Arelio still held the photograph, his hand feeling stiff. His eyes remained fixed on the picture in front of him, trying to understand what had really happened.
His father was in the photograph.
Damar was there.
And so was someone he had always trusted.
Someone who had often come to their house when Arelio was little.
Someone who had always been treated like family.
“Why is he here?”
Arelio’s voice was quiet, but filled with pressure.
No one answered right away.
Laras only stared at the floor.
Damar let out a sigh.
“Because he’s part of this story.”
“Part how?”
Arelio placed the photograph on the table.
“I need answers, not pieces of a story.”
Damar nodded.
“You’re right.”
The old man looked toward Bastian.
“We can’t hide it anymore.”
Bastian said nothing. He simply stood there, watching Arelio.
Damar began to tell the story.
“Back then, your father wasn’t just trying to find out why the chest had been made. He was also trying to learn why some of the documents inside it had been deliberately hidden.”
“What was in those documents?”
“Records about events from many years ago.”
Arelio waited.
“In those records, Arman discovered that someone had altered several facts about your family.”
“Altered the facts?”
“Yes.”
Damar nodded.
“There were events that had always been told differently.”
Arelio looked at his mother.
“And Mom knew about this?”
Laras took a long breath.
“Yes.”
That answer left Arelio silent again.
“So you knew all along, Mom?”
“I knew some of it.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Laras looked at her son.
“Because your father asked me not to reveal everything.”
“And you just agreed?”
“It wasn’t easy for me, Rel.”
Arelio looked away.
He didn’t know whether he should feel angry or sad.
Everyone had their reasons.
But no one had thought about what it felt like to be the person who knew nothing.
Bastian opened the folder he had brought earlier.
“There’s something you need to see.”
He took out an old document.
Arelio accepted the paper.
The writing on it had clearly faded.
But one part immediately caught his attention.
His father’s name.
“This was made before I was born?”
Bastian nodded.
“Yes.”
“What does it have to do with me?”
Bastian was silent for a moment.
“Look at the bottom.”
Arelio followed the direction of his finger.
There was a signature there.
It wasn’t his father’s signature.
Nor was it Damar’s.
It belonged to someone whose identity shocked Arelio.
“This…”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
Raka, standing beside him, looked too.
“Bro, who signed it?”
Arelio didn’t answer.
Because he recognized the name.
The name of someone who had always been a part of his life.
“I know this person.”
Damar looked at Arelio.
“You must know him.”
“He’s close to our family.”
“Yes.”
“Then why is his signature on this secret document?”
No one answered.
Arelio began to feel that something was being deliberately led to him.
Someone wanted him to uncover all of this.
But who?
And for what reason?
That night, they all remained at Damar’s house.
No one wanted to go home before everything was clear.
Arelio sat alone on the house’s terrace, looking at the old chest he had brought with him.
The chest that had initially only made him curious.
Now it had changed the way he saw his own family.
Raka sat beside him.
“Bro.”
“Hmm?”
“What if everything we’ve believed all this time turns out to be wrong?”
Arelio was silent for a long while.
“I don’t know.”
“Scared?”
Arelio gave a small smile.
“Yeah.”
Raka looked at him.
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard you say you’re scared.”
“Because this is the first time I’ve felt that all the answers might be heavier than the questions.”
Raka didn’t respond.
They simply sat there in silence.
A few minutes later, Damar came out carrying something.
A thin book.
“I think it’s time you saw this.”
Arelio stood.
“What is it?”
“Your father’s notebook.”
Arelio took it.
“Why only now?”
Damar looked at the old chest.
“Because there’s one part Arman didn’t want you to read before the right time.”
Arelio opened the book.
The first page contained his father’s handwriting.
“The day I found that chest, I realized my life would never be the same again.”
Arelio continued reading.
The notes recounted the day his father had first opened the chest.
The same curiosity he felt.
The search that had cost his father so much.
But the farther he read, the clearer one thing became.
His father hadn’t only been searching for the truth.
His father had been trying to stop someone.
On the last page that was open, there was only one sentence.
“I already know who caused all of this.”
Arelio held his breath.
Beneath the sentence was a name.
A name that made his entire body go stiff.
Because it was the name of someone he had never suspected at all.