own gravity. Every creak of the floor made her jump. Every shifting shadow felt like an eye watching them.
Finally, they reached the old archives room.
Liam shut the door carefully.
Kayden leaned against a table, studying Aria like he was memorizing every corner of her fear.
Liam ran a hand through his hair. "Aria… the truth starts with your father."
Her stomach dropped.
"My father?" she whispered. "I don't even know him. My mom barely mentions him."
Kayden's arms crossed, and his voice cut softly through the air.
"She doesn't mention him because she's trying to protect you from him."
Aria froze.
"No… that's not…"
But she didn't finish.
Because deep down, something in her chest cracked open.
Liam spoke carefully, gently. "Your father isn't missing. And he didn't abandon you."
Kayden's jaw tightened. "He was taken."
Aria's breath caught in her throat.
"What?"
"Taken?" she echoed, barely audible.
Liam nodded grimly. "Years ago. By the same people who—" He stopped himself, glancing at Kayden.
Kayden finished the sentence, voice low and lethal. "—the people who just tried to drop a bookshelf on you."
Aria stumbled back a step as her world tilted sideways.
Her father had been taken?
Someone wanted her harmed?
None of this made sense. None of this belonged in the life she knew.
Her voice shook.
"Why would someone want to hurt me because of him? Who even is he?"
Liam hesitated.
Kayden looked away, jaw grinding.
Aria's chest tightened. "Tell me!"
This time, it was Kayden who spoke first—voice barely above a whisper.
"He wasn't… normal, Aria."
She stared at him.
"What does that mean? Not normal how?"
Liam stepped closer. "Your father was part of a confidential research program—something illegal. Something dangerous."
Kayden added, "Something that made enemies."
Aria's heartbeat roared in her ears. "Stop talking like I'm supposed to understand this."
Liam swallowed. "Aria… your father worked on something called Project Helix."
The name meant nothing to her.
But the way both boys said it—like it carried poison—made her skin crawl.
"And these people think," Kayden said carefully, "that whatever he was part of… it didn't end with him."
It took Aria two long seconds to understand.
Then the world broke open under her feet.
"You think I'm part of it?" she whispered. "Me? How? I'm just a normal girl."
"Normal?" Kayden repeated, eyes darkening. "Aria… nothing about the way they're chasing you is normal."
"Nothing about how this school behaves around you is normal," Liam added.
Her vision blurred. She blinked hard.
"No. No—no, stop."
Kayden pushed off the table and reached for her before she could fall into another wave of panic.
"Aria," he said quietly, gripping her wrists gently, "listen to me. This isn't about trying to scare you. This is about keeping you alive."
Liam moved to her other side, steadying her shoulder.
"You're not alone in this," he said softly. "You have us. Both of us."
Her chest tightened painfully.
Both of them.
Both of them wrapped around her like a shield she never asked for but suddenly desperately needed.
Aria closed her eyes, taking in two shaky breaths.
When she opened them—
There was only one question left.
"Then tell me," she said, voice barely steady, "what exactly is Project Helix?"
Silence.
Then Kayden whispered, almost reluctantly—
"The project designed to create people who were impossible to track… impossible to break… and impossible to kill."