We didn't have the luxury of waiting for protocol.
Nico and I were already outside Julius's property by the time the sun dipped under the horizon.
The air was too still, like it knew we were walking straight into something dark.
We parked two blocks away and walked through a narrow alley, cutting past locked gates and trimmed hedges that smelled like they'd just been watered.
Every footstep felt heavier.
Every shadow looked like it was watching.
We didn't speak.
Not a word.
There was no need for a plan, we were there to find something solid, anything. And we weren't leaving empty-handed.
Nico crouched beside the locked service gate and pulled out a small kit. Within seconds, he'd disarmed the secondary alarm and unlocked the gate with a click that echoed like a warning.
I exhaled, tightening my grip on the flashlight in my coat pocket.
Inside, the house was too quiet.
The lights were off, but the air conditioning was on, which meant someone had been here recently.
We moved slowly down the hallway, past decorative portraits and polished wooden flooring.
Everything was too pristine.
Too calculated.
But the deeper we got, the colder it felt.
And then we reached the second floor, Julius's private quarters.
"Third door on the left," I whispered. That was the room Selena described. The room that "felt wrong." The one with tension so thick, even through a call, I could feel her dread.
I turned the knob.
And froze.
Photos.
Hundreds of them.
Lining every wall.
Stacked in folders on the desk.
Clipped onto a massive bulletin board beside a calendar marked with names and red ink.
It was Aurora.
From 16 years old… to now.
Her every movement documented.
Her fashion shows.
Her airport appearances.
Even blurry, zoomed-in shots of her inside her condo, walking by windows she probably thought were tinted.
Every year of her life, every hairstyle, every event she attended, he'd been watching. All along.
"What the f—" Nico's voice cracked as he stepped beside me.
He pulled a few photos off the wall, and I followed him to the center of the room.
There were hand-drawn maps. Schedules. Names. My name. Nico's. Luis's. Selena's. All circled in red.
"They're all targets," I muttered, jaw tightening. "He was planning something."
And that's when i saw it.
A printed quote tacked to the middle of the board.
"If i can't have you, then no one will."
I didn't realize how tightly my fists were clenched until i felt blood under my nails. He was obsessed.
This wasn't just infatuation.
It was control. Possession.
A low sound came from the hallway.
We turned off our flashlights and ducked behind the desk. Footsteps. Two of them.
Muffled voices.
I recognized one instantly. Julius. Confident. Calm. Like nothing could touch him.
The other…
"…take the mask off. I can't hear you clearly."
I peered from behind the desk, only a sliver of their silhouettes visible through the ajar door.
When the mask came off, my heart nearly stopped.
"Bianca?" I mouthed silently.
Aurora's manager. The same woman who cried when Aurora went into hiding. The one who gave Aurora's clothes and belongings.
It wasn't Judge Javier.
It had been Bianca all along, posing, hiding under robes and a mask, working with Julius to shut Luis up, to keep Aurora terrified, and to pin everything on Selena.
"I told you we need to move fast," Bianca whispered. "They're catching up. That damn lawyer, he's not backing off."
Julius laughed darkly. "Let them try. They don't have proof. Everything's been erased."
"Not everything," I whispered to myself as Nico raised his phone and clicked the camera shutter over and over. Every photo. Every recording. Every word.
We backed away silently, and when we finally made it to the car, I didn't realize i was shaking.
"This isn't just about Aurora," I said once we were inside. "It's about control. About power. Julius wanted to own her life. And when he couldn't, he tried to end it."
"And Luis heard it all," Nico added. "He paid the price."
We didn't waste time.
We drove straight to an old colleague of mine, Prosecutor Isla Vergara.
She wasn't just competent.
She was fearless.
She'd gone against senators, business tycoons, and once even a cousin of the Vice President.
When we handed her the files, she flipped through them, face hardening with each photo.
"Do you know who he is?" I asked. "Julius. His father's a major political donor. He's not going to go down quietly."
