The City Held Its Silence byIrel Knx 159

Posted by ADMINMMADMIN, ? Views, Released on January 22, 2026

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JASMINES POV

My eyebrows sprang up in surprise after he told me he’d been talking to Marco. I put the scissors and clippers on the bathroom sink table behind me before turning back to him with a dumbfounded expression.

“I know you told me not to talk to Marco and to stay away from them.

Even so, he went ahead and did so. Why would he after everything I told him? However, now he was telling me about it. Why? I didn’t want to overreact. I wanted to hear him out to understand what motivated him.

I knelt till I was eye level with him.

“I’m not mad at you,” I said gently to him. “Why are you talking to him?” I asked him.

“Well, he seemed like a nice person and I had fun on the go–karts with him.

“What makes you say he’s in trouble?” I then asked.

On Friday I saw him at lunch and asked if he wanted to play frisbee with my friend Albert and me. I ended up throwing the frisbee a little too far and when we played and he fell in a fountain,” he said taking a short breath.

“His eyes started reacting badly

Though I was suspicious of Marco at the very least it was to do with Diana and not him personally. Was Diana abusing her son? I wouldn’t put it past her she was one crazy bitch after all.

And Keith, ever the oblivious one obviously wouldn’t notice his own child’s distress. Not that I was one to talk considering my first life. Then a thought occurred to me.

“What happened to his skin? I asked him realising he mentioned Marco’s eyes were a problem but didn’t mention his skin. Marco was supposed to have sensitive skin and that’s why he couldn’t get in contact with water.

Tony thought about it for a moment. “Well, I didn’t see his skin reacting to the water just the dark purple marks under his shirt. His eyes were the only ones that gave him trouble after he came out of the water.”

“Mmhmm,” I said as I thought about what he’d just told me. Now that was interesting. I

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remember when I still lived in the house how much Diana always complained about Marcos‘ apparent sensitive skin.

“You never talked to Marco before this, right?” I then asked him to confirm. I wanted to trust him and hoped he was telling the truth.

“No, I only started talking to him after the go–kart, I promise,” he told me.

“I already told you I’m not mad. You’re a good and kind person who cares for others. Of course, I still think it’s not a good idea to get too close to him but since you are concerned for him I understand.” I tried to warn him as gently as I could.

“You told me that you talked to Marco, do you think he has told his mother?” I asked

him.

“Has Marco asked you to do anything? Or offered you something?” I further inquired.

Tony shook his head. “No, we’ve only talked about F1 drivers and played frisbee,” he

told me.

I was just making sure, in case Diana was using Marco to get close to Tony.

“In any case keep what I’ve just said in mind and be cautious around Marco,” I told him. The school premises were a protected space for the most part. I wouldn’t expect something to happen to Tony directly on campus unless Marco himself was the perpetrator. Outside of the school building, absolutely like when Keith took Tony unexpectedly.

Which

There’s just one thing I need you to do for me then,” she said to me. “You want to help Marco right?”

He nodded his head at me.

I picked up a piece of his cut hair from the floor and brought my hand up to his face to show him. “A strand of hair from him if you can is all I need you to get.”

“A hair?” He repeated in confusion.

“Yes,” I repeated. Making it clear.

My idea at the go–karting ring to get Marco’s cup hadn’t been the best. Diana and Keith had all been there which complicated everything. Tony was in protected grounds at the school. Realistically, he would have a better shot at getting a since it

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would be just the two of them.

“Since you’re already talking to him and are getting close all you have to do is talk to him or play again and then take a hair from him. It doesn’t have to be

Tony looked at me in confusion. “How will getting a hair from him help him is

I’ve always known something is wrong with that boy and when Diana fought to keep from getting it on that day, it just further confirmed my suspicions. Getting a DNA test on him will finally prove Diana’s lies.

I wouldn’t be able to use this evidence in court since it didn’t have anything to do with my filing but it could help Marco if he is being abused as Tony suspects. The truth coming out about Diana will put the spotlight on them after all.

“Think you can do it?” I then asked Tony for confirmation.

His eyes darted around nervously for a moment. “I don’t know, I’ll see if I can,” he said

in an unsure tone.

My lips pressed together as I thought of my words to him.

“Again, try to do it at a time you’re sure he won’t suspect you of anything. If it doesn’t feel right don’t do it,” I assured him. “I don’t want you to feel any pressure. It’s okay if you can’t get anyway, alright?”

My eyes searched his as they hoped he wasn’t feeling stressed my request.

“Okay,” he then replied and nodded giving me the reassurance I seeked. “I’ll try.”

“Good,” I replied and raised my body. “Now, should we finish your haircut?” I asked. “Yes, please,” he politely asked. I picked up the clippers and scissors and resumed our barber session.

I just hoped if Tony did get a hair he could get it with no issue, I thought to myself as I carefully trimmed his hair.

It was on Monday when I got an email from the bank which I had my Acland account ip. They sent me a file that contained my bank account information data.

When I told Louis about he told me we would check it once we arrived at his apartment that evening.

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We were mainly busy handling the of the new menus at the Garden house restaurants.

We were carefully monitoring the progress of the menus and seeing how customers were responding to it.

“Oh my god,” Louis said in disbelief as we checked the bank account document on his desktop from his home–office later that evening.

“This whole file is a mess.”

“Yeah,” I agreed as I looked at the the screen. The file showed line after line what almost looked like gibberish. Each line was what I assumed to be different files of data but they were all labeled with random numbers and letters. There were no visible dates on them and the file just seemed to go on and on with no ending in sight as Louis scrolled through it. This was 9 years worth of data after all.

“Like I said, this is raw unedited data,” Louis explained. “It’s all here and it’s stored in an encrypted and compressed format to save memory. That’s why all the different data is labelled in random numbers and letters and what’s more they aren’t in order. This file here could be from April in 2008 whilst the one directly below it is from 2013 December. It’s all a mess.

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Hearing that only made me more nervous.

“So how are we going to be able to go through it?” I asked him. “We have about two weeks till my first hearing in court where I present evidence to defend my filing. Will we have it ready in time?”

“Our biggest challenge is organising the file and relabelling the data so it’s easier to go through,” he explained. “Only a programmer would be able to go through the file and find a way to make the files easier to read. But even so it would be challenging for them