Hidden Tracks | ✓

33 | never be the same now

Everybody sat stunned at my theory, for a few seconds.

Then Miranda piped up, "But why would Amélie do this? How would she even escape from witness protection and then wear a disguise?"

I shook my head. "I don't know all that yet. Her motives are unknown to me, but I have a very strong feeling about my theory, especially considering the fact that she loves word games and puzzles so much."

"It's almost as if she was setting a trail of clues for us intentionally," Soler murmured.

I glanced at him. "Exactly. As if she was setting this test for us, trying to see if we'd pick up on all the breadcrumbs she left."

I stood up. "I don't know what her motives might be. I can't even give a 100% guarantee that my theory is right. But all I know is we need to find Isabella as soon as possible, and verify the truth from her."

"If she even is Isabella."

Miranda was still deep in thought. She looked up at me with her eyebrows creased. "Do you have any idea as to who that man could be? The one we saw in the footage from the gala, standing beside Isabella?"

I felt Soler's green gaze burning into mine. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Winter?" he said, a certain sense of anticipation in his voice.

I turned to him with a slight smile. "I think so."

In that moment, for the first time in my entire life, I felt a genuine connection to Soler, in terms of our thought process. I finally felt like we understood each other.

Miranda looked between the two of us in confusion. "What are the two of you thinking?"

Without answering her, I opened another file on my laptop, which contained the footage from the gala. I opened the picture of Isabella and that bearded man.

"From the moment I'd seen his face, it was giving me a sense of deja vu. As if I'd seen him somewhere before. But I couldn't place him," I explained. "But now, considering my theory about Isabella/Amélie, and the fact that it could very well be true, I have a hunch."

I went to the advanced editing options on the image, and with the help of the virtual tools, I traced out the man's beard. After tracing it out, I clicked on a few options to erase it completely. Then I did the same thing with his spectacles.

I heard Miranda gasp from my side. "That's--that's--"

Soler nodded, smirking. "Mason Caldwell. Redefined."

"I had this hunch soon after realising Isabella could be Amélie in disguise," I said. "That the man beside her in this picture is none other than Mason Caldwell, only with a beard, glasses, and hair dyed a different colour."

Miranda took a deep breath. "Kaia, you're a genius."

I laughed. "We should've seen this sooner. I mean, they were both right under our noses and we didn't even realise anything! I have no idea why they were at the gala or why they're adopting fake identities, but they're definitely up to something. They're not innocent."

Soler nodded. "And now that we're sure this man is indeed Caldwell, we also have further proof for your theory about Isabella and Amélie, Winter. I'm almost certain you're right."

Miranda spoke up, "Try the editing on Isabella's face too, and see if it's really Amélie."

I nodded and picked out the file photo of Isabella which TIA had first given us. I edited out her mousy brown hair and made it blonde, and removed the mole from under her eye.

Soler nodded. "That does look like Amélie, although we still can't be sure, because Amélie had very curly blonde hair, and Isabella's is pin straight. You only changed the hair colour now. And she must've changed a lot of other things about her appearance, because even after we saw her up close, we couldn't recognise her."