Even though Ryan and Kai could each take an hour, Jay didn’t need that long. He was close, only 30 minutes away at most. But Ray knew better than to expect Jay to move quickly. His youngest brother, the one who used to laugh with a carefree heart, the one who had always been spoiled and full of life, was now a shadow of that person. The day Es died, her accident had shattered him. If not for the children, Ray feared Jay might have crumbled entirely in the years since.
Jay couldn’t bear to look at Es’s picture anymore. The mories of that day haunted him, gnawing at his every thought. He blad himself, convinced that if he hadn’t teased her, if he had stopped her from leaving to buy food, or if he had just gone with her that day, she might still be alive. Every scenario in his mind led him back to the sa conclusion: he was the one who had pushed her to her death.
No matter how much Ray, Kai, and everyone else tried to reassure him, Jay never believed them. Since that day, he’d grown silent. He would smile and laugh with the children, but it was always a forced, hollow kind of joy. It wasn’t the sa as before — before the children, before Es. The laughter that once ca so easily had been lost, replaced by a quiet sorrow that lingered in his eyes. The innocence he had once carried was gone, broken with Es’s passing, and nothing, not even the children, could bring it back.
Ray knew that for Jay to agree to co here, at the re ntion of Es’s na, ant he was hanging by a thread. The weight of it all had to be crushing him, yet Ray couldn’t pull back. He understood that showing Jay Es’s pictures, reliving the painful mories through videos, would only make the wound deeper. But he had no choice. There was no other way.
Half an hour later, the study door creaked open, and in walked Ryan and Kai, gasping for breath, their suits in tatters, as though they’d run through a battlefield. Their faces were flushed, their hair disheveled, yet the tension in their eyes was unmistakable. They had been pushing their bodies to the limit, and it was clear.
Behind them, Jay entered, his presence heavier than the rest. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles whitened, and his eyes—his eyes were distant, lost in a sea of his own thoughts. His silence was more deafening than any words.
Kai was the first to break the stillness, his voice breathless, shaking with impatience. "What happened? What do you an by Es? And why did you open this study?"
Ray didn’t flinch. He simply glanced at Kai, his gaze steady, almost cold. Then, he walked to the table, picked up a glass of water, and handed it to Kai. His gesture was calm, deliberate. "Drink this first," Ray said, his voice low but commanding.
Kai, still in shock, ignored the glass. "Brother, why did you call us here? What about Es?" His voice cracked with frustration.
Ray let out a slow, heavy sigh. He had known they wouldn’t calm down that easily. It was ti. Ti for them to see the truth. He moved toward the door, his steps asured, as if he could feel the weight of the mont pressing on his shoulders.
The door clicked shut behind him, but it wasn’t enough. Ray locked the three top bolts with a slow, deliberate motion, the sound of each click punctuating the stillness in the room. No one would get in. No one would interrupt.
Then, his eyes glowed—golden, fierce, and unnerving. The transformation was imdiate. With a flick of his hand, a shimring, bubble-like shield rippled through the room. It encased them, sealing them off from the world outside. No sound would escape. No one would overhear what was coming next.
Ryan and Kai froze. Their eyes widened, their mouths parted in surprise. Ray had never done sothing like this before. His power had always been kept in check, but now, they saw it.
Ray walked up to the table, his movents steady, almost rehearsed, and turned the laptop screen towards his brothers. The screen flickered for a mont before freezing on an image of Es. A sharp silence filled the room as they stared at her paused smile on the screen. Without a word, Ray tapped the play button.
The video began. Es’s warm voice cut through the thick tension. "Okay, so now all of you guys are here. How are you? Huh? Looking quite funny?" She chuckled softly.
All three brothers froze, their eyes widening. Kai’s breath hitched, and his voice ca out trembling, "Es, you..."
Ray’s voice interrupted, calm yet firm, "It’s a video. A recorded video."
The weight of his words settled over them like a heavy fog. Kai and Ryan turned to Ray in shock, their expressions a mixture of disbelief and confusion. But their attention was quickly drawn back to the laptop screen as Es continued, her presence on the screen both familiar and haunting.
Es smiled, her voice soft yet firm. "Yep, this is recorded. Anyway, I hope you guys are well... and together." Her gaze shifted, as if she was looking at soone beyond the cara. Then, with a slight lift of her head, she said sothing that shattered the stillness in the room.
"It’s not your fault."
The words hung in the air like a thunderclap. All three brothers froze, the gravity of her words sinking in. Slowly, as if afraid to confirm what they already suspected, Ryan and Kai turned their heads to look at Jay.
Jay stood rooted to the spot, his fists trembling, his eyes wide with emotion. His shoulders shuddered as Es’s voice continued, unwavering.
"It’s not your fault. Rember it. Everything that happened, or anything that happened, was never, ever your fault. It’s never been related to you guys."
Jay’s lips quivered, and his knees buckled slightly. His eyes turned red, tears streaming silently down his cheeks. After all these years, after so many nights haunted by guilt, hearing Es’s voice utter those words was a mont he couldn’t prepare for.
His heart scread that it wasn’t real, that this was just a recording—a ssage she’d left behind before she died. But the weight of her words crushed him nonetheless.
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