I can see you

Chapter 11

(ROSY'S POV)

The photo looked real. Faded at the edges, smudged like fingers had touched it too many times. Two girls, no older than ten, stood side by side in matching white dresses-one with a ribbon in her hair, the other missing a shoe.

"I thought you should see this," Killian said, voice low like a confession. "You gave it to me once. Years ago."

My hand trembled as I took it, eyes darting between the faces. One of them was unmistakably me-or the version of me I remembered. The other... was her. Riya. My lost twin. My imagined ghost. My maybe-truth.

"I don't remember this," I whispered.

Killian's expression didn't change, but his eyes softened in that way that made me feel protected. "Memory can fracture after trauma. Especially childhood trauma."

Especially after falling from the tree, I thought, my stomach tightening. He sat across from me in the musty little study he'd turned into our meeting space, surrounded by old books, a flickering lamp, and the scent of sandalwood. The world outside didn't exist in here. No Edward. No whispers. Just me and Killian. Who had somehow became my only lifeline now. We had been chasing shadows for a week now but still there is no clue about Riya. Just the photos.

"I don't know what's real anymore," I admitted, clinging to the edge of the photo like it would anchor me. "Sometimes I dream in someone else's skin. I wake up thinking... I was her. That I did things I don't remember."

"Maybe you did," Killian said gently. "Or maybe she did. And maybe, the pain you carry isn't all yours."

I stared at him. "What does that mean?"

He leaned forward. "It means maybe you're not the one who needs forgiveness."

The words hit me like wind through a cracked window. Cold, strange, too quick to grasp.

"As a kid you've always said you feel incomplete," he continued. "That your memories are linked with Riya. So maybe whatever you think you are remembering, guilt or violence...maybe that's not you remembering. Maybe it's Riya screaming."

I pressed the photo to my chest. For a moment, I wanted to cry. But the tears didn't come-only the pressure in my throat, the tight ache behind my eyes. I stared at him. His voice always calmed me. It was warm, slow, careful. Like he was handling something fragile.

"I have dreams that aren't mine," I murmured. "Like I'm in someone else's body. Like I'm watching through a keyhole. It never makes sense."

He leaned forward. "Tell me about them."

I hesitated. "There's always someone I love. Someone I lost. And fire. The fire always comes."

Killian didn't speak for a moment. Then he said, "Do you think Edward knew Riya?"

That caught me off guard. Edward was another secret that had slipped out of me this week. Every time I told myself I should not trust this strange but then I would look into his kind eyes and every bit of restraint I had on my tongue would be lost. "Why would you say that?"

He shrugged. "You said he looks at you like you're not really there. Maybe he sees someone else."

I blinked. That-that made a kind of awful sense. But there was no way this is possible. "I keep thinking if I just talk to him... if I just remind him..."

"Then he'll see you," Killian said.

"Yes." There it was. The way he understood me. The way he never judged me.

He offered a faint smile. "Maybe it's not just about memory. Maybe it's about who you lost and who you became. Maybe you need a closer."

I looked down at the photo again. Two girls. One missing and another damaged.