I parked the car in front of my grandmother's house in the suburbs of Westchester County, where I grew up.

It occurred to me that my dad might have told her something when he suspected he was exposed. Also, I remembered that had an old room at my grandparent's house that he used as an office when he was studying at Quantico. And he spent lots of time there whenever we stayed over there. I hoped we would find some clues in there.

I rushed to the front door, Liam following behind me.

Ringing the doorbell, I noticed that my heartbeats were racing.

My grandfather passed away a few years ago, and my grandmother was currently living all by herself. That made me very guilty when I decided to move out and rent an apartment in the heart of the city so I would be close to the Federal Plaza.

However, my grandmother had already gotten used to having me away from her since my Quantico days. It helped her make peace with the fact that her baby girl and favorite granddaughter had become a grown-up woman. And of course, I had promised to visit her a lot. But with everything that happened in the past few months, I had broken that promise and was definitely about to get into so much trouble for it.

The door opened, and I was met with my grandmother's warm hazel eyes. Her worried expression changed the moment her eyes met mine.

She hurried and pulled me in for a hug. I hugged her back tightly and buried my face in her shoulders.

When I was a little kid, her hugs used to make all my worries disappear like rain on summer's earth. I really wished that could happen now, too.

She held my face in her hands when she broke the hug. "Alex, my dear. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Granny." I took a good look at her. She was still wearing her sleeping gown, as it was still pretty early in the morning. Liam and I stayed up all night, so we really didn't consider this little detail. "I'm really sorry for waking you up so early, and for not calling before I came here."

"Honey, you can come here anytime you want." She smiled at me, and then her gaze shifted to Liam, who was standing a little farther from us.

I gestured for him to come closer. "Oh, Granny. This is Liam Hunt, my partner."

He smiled politely and extended his hand for her to shake it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

My grandmother ignored his extended hand and pulled him into a hug.

I chuckled when I noticed the embarrassed look that was drawn on Liam's face.

"He's such a sweetheart," my grandmother said when she broke the hug, looking at me.

I just grinned, and I could see Liam blush a little.

"And please, just call me Ellen," she told him, and he nodded quietly.

She gestured for us to get inside the house. "Come on, get in. From your faces, I could tell that there's something serious going on."

She chuckled when I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering how she knew that.

"I have raised two FBI agents. This is only natural by now."

That made both Liam and me smile.

"But whatever you got, it has to wait after breakfast," she said with a look that meant it wasn't even up for discussion.

We got in. She guided Liam toward the living room and stopped me before I had the chance to join him.

"He's definitely easy on the eyes." She grinned.

My eyes widened a little at hearing this come out of my grandmother, even though a blindfolded person could easily agree with this little fact.

"And he's my partner." I gave her a look that said what she was implying was impossible.

She shrugged. "From the way you both look at each other, I think you're more than just that." She winked at me before she disappeared into the kitchen, and left me motionless, thinking about what she had just told me.

Well, we were close friends and not just partners, but could we be even more than that?

I shook my head. That was definitely not the best time to be thinking about something like that.

I joined Liam in the living room but didn't sit down.

"Your grandmother is lovely," Liam spoke up, smiling at me.

"She is, indeed." I smiled back, thinking about the countless memories I shared with her. "She was so strong after what happened, even though she had just lost her son and her daughter-in-law. But thinking about it now, I know it was only because of me. She tried so hard to fill the void that day left in me. She was the solid rock I leaned on and kept me from falling apart, and she knew that very well."

Liam gave me a compassionate look but remained silent.

"Come on, let's check the office upstairs." I have already told Liam about my dad's old office on our way here.

He nodded and followed me upstairs. We went into the office, and it looked like it had been used yesterday. After everything went down, my grandma kept going there all the time, and she probably still did.

We started looking everywhere, but there were only files of old cases and books from his student days. There were also a couple of boxes that were stuffed with papers and files. Liam and I started looking through them thoroughly.

