Keanu stood in front of his house, holding the small envelope he had just found. The night wind felt colder than usual, but his thoughts were far more chaotic than the chill he felt.
The writing on the front of the envelope made him freeze.
His name was written clearly.
“For Keanu.”
The handwriting was exactly the same as the one in Arman’s notebook.
His hands slowly opened the envelope.
Inside was only a small sheet of paper.
Keanu read the message carefully.
“If you’ve made it this far, then you’ve already started learning the truth. But don’t come alone. There’s something you need to know before you meet him.”
Keanu furrowed his brow.
“Meet him?”
He immediately knew who it meant.
Arman.
But who had sent this letter?
Keanu turned the paper over.
There was no name.
No mark of any kind.
Only one final sentence.
“Trust the person who has been protecting you all this time.”
Keanu fell silent.
The sentence left him confused.
Did it mean his father?
Or someone else?
“Keanu?”
Someone’s voice startled him.
He turned around.
His father was standing behind him.
“Dad?”
His father looked at the envelope in Keanu’s hand.
“Where did you get that?”
“By the front door.”
His father immediately took a deep breath.
“He’s started making his move.”
Keanu watched his father’s face.
“You know who sent it?”
His father didn’t answer.
“Is it the same person who’s been looking for Arman all this time?”
His father stared at the deserted street.
“Maybe.”
Keanu began to lose his patience.
“Dad, I’m tired of these half-answers.”
“I know.”
“If you really want to protect me, then tell me everything.”
His father fell silent.
A few seconds later, he sat down in the chair outside the house.
“All right.”
Keanu sat down beside him.
“I’ll tell you.”
For the first time, his father didn’t avoid the subject.
“Arman didn’t just leave because of some ordinary problem.”
Keanu listened intently.
“A long time ago, Arman found something about our family. Something connected to people with tremendous influence.”
“Tremendous influence?”
His father nodded.
“He found evidence of an old incident that had been deliberately covered up.”
“So that’s why they were after him?”
“Yes.”
Keanu looked at the envelope in his hand.
“Then why am I involved?”
His father looked at him.
“Because before he left, Arman hid the last piece of evidence somewhere only you could find it.”
Keanu fell silent.
“In the attic?”
His father nodded.
“But I didn’t know he had hidden it there.”
Keanu remembered the wooden box with his name on it.
“So Arman planned everything?”
“Maybe.”
The night grew later.
Keanu tried to process all the new information he had received.
Suddenly, his phone rang.
A new message came in.
From the same number.
“Did you receive the letter?”
Keanu showed the message to his father.
His father’s face immediately changed.
“Don’t reply.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t know who he is.”
Keanu stared at the screen.
But his curiosity began to rise again.
He typed a message.
“I want to meet.”
His father immediately stood up.
“Keanu!”
But the message had already been sent.
A reply arrived a few seconds later.
“Tomorrow night. Come to the abandoned house at the end of the street.”
Keanu and his father looked at each other.
His father looked worried.
“Don’t go.”
“Why?”
“Because it could be a trap.”
“But if I don’t go, I’ll never find out anything.”
His father fell silent.
He knew Keanu was right.
The next day, Keanu went through his day as usual, but his thoughts never truly settled.
At college, Dimas immediately noticed the change in his best friend’s expression.
“Did you get another message?”
Keanu nodded.
He told Dimas about the letter and his plan to meet someone.
Dimas immediately looked disapproving.
“You’re seriously going?”
“Yes.”
“Keanu, this could be dangerous.”
“I know.”
“If you know that, why are you still going?”
Keanu was silent for a moment.
“Because all this time, everyone else has decided what I’m allowed to know. Now I want to make that choice myself.”
Dimas sighed.
“I’m coming with you.”
Keanu looked at him.
“You don’t have to.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
Keanu let out a small laugh.
“You really are stubborn.”
“Learned it from you.”
Night finally came.
Keanu and Dimas stood in front of the abandoned house mentioned in the message.
The building looked even more frightening at night. The lights inside were off, and the front yard was covered in dry leaves.
“Are we sure about this?” Dimas asked.
Keanu looked at the front door.
“No.”
Dimas stared at him.
“That’s reassuring.”
Keanu took a deep breath.
They knocked on the door.
There was no answer.
Then, suddenly, the door opened by itself.
Dimas immediately stepped back.
“Keanu...”
“I see it.”
Footsteps sounded from inside the house.
Someone was walking toward them.
Keanu held his breath.
Someone’s shadow appeared in the darkness of the room.
Then a man’s voice rang out.
“Keanu.”
Keanu’s body immediately went rigid.
He recognized that voice.
The voice that had existed only in other people’s stories all this time.
The man stepped out of the shadows.
His face looked older than it had in the photograph in the attic.
But Keanu knew.
He couldn’t possibly be mistaken.
“Arman...”
The man looked at Keanu with guilt-filled eyes.
“I’m sorry it took this long.”
Keanu couldn’t say a word.
After twenty years filled with questions, he was finally standing in front of the person who had been nothing but a part of a secret all this time.
Arman took a breath.
“There’s a lot I need to explain.”
But before Keanu could answer, another sound came from behind the house.
A sound that made Arman’s face immediately change.
“They found you.”
Arman spun around.
“Keanu, get inside. Now.”
For the first time, Keanu saw fear on the face of the person he had been searching for all this time.