𝗜𝗧𝗖𝗛 ✔

𝟎𝟕. 𝐀 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 (𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐)

Aiden gaped at her. "Your biological father? But I thought he was dead? You told us he was dead long ago!"

Cara sighed deeply. "That's what I thought, all those years ago. But my mother told me only recently that he wasn't dead. He had left us. When I was two or three. My mom wouldn't tell me. She was scarred from what he had done to her."

Aiden stayed silent, prompting her to go on.

"My mom changed her named back to her maiden name. Vaughn. For all these years, I thought Vaughn was my father's name. But it wasn't. My original name was Cara James. And Hylord...Hylord was my father's first name. That's how I know it's him."

Aiden nodded, not quite sure what to say. "Do you have a plan? Do you know anything else?"

"No. But I'm going to find out."

Cara finished the last of her food and threw it away. "You coming?"

Aiden looked at her sudden movement in surprise. Then, he nodded. "Yeah, I'm coming. What's your plan?"

_*_

It had turned out that Cara's plan had not been much of a plan at all.

News articles, research. That was basically it.

Aiden noticed. "Um..Tiger? This is your plan?"

"Shut it. You got a better plan?"

"True." Aiden fanned out the papers they had printed from the news articles Cara had had on her phone.

Currently, they were sitting in Roseboro's library, having deciding to neglect lunch and start research instead.

"Hmm. We know that my dad is somehow responsible for why a random gang is trying to kill a bunch of innocent people," Cara said, a bitter tone to her voice. "But why? He must have done something drastic for this to happen."

"But what?" asked Aiden. His brow is furrowed in concentration as he looks through the articles for the fifth time this afternoon.

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

Cara put her phone down, ready to stand up and take a small pace. Suddenly, a wave of fatigue washed over her, causing her to sit back down and grip the edges of the fabric on the couch she had been sitting on for support.

"Cara?" said Aiden. He put the papers down on the coffee table and rushed over to her. "Cara, what's wrong?"

Cara rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the headache.

Breathe. How do I breathe? Just take a breath Cara!

Finally, she re-remembered how to breathe and took three short breaths. She sighed, closing her eyes.

"Cara, what's going on?" Aiden's voice rang out in a modulated manner.

Cara shook her hed. "Sorry. I don't know what happened. I was just all of a sudden really, I dunno, dizzy and.." She forcefully blinked again and forced herself to look up at Aiden.

"Are you sick?" Aiden sat down on the sofa beside her, his face having nothing but concern etched over it.

Cara took another deep breath. "I just feel really tired."

"Have you been sleeping?" he asked intently.

"Yeah, but I guess the stress and worry has been getting to me," she replied.

When did I wake up? When did I go to sleep yesterday?

"I dunno. I can't remember exactly when I went to sleep."

Cara stood up, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she stumbled.

"Cara," Aiden said, standing up to secure her. "Cara, listen to me. You've been worrying too much. I told you this would get to you. You need to rest."

Cara snapped back, shaking her head. "No. No, I can't rest. We have things to do -"

"Go back to your dorm. We'll meet after you take a nap," Aiden continued, ignoring her.

Cara sighed. "Fine. You're right." She stretched, and then was gone.