We found a file that had the word confidential printed on the cover; we opened it quickly. It contained many pictures of murder victims, identical to the ones I had found before. The infamous Chinese symbol was the common factor in every murder case in those files.

There were also pictures of some people, but we didn't know any of them. Besides, most of the information in the papers was sealed, so we couldn't find anything useful.

"This can't be what Mancini was talking about," I said, looking at the file in my hand in disappointment. "It has nothing."

I slammed the file on the desk in anger, and when I did, a small note fell from it. I kneeled, picked it up, and looked at it carefully. It was definitely written in my dad's handwriting.

"What's written on it?" Liam asked.

I showed it to him. The note only had the name Peter Harris, and the letters NYPD written next to it.

"Alex, this could be a lead," Liam said, his blue eyes lighting up.

I nodded, looking at the note again. We had to find this Peter Harris.

"Breakfast's ready," my grandmother called from downstairs.

We decided to make do with what we got, and we went downstairs to join my grandmother. From the smell, I could tell that she had prepared my favorite breakfast, and I grinned when I found out that I was right.

As we ate breakfast together, we talked about many random things, and it felt good for a while, but I knew I had to tell her about the case inevitably. However, I kept wondering how I was going to open up the subject with her.

How was I supposed to tell her that I was currently working on the same case that got her son killed? Not only that, but I was also about to walk down the same path he took.

I finished my coffee, and when I finally felt that the caffeine had started to kick in, I decided it was about time to tell her why we were actually here.

"Granny," I addressed her.

"Getting down to business, I see." She smiled. "What's wrong, Honey?"

"I—I wanted to ask you if Dad mentioned keeping any files away, or if he had secret places anywhere, especially before he um—" I paused. I couldn't bring myself to continue, but I knew I didn't need to from the look on her face.

Rubbing my hands, I let out a deep breath to regain control and looked at Liam, who gave me a reassuring look.

I watched as my grandmother closed her eyes, looking in deep thought for a few moments. Then she shook her head.

"I don't think he had ever told me about anything like this. But why are you looking for them now?" she asked, and I could see her eyes clouding with apprehension.

I opened my mouth a few times, but no words came out of it. I looked at Liam for rescue.

"We're currently working on a case, and we think the files in question might be of great help," Liam answered her question, taking in my silent SOS signal.

"A case?" she asked, then she looked at me once again. "Alex, don't tell me it's related to—" She paused, but I knew exactly what she meant. "To whatever got your father killed." She was now looking at me with pleading eyes.

I remained silent for a few moments, thinking about the right words to use. Then I sighed and closed my eyes. "It is," I admitted.

"Alex, are you out of your mind?" she yelled, and I could see the tears already gathering in her eyes.

"Grandma, we got the man who did it," I told her, thinking it might bring her peace if she knew that.

"I don't care. It has been too many years for that wound to be ripped open again and for you to give up your life for it."

A few tears rolled down her cheeks, and it broke my heart to see her like this.

"Alex, I can't lose you too." She shook her head, her voice breaking.

I walked up to her and kneeled down on the floor. I wiped the tears from her face with a gentle touch.

"You will not lose me. I promise you I will be okay. I will win this war and come back to you," I told her, feeling the tears already burning in my eyes. "But you need to understand. Dad worked so hard to gather the information within those files because he knew how important they were. They will help bring down so many bad people. So, it's my duty toward him, toward my job, and toward the oath I took, to find them and bring them to light."

She wiped her tears and nodded. "I understand." Then she looked at Liam, who was watching all of this in silence. "Please, take good care of her."

I noticed that Liam was caught off-guard, but he nodded quickly. "I will," he said, and from the look in his eyes, I knew he meant it.

I hugged my grandmother one last time and promised her again that I would be okay, then Liam and I left the house.

Now, we had one goal, and it was to find out everything there was to find on Peter Harris...