Chapter 4
My mind was so overwhelmed with grief that I couldn’t think at all. I could only shake my head helplessly through my tears.
I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything.
If anything, I wanted to know the secret even more desperately than the police did. What could possibly have driven Freya to take her own life the moment she learned I was pregnant?
Just then, Lukas arrived, breathless and pale.
He was like a pool of still water-accepting the news that his last living family member had killed herself with an
eerie calm.
He stared at the shattered body on the ground, then told the officers, almost matter-of-factly, that he knew what the
secret was.
“My grandma and my parents all killed themselves because of this secret.
“Now, I’m the only one who knows.
“But the time isn’t right yet. I’m not ready to reveal it.”
Lukas handled Wren’s funeral arrangements with quiet efficiency, then brought me home.
I still didn’t know what the secret was, but I had a vague suspicion it had something to do with my pregnancy.
I was terrified-terrified that Lukas, the last one who knew the secret, would end up like his family and choose to end
his own life.
Every day, as my belly grew, I lived in fear, praying that Lukas wouldn’t suddenly do something irreversible.
I was wrong. He remained calm. He went to work as usual, took meticulous care of me, and made sure everything was ready for me and the baby.
Slowly, I began to relax, thinking maybe he’d finally come to terms with his loss.
But from that day on, Lukas started avoiding me, spending hours holed up in his room, the sound of his keyboard tap- ping late into the night, as if he were recording something.
I had a feeling-an unshakable sense-that he was documenting the secret. But whenever I asked, Lukas would deny it, and I could only pretend not to notice.
I thought maybe our lives could go on like this, quietly, indefinitely. But one day, out of nowhere, Lukas started a livestream online. He looked dead serious as he announced that the time had come-he was going to share the secret with the world.
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Chapter 4
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The number of viewers shot up to a hundred thousand in an instant. Lukas gripped my hand tightly, gazing at me with gentle eyes. “Evie, I know you’ve always wondered what Grandma’s secret was.
“The time has come. I’ll tell you everything.”
He pulled me into his arms, his touch lingering on my slightly rounded belly, then leaned close and whispered the se- cret softly in my car…
By the time I realized what I’d just heard, it was too late. My tears came faster than my thoughts. My eyes widened in terror, my whole body trembling violently.
I tried to question Lukas, but he was already backing away, tears streaming down his face. He staggered to the door- way, then suddenly coughed up a torrent of blood.
A chill ran down my spine. I scrambled to him in a panic.
“Lukas! Please, don’t die! I’m begging you, don’t leave me and the baby!”
But it was too late. Blood kept pouring from Lukas’s mouth, and within seconds, his life was gone.
Just like Blake, Wren, and Freya, he chose to die right in front of me, leaving me alone with nothing but despair.
I knelt there, clutching my belly, watching the last breath leave his body. I begged him to stay, but he was already be- yond my reach.
I cried until there were no tears left. I sat there like a puppet, hollow and broken, my heart shattered beyond words. All that remained was fear.
Because the secret Lukas told me was too terrifying to comprehend.
No wonder… No wonder they all chose death after learning the truth.
Now that I know the secret, it’s my turn. My baby and I-we’re meant to die, too.
