Chapter quote
"Sometimes, the truth doesn't knock. It slips in like smoke through a crack in the door." – Unknown
Scene: A Secluded Garden Café | 6:48 PM
The sky dimmed into a bruise-purple hue, clouds crawling like secrets across the horizon. The soft hum of crickets grew louder as the city quieted. Tucked between an overgrown wall of ivy and an abandoned bookstore stood the place Liu had been told to come to—a forgotten café courtyard, cloaked in vines and time.
He stood under the rusted metal archway, dressed in dark gray. His eyes, though calm on the surface, flickered like storm-touched waters. He checked his phone again. No new messages. The last one still lingered:
"We need to talk. Come alone. Don't bring your questions. Just your silence. — M."
He looked around. No one.
Then… the faint tap of heels on stone.
He turned slowly.
From the shadows emerged a woman dressed in muted black, her frame elegant but heavy with history. Her face—delicate but lined by years of sorrow—was instantly familiar.
It was Nina's mother.
She stopped just a few steps from him. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Leo: (softly)
"You're her."
Nina's Mother: (equally quiet)
"And you're… just like him."
Leo's eyes narrowed. "Him?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she looked away, toward the crumbling fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Its water had long dried up.
Nina's Mother:
"I shouldn't have come. But silence… it grows claws after a while."
Leo:
"You sent the letter?"
She nodded. "I knew if I sent it to you… something inside you would start burning."
Leo reached into his coat, pulling out the scrunched paper—the one with torn edges, fragile handwriting, smudged ink.
"You don't know me, but I once loved your father…"
He read it again, not aloud, but his mind echoed the lines.
Leo:
"There's a girl you mentioned… The one you stayed away for. You said I already know her. Who is she?"
A tremble passed over her lips. "I'm not here to tell you everything. Just enough… to protect you."
He stepped forward. "Protect me from what?"
Her gaze met his—wounded, worn, but holding something unshakable.
Nina's Mother:
"I ran because I feared what the truth would do to her. To you. To all of you."
Leo's heart pounded. "You mean Nina?"
She turned away again. Her silence was like fog, thick and haunting.
Nina's Mother:
"There's a reason she doesn't remember everything from her childhood. There's a reason I kept her far."
Leo inhaled sharply. His fists tightened. "Just say it. Say what you're here to say."
She stepped forward, close enough that her perfume—lavender and old books—brushed against him.
Nina's Mother:
"I'm not asking you to let go of your feelings. I'm asking you to prepare for what you'll feel when the truth comes."
Then she pulled something from her purse.
A photo. A wrinkled black-and-white picture. In it: a man in military dress. Her. A toddler with Nina's eyes. And next to her…
Leo's breath caught.
His father.
She placed it into his hand.
Nina's Mother:
"Keep it. You'll need it."
Before he could say another word, she turned and walked into the misted shadows of the alley behind the café.
Gone.
Silence returned. But it wasn't empty anymore. It was thick with something unspoken.
Leo stood frozen, the photo shaking in his hand.
For the first time… the pieces began to slide into place. Not fully. Not completely. But just enough to make his chest feel like it was caving in.
Cut to: Leo's Apartment | Late Night
He sat at his desk, the photo lying face-up before him.
He couldn't sleep.
He couldn't breathe.
Because suddenly, the face in that photo was everywhere—in his dreams, in his memories, in her eyes.
FADE OUT