CHAPTER FIVE:The Things People Hide
727 Words
The envelope stayed on Mateo's mind all night.
Even after the house went quiet.
Even after every light upstairs had gone off.
Even after the world outside disappeared into darkness.
He sat alone in his study, the old envelope resting on the desk in front of him.
Untouched.
Unopened.
Like it had been waiting for him all these years.
His fingers hovered over it.
Then stopped.
Some memories were painful.
Others were dangerous.
This one was both.
---
Twenty years earlier.
That was when everything changed.
The day Mateo lost the people who mattered most.
The day he learned that love and loss could exist in the same place.
He had spent years rebuilding.
Building a company.
Building a home.
Building a life where the past couldn't reach him.
But the past always found a way back.
---
The next morning, Mateo arrived at his office before sunrise.
His assistant looked surprised.
"You’re early, sir."
"I had work."
She nodded but didn't question him.
Everyone who worked with Mateo knew one thing:
He didn't like questions he wasn't ready to answer.
He walked into his office and closed the door.
Only then did he take out his phone.
One message.
Unknown Contact.
She saw the photograph.
Mateo stared at the screen.
His jaw tightened.
Another message appeared.
You failed to keep her away.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
Stay away from my family.
He typed the response.
The reply came instantly.
You should have thought about that before you made promises you couldn't keep.
Mateo locked the screen.
For the first time in years...
He felt the weight of something he thought he had buried.
---
Meanwhile, Kayda couldn't stop thinking about the envelope.
Not because she had seen what was inside.
Because she hadn't.
Secrets were strange.
Sometimes what people hid was more frightening than what they revealed.
She sat across from Jaden at lunch, watching him talk about his plans after graduation.
"Kayda?"
She blinked.
"Sorry?"
He smiled.
"You disappeared for a second."
"Just thinking."
"About?"
She hesitated.
The honest answer was:
Your father.
But she couldn't say that.
"Final year."
Jaden reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
"You're going to be amazing."
She smiled.
Because Jaden was easy.
With him, she knew where she stood.
He was laughter.
Warmth.
Home.
So why did she keep feeling like there was another story happening around her?
---
That evening, Kayda received a message from an unknown number.
Her heart stopped.
She stared at the screen.
You should stop asking questions about Mateo.
A second message followed.
Some doors are closed for a reason.
She looked around her room.
The curtains were drawn.
The door was locked.
Yet she suddenly felt watched.
She typed:
Who is this?
The reply came a minute later.
Someone who knows what happens when people get too close to the truth.
---
The next day, Kayda made a decision.
She wasn't going to accuse anyone.
She wasn't going to assume the worst.
But she needed answers.
After class, instead of going straight home, she drove somewhere she had never planned to visit.
The address on an old document she found online.
A place connected to Mateo's past.
An old family home.
The building looked abandoned.
The garden was overgrown.
The windows were covered in dust.
But someone had recently been there.
The front door was slightly open.
Kayda hesitated.
Every instinct told her to leave.
But curiosity won.
She stepped inside.
The house was silent.
Too silent.
Then she saw it.
A wall covered with photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Family moments.
Birthdays.
Holidays.
Smiles frozen in time.
And in the center...
A recent photograph.
Her.
Standing outside Mateo's house.
Her blood ran cold.
Someone had been watching her.
Before she could move, a voice came from behind her.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Kayda turned slowly.
A woman stood in the doorway.
The same woman from the bookstore.
The woman who looked terrified when she saw the black SUV.
The woman stared at Kayda with sadness in her eyes.
"Who are you?" Kayda whispered.
The woman took a shaky breath.
"My name is Elena."
A pause.
"And I was the person Mateo promised he would protect."
Kayda froze.
Because suddenly...
The mystery wasn't about the photograph anymore.
It was about what Mateo had done to deserve so many secrets.
- Writer
