Chapter 148: Backstabbing

The words remained on the page.

THE FIRST WITNESS WAS DILLAN RUREN.

AND HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO BETRAY ELARA.

Dillan stared at the book.

For several seconds, he forgot how to breathe.

Then he laughed once.

It was a small, humorless sound.

"That’s convenient."

Marielle sat across from him, her hands folded neatly over the table.

"Which part?"

"The part where every time I discover something about myself, it turns out I did something terrible before I could remember it."

Celia stood near the window.

She hadn’t spoken since the book opened.

Dillan looked at her.

"You knew about this?"

"No."

"Do you believe that?"

Celia met his eyes.

"I believe you deserve an answer before you decide whom to blame."

"That’s not an answer."

"No," she admitted. "It isn’t."

Dillan looked back at Marielle.

"Tell me what I did to Elara."

Marielle closed the book.

The sound was strangely loud.

"You asked her a question."

Dillan’s expression hardened.

"What question?"

"Whether she would stay with you forever."

Silence.

Something inside his chest tightened.

Marielle continued.

"Elara was already capable of leaving. She had a life beyond you, even when neither of you understood what that meant. You were frightened by that possibility."

"I was a child."

"Yes."

The answer came without judgment.

Somehow, that made it worse.

"You were frightened," Marielle repeated, "and you asked her to promise that she would never leave you."

Dillan lowered his gaze.

He could almost see it.

A small room.

A little girl sitting beside him.

His own tiny fingers wrapped around hers.

But the memory wouldn’t settle.

Every time he reached for her face, the image became a blank space.

"What did she say?"

Marielle’s eyes softened.

"She asked you something in return."

Dillan waited.

"She asked whether you would still love her if she chose to leave."

His fingers curled against the table.

"And I said no."

"No," Marielle replied. "You said you didn’t know how."

That distinction struck deeper than an accusation.

Dillan looked away.

For the first time since entering the house, he had nothing clever to say.

Then the book moved.

Its pages turned by themselves.

A new sentence appeared.

THE FIRST BETRAYAL WAS NOT THE PROMISE.

IT WAS WHAT HAPPENED AFTER ELARA BELIEVED HIM.

Dillan stood so abruptly that his chair scraped backward.

"What happened after?"

Marielle didn’t answer.

Instead, she placed one hand over the book.

"I can show you the memory. But you must understand something first."

"What?"

"The Witness Record will not protect you from what you discover."

"I didn’t ask it to."

"No. You asked everyone else to carry the consequences for you."

Dillan went still.

Celia stepped away from the window.

"Marielle."

"It’s time," Marielle said quietly.

She lifted her hand.

The book’s pages turned black.

A thin white line appeared across the center, widening until the darkness became a doorway.

On the other side stood a little boy with dark hair.

Four years old.

Dillan recognized himself immediately.

The boy was crying.

Not loudly. Not dramatically.

He was trying desperately to remain quiet.

In front of him stood Elara.

She looked younger than the memory Dillan had seen beneath the oak tree. Her hair fell across her face, and her small hands were clenched at her sides.

"Dillan," she whispered. "I can stay."

The little boy looked up.

"Forever?"

Elara hesitated.

Just for a moment.

"Yes."

The memory shuddered.

A second voice emerged from the darkness.

Not the boy’s.

Not Elara’s.

Dillan’s own voice, older and colder.

"Then you must forget that you ever wanted to leave."

Dillan stumbled backward.

"No."

The memory continued.

Little Elara reached for him.

"I don’t want to forget."

"You promised!"

"I promised to stay. I didn’t promise to stop being me!"

The little boy began to cry harder.

Then he did something that made the present-day Dillan’s blood run cold.

He placed his hand against Elara’s forehead.

White light spread beneath his fingers.

Elara screamed.

The memory shattered.

Dillan fell to one knee.

The house trembled around him.

Celia caught his shoulder, but he barely felt her touch.

He remembered the gesture.

Not the face.

Not the room.

The gesture.

He had reached into someone else’s memories before.

He had called it protection.

He had called it preservation.

But this was different.

He hadn’t been saving Elara from pain.

He had been trying to remove the part of her that could choose to leave him.

The Witness Record appeared above the ruined book.

UNREGISTERED MEMORY RECOVERED.

SUBJECT: ELARA.

ACTION: VOLUNTARY MEMORY SUPPRESSION ATTEMPTED.

CONSENT: WITHDRAWN.

OUTCOME: INCOMPLETE.

Dillan stared at the final line.

"Incomplete?"

Marielle nodded.

"You couldn’t erase her completely."

"Why?"

"Because she chose to remember you."

The words settled into the room.

Dillan looked up.

Marielle’s face had grown pale.

"She could have fought you. She could have hated you. Instead, she held on to the memory of the boy who had been afraid, even after that boy tried to take something from her."

"Then why did she leave?"

"Because remembering someone doesn’t mean surrendering your life to them."

Dillan’s eyes burned.

He hated how familiar the lesson felt.

He hated even more that he had needed so many lifetimes of consequences to understand it.

The book opened again.

One final line appeared.

ELARA DID NOT BETRAY THE FIRST WITNESS.

SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON HE FAILED TO LET GO.

Dillan slowly rose to his feet.

"Where is she?"

Marielle looked toward the doorway.

For the first time, fear crossed her expression.

"She has already returned."

A bell rang outside.

Once.

Twice.

Then a third time.

The house’s windows turned white.

Celia stepped between Dillan and the door.

"Don’t open it."

Dillan looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because the person outside isn’t the Elara you remember."

A voice came from the other side.

A woman’s voice.

Quiet.

Exhausted.

Painfully familiar.

"Dillan?"

His heart stopped.

"I’ve waited a long time for you to remember what you did."

The Witness Record flickered.

ORIGINAL WITNESS: DILLAN RUREN.

FIRST BETRAYAL: CONFIRMED.

ELARA: PRESENT.

A final notification appeared.

WARNING: SUBJECT ELARA HAS NOT COME TO FORGIVE YOU.

The handle began to turn.

And Dillan, who had spent so long insisting that everyone deserved the freedom to choose, realized he had never once considered what would happen if Elara chose not to forgive him.