Chapter 5 005

IRIS POV

PRESENT DAY

The snow had just about stopped when Rowan showed up at the lab. I was going over case files, my notes marked up, trying to piece together the evidence.

“Leaving early?” he asked, his voice quiet.

“Yeah,” I answered, trying to keep my face blank. “I have an appointment.”

He looked at me, a little worried. “With who?”

“Someone from one of the labs,” I said, being vague since it was safer that way, I couldn't risk him catching on.

“Okay,” he said slowly, not pushing it. He had this way of looking at me that made me feel both safe and like I was being seen through. “Be careful,” he said, his voice soft. “Whatever this is.”

“I always am,” I lied, and he just nodded like he believed me. He never asked too much, and never pushed too hard.

By the time I got to Mr. Creed’s company, the streets were getting icy. The building was all glass and steel, and the lobby was silent except for the low hum of the air system. I was used to dealing with evidence, with the cold, hard facts so I could deal with him.

“Dr. William,” the receptionist said, polite and in control, “Mr. Creed is waiting for you.”

I nodded and took the elevator up, trying to steady my shaky hands, when it flew open after a minute he was right there.

He didn’t smile or say hello but just stood there, tall and detailed, and the space around me seemed to shrink.

“Dr. William,” he said, his voice calm and measured. “I guess you’ve looked at the files I sent?”

“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “I’ve gone over everything.”

He looked me over, and his eyes didn’t show anything, but they had a weight to them, a serious intensity that made me nervous.

“Good,” he said. “Then you get what’s at stake.”

“I get it,” I said. The files were boring, and clinical but the choices they showed, the hidden evidence, and the changed results, were full of outcomes I couldn’t ignore.

He walked closer, each step careful and planned. “Two years ago, someone destroyed evidence, messing with the investigation and I think you know more about that than anyone.”

I kept my face blank, even though my stomach was in knots. “I know what I did,” I said carefully. “It was planned, I made a choice.”

He nodded a bit, quiet for a second. “Choices have outcomes,” he said finally. “Some are clear, right away but others… take years to come out.”

“I know,” I said, keeping my voice even, but my mind was racing, trying to read him, the room, the tension.

“I’m giving you a choice,” he went on, his voice low.

“Work with me and use what you know where it’s needed or walk away and deal with what happens.”

I let his words sink in, no threats and no blaming, just the feeling that this was unavoidable. I could refuse, but the consequences were already happening.

“And if I choose to work with you?” I asked, trying to hide the worry in my chest.

“Then you will help find truths that have been hidden,” he said. “Not as a punishment, but as a result, to shine a light where lies have been.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then you live knowing what you’ve done. And that knowledge is yours alone,” he said, calm and steady.

I crossed my arms, trying to stay neutral. “Why does this matter to you so much?”

He paused, hands behind his back, quiet for a second before answering. “Because this isn’t just evidence, it’s real. Someone suffered, and should have gotten justice but that someone didn’t get it. Not because the system failed, but because someone interfered.”

“I’m not sure why you’re making this personal,” I said carefully. “It’s a case, not…”

He tilted his head a little, a hint of something in his eyes. “This case is personal,” he said quietly. “For reasons you’ll understand later.”

I kept my voice steady. “So what now?”

“You work with me,” he said. “We find what has been hidden, we use what you know. And you… make sure nothing like this happens again.”

I nodded slowly, letting his words sink in. There was no room to argue, the choice was mine in name only.

We stayed quiet for a few moments, sizing each other up, testing limits without saying anything. Then he said, like he was just chatting, “I’ll need access to everything you have, notes, analyses, all of it, details matter.”

“Of course,” I said, trying to ignore the sudden wave of nerves. Working with him meant stepping into a world I couldn’t keep at arm’s length anymore. It meant being seen, being responsible, and maybe even something way more dangerous.

The silence between us stretched out, heavy and charged. Then, finally, he leaned in a little, his voice dropping just enough to make it feel personal, intimate but cold.

“You wanted to know why this is so important to me, right? So I'll let you in on this little secret but first…”

My stomach dropped, I had no idea what direction he was heading with this, so I tried to avoid his eyes, but he didn’t look away.

“I need to know,” he said slowly, carefully. Everything you know about her.”

I swallowed, I could give him the facts, the evidence, the sequences, the stuff that didn't make sense but I would not, could not, say anything beyond what he already suspected. “I can give you all the facts,” I said evenly. Everything you’d find in the files.”

The conversation could have gone on for hours, but I could feel something coming. Something was waiting at the end of this that I couldn’t see coming.

And then he said it.

“The girl whose evidence you handled…was my sister.”

My heart stopped and my mind went blank because everything I thought I had under control suddenly felt out of reach.

I fell on the nearest table, grabbing the edges as the room remained still, but my chest felt tight and I couldn’t breathe as he stood there, the one person who could flip my world upside down.

And now, only one question replayed a million times over in my head, “What the actual fuck had I gotten myself into?”