Arga stood frozen.
Alya's mother's words kept echoing in his head.
“Your father is the reason our family fell apart.”
“What do you mean, Ma'am?” Arga asked quietly.
Alya's mother let out a long sigh.
“Not everything can be explained in one night.”
“But I have the right to know.”
Alya looked at Arga, her eyes glistening with tears.
“Arga…”
“Don’t tell me I have to be patient again, Alya.”
His voice wasn't loud, but that only made it sound more painful.
“I've spent too long not understanding what really happened.”
Alya lowered her head.
Dimas then took the photo from Arga's hand.
“This photo was taken twenty years ago.”
Arga looked at him.
“Your father and Alya's father used to be best friends and business partners.”
“Then what happened?”
“They built a business together.”
Arga nodded slowly.
“I knew my father used to own a business.”
“That business failed.”
Arga fell silent.
“And after it failed,” Dimas continued, “Alya's father lost almost everything.”
Arga looked at Alya's mother.
“Because of my father?”
Alya's mother shook her head.
“It wasn't that simple.”
“Then what was it?”
“The company's money disappeared. The financial documents were altered. There were massive debts we'd never known about before.”
Arga drew a breath.
“Did my father do that?”
“No.”
That answer only left Arga even more confused.
“If it wasn't my father, then who was it?”
No one answered.
Dimas stared at the photograph.
“The problem is, all the evidence back then pointed to your father.”
Arga shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“That’s why your father left this city.”
Arga fell silent.
Suddenly, so many things he had never understood began to feel like pieces of a puzzle.
Why his father rarely talked about the past.
Why his family never returned to that city.
Why, whenever Arga asked about Alya's family, his father always avoided the subject.
“So all this time…” Arga looked at Alya.
“You knew?”
Alya nodded slowly.
“A little.”
“Since when?”
“Since I was in high school.”
Arga laughed softly, but there was no happiness on his face.
“And you never told me?”
“I was scared.”
“Scared I'd leave you?”
Alya nodded.
Arga closed his eyes.
“I wouldn't leave you just because of our parents' mistakes.”
Alya began to cry.
“But what if everything really does end because of them?”
Arga looked at her.
“Then we'll find out the truth.”
Dimas gave a faint smile.
“The problem is, there's one thing you two still don't know.”
Arga turned toward him.
“What?”
Dimas pulled a brown folder from his bag.
“The original company documents still exist.”
Alya's mother immediately stood up.
“Dimas, don't.”
“It's time, Ma'am.”
“Not now.”
“Now is exactly when we need to do it.”
Dimas handed the folder to Arga.
“These were found a few weeks ago in Alya's father's old house.”
Arga opened the folder.
Several sheets of paper inside had already yellowed with age.
He read them one by one.
Then his hand stopped at a signature.
His expression changed.
“This signature…”
Alya stepped closer.
“What about it?”
Arga pointed to the document.
“This isn't my father's signature.”
Dimas nodded.
“That's right.”
“Then who forged it?”
Dimas didn't answer.
Arga turned to the next page.
There was a name on it.
A name that instantly drained the color from Alya's face.
“No way…”
Arga looked at her.
“You know this person?”
Alya didn't answer.
Dimas said quietly,
“That person is still alive.”
Arga looked at the name once more.
Rania.
Alya's heart seemed to stop.
“No,” she whispered.
Arga looked at Alya.
“Rania?”
Alya shook her head quickly.
“She couldn't have done that.”
But at that exact moment, Alya's phone rang.
Rania's name appeared on the screen.
Alya didn't dare answer.
The call stopped.
A few seconds later, a message came in.
Rania: “Alya, don't trust those documents. I need to explain everything before Arga finds out.”
Alya stared at the screen, her hand trembling.
Arga read the message over her shoulder.
“She says she needs to explain everything.”
Arga looked at Alya.
“We need to meet Rania.”
Alya nodded.
But before they could move, a second message came in.
Rania: “But don't come to my house. Someone is watching me.”
Alya and Arga exchanged a look.
For the first time, they realized that their families' secret wasn't merely an old story.
Someone was still trying to hide the truth.
And maybe that person already knew that Arga and Alya were beginning to find the answer.