On Day 29, I Watched Her Choose Him

Chapter 5: The Storeroom Promise

Kael did not sleep that night.

He returned to the storeroom before dawn, the photograph hidden inside his shirt. He lay on the mattress and stared at the ceiling, Elara's words playing on repeat in his mind.

You were someone important. Someone powerful.

Marcus Kade drugged you.

Seraphina lied.

Adrian is here to finish what his father started.

He touched his face. His hollow cheeks. His unshaven jaw. The dark circles under his eyes that never went away no matter how much he slept. This was not the face of a powerful man. This was the face of a ghost.

But the photograph did not lie.

In the picture, he was standing next to Adrian Kade like an equal. No. Better than an equal. Adrian was smiling, but his eyes had a nervous look. A look that said: I am standing next to someone above me.

Who was he?

What had he been?

And why did the name Viremont keep surfacing in his mind like a word he had forgotten but could not shake?

He closed his eyes and tried to push through the fog. Tried to grab hold of the memories that slipped through his fingers like water.

Nothing.

Just darkness.

Just the name.

Viremont.

---

Morning came too quickly.

Kael cooked breakfast on autopilot. Eggs for Miranda. Omelet for Vivian. Tea and toast for Seraphina, who never ate more than that because she was always watching her figure. He moved through the kitchen like a machine, his body doing the work while his mind stayed somewhere else.

"You're quiet this morning."

Kael looked up. Vivian stood in the doorway, already dressed, her eyes sharp and watching.

"I'm always quiet," he said.

"Different quiet." She walked toward him, circling like a shark. "Something happened last night. I can see it in your face."

Kael kept his expression neutral. "Nothing happened."

"Liar." Vivian stopped in front of him. "I heard footsteps on the back stairs around midnight. Going up. Toward the attic." She tilted her head. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Kael's heart pounded, but his face did not change. "I was asleep."

"Were you?" Vivian smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "The attic is a strange place to visit in the middle of the night. Unless you're visiting someone."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Vivian laughed. "Fine. Keep your secrets, storeroom boy. But secrets have a way of coming out." She turned and walked to the door, then paused. "And when yours do, I'll be there to watch you burn."

She left.

Kael gripped the edge of the counter until his knuckles turned white.

He was being watched.

They all were watching him.

He needed to be more careful.

---

That afternoon, Kael found Elara in the garden.

She was kneeling by the flower beds, pretending to weed. But her hands were shaking, and her eyes kept darting toward the house.

"Vivian knows," Kael said quietly, crouching beside her. "She heard footsteps last night."

Elara's face went pale. "Did she see you?"

"No. But she suspects."

Elara sat back on her heels, her breath unsteady. "If Vivian finds out I've been talking to you — if she finds out what I know — she'll tell Adrian. And Adrian will..."

She could not finish the sentence.

Kael reached out and took her hand. "Then we need to move faster. You said you have evidence. You said you know what Marcus did to me. Show me."

Elara looked at their joined hands. Then at the house. Then back at him.

"Not here," she whispered. "Too many eyes. Tonight. Midnight. The old greenhouse at the back of the property. No one goes there anymore."

"I'll be there."

Elara squeezed his hand. "Kael... if something happens to me — if Adrian finds out what I'm doing — promise me you'll take care of Dorian."

Kael's chest ached. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

"Promise me."

He looked into her eyes. Those honey-colored eyes that had been kind to him when no one else was. That had brought him food and bandaged his wounds and kept his secrets for five years.

"I promise," he said. "But you're going to be fine. We both are."

Elara smiled. It was small and fragile, but it was real.

"Midnight," she said.

"Midnight," he repeated.

She stood and walked back toward the house, her head down, her hands dirty from the garden. Anyone watching would see nothing more than the attic girl doing her chores.

But Kael knew the truth.

She was the bravest person he had ever met.

And he was going to spend the rest of his life making sure she never had to be brave alone again.

---

That night, Kael lay awake in the storeroom, waiting for the house to fall silent.

At 11:45 PM, he heard Seraphina's bedroom door close. At 11:50, Miranda's light went out. At 11:55, Vivian stopped pacing in the room above him.

At midnight, he slipped out of the storeroom and into the dark.

The old greenhouse was a five-minute walk through the back garden, past the dead rose bushes and the broken fountain. Kael moved quickly, staying in the shadows, his eyes on the windows of the mansion.

No lights.

No movement.

He reached the greenhouse and slipped inside.

Elara was already there, a small flashlight in her hand. She had brought a box — an old wooden box, worn at the edges, with a lock that looked newer than the rest.

"You came," she whispered.

"I promised."

She set the box on a broken table and took a deep breath. "What I'm about to show you will change everything. Your life. Dorian's life. Everything you thought you knew." She looked at him. "Are you ready?"

Kael nodded.

Elara opened the box.

Inside were documents. Photographs. A flash drive. And a small velvet pouch that clinked when she picked it up.

"These are the pieces of your past," she said. "And the proof that Marcus Kade tried to erase you from the world."

Kael reached inside and pulled out the first photograph.

His breath stopped.

It was a picture of an elderly man and woman standing in front of a massive estate. The man had the same dark hair, the same jawline, the same eyes.

His eyes.

"Who are they?" Kael whispered.

Elara's voice was gentle. "Your parents, Kael. Your real parents."

"And who are they?"

Elara took a deep breath.

"Your father is Alistair Viremont. Your mother is Eleanor Viremont. And you..." She placed her hand over his heart. "You are the heir to the Viremont fortune. The richest family in the world."

Kael stared at the photograph.

The fog in his mind pulsed.

And for the first time in five years, something broke through.