She met my eyes.
"I don't care if he's the president's godson. If the evidence holds, I'll make sure it sticks. And this—" she held up a picture of Aurora crying at age 17, unaware she was being watched"—this is going to haunt him."
-
It didn't feel victorious.
It should've.
We had the evidence.
We had the names.
We had the damn truth.
But as we drove back, with the Manila skyline stretching into a blur of sleepless lights, all I felt was… sick.
This wasn't over. Not yet.
Because Julius wasn't just some obsessed freak. He was born powerful. Untouchable.
He knew people in places where the law got rewritten in favor of the highest bidder. And Bianca? She was the chess piece no one saw coming, trusted, praised, always by Aurora's side. And the whole time, she was leading her straight into hell.
I didn't call Aurora.
I couldn't.
Not until we were sure they were behind bars, not until it was safe enough to even say her name out loud without risking her being hunted again.
But her face wouldn't leave my head.
The look she gave me when she finally admitted she wasn't sleeping.
The way her hands trembled when i held them.
The way she flinched every time her phone buzzed as if she was expecting another threat. Another headline. Another betrayal.
She'd been carrying this weight alone for so long.
And now i understood why.
Julius didn't want to ruin her.
He wanted to own her.
He'd stolen her privacy. Her safety. Her sense of control. And when she didn't play along, he came for her life, one piece at a time.
I'd promised her i'd never let him get near her again.
And this time, I meant it.
By dawn, Isla had issued an urgent motion to freeze Julius's accounts. By 10 AM, the Philippine Cyber Crimes Division was raiding both Julius's office and Bianca's agency, and by 11, Bianca was caught trying to board a flight to Singapore under a fake name.
But Julius?
Gone.
Vanished before the warrant hit his front gate.
"I want his face on every watchlist," Isla said, pacing in front of a whiteboard littered with surveillance shots. "No one runs forever."
I stared at the picture on her desk. Aurora. Eighteen years old. Onstage. Wearing a bright red gown and smiling like she had the world at her feet.
I had to get to her before the news did.
Before the headlines said too much, or worse, said it all wrong.
I didn't knock when i reached the safe house.
The moment i opened the door, I heard the soft click of her phone hitting the floor.
She stood frozen in the middle of the living room. Eyes wide. Barefoot. Wearing one of my old hoodies.
"Lance…"
I didn't speak.
I just walked up to her, wrapped my arms around her shaking frame, and held her tighter than i ever had before.
"They got Bianca," I said quietly, lips near her ear. "They found the photos. All of it. We know everything."
She didn't cry.
Not yet.
But she clung to me like she was drowning, and i was the only thing keeping her above water.
"How long?" she whispered. "How long has he been watching me?"
I pulled back enough to meet her eyes. "Since you were sixteen."
She exhaled, short and sharp, like a wound bursting open.
And then the tears came.
Silent at first. Then aching. Then uncontrollable.
I guided her to the couch, sat with her on my lap, and let her cry into my shoulder until my shirt was soaked and her voice was hoarse.
"I thought i was paranoid," she said between sobs. "I thought maybe i was overreacting. That maybe the buzzing phone, the locked dressing rooms, the anonymous emails… maybe it was just stress. But i was right, wasn't i?"
I nodded, gripping her tighter. "You were right. And i'm so damn sorry no one believed you sooner."
She looked up at me, eyes red. "Did he kill Luis?"
I hesitated.
Then said, "We don't know for sure yet. But we think Luis heard something he wasn't supposed to. And they silenced him."
Aurora broke.
That was the moment i saw it.
Not just pain. Not just grief. But guilt.
"I need to speak at his wake," she said, wiping her face with her sleeve. "I need to say goodbye properly. For both of us."
"I'll be right beside you," I said. "Through everything."
She nodded slowly, leaning her forehead against mine.
When her phone buzzed on the floor.
Because this time, she knew she wasn't alone.
And this time, she wasn't the hunted.
She was the storm.