Those days, as brief as they were, were some of the happiest in his whole life. Even when his mentor tricked him into underground fights and he ended up black and blue, he still felt a strange kind of joy.
He always knew, deep down, that none of it was real—his father had sent him to Nemo on purpose, and he’d approached Chloe with his own hidden agenda. But the happiness he felt was real. Those few years brought color into his otherwise gray world.
“Friend.”
Chloe’s voice broke the silence, soft and familiar.
That single word almost pulled him back into those old memories, but Grant quickly snapped out of it. He looked at her, surprised. “You remember everything now?”
There was no way Chloe would call him “friend” otherwise.
Chloe flashed a small smile. “I guess I have you to thank for that. When I was locked in the water cell, pushed to my limit, I suddenly got all my memories back.”
Grant hadn’t realized she’d remembered everything then—he always thought it happened later, after Nemo’s treatments.
He looked away, his voice colder than before. “If I’d known, I probably would’ve gone even harder on you.”
Chloe just laughed it off. “Come on, friend, sit down. It’s been forever since we’ve had a meal like this.”
Everyone seemed to get the mood, and nobody tried to bring up anything else. They just ate together, with Isaac cracking jokes and keeping things light, making the meal feel almost normal.
Grant barely said a word the whole time. Only after finishing his soup did he finally speak up.
Grant went on, “One more thing, Chloe. Of the four families’ keys to the treasure, you have three of them. Please bring them with you.”
Chloe blinked in surprise. “Why do I have them?”
Grant looked like he had no patience for explanations. “Just ask Mr. Connor.”
After the dinner was over, Chloe found Connor and asked what was going on.
Connor explained, “It’s just an old legend from a hundred years ago. Nobody really knows if there’s actually a treasure or not.”
When he finished, Chloe frowned, feeling a strange sense of unease. Something about all of this just didn’t sit right.
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