Nick left the Peddler's building with Kiara, Jonathan, and the girl following him.
Jonathan and Kiara hadn't noticed it, but their dynamic with Nick had already changed.
Earlier, they had followed Nick because he had essentially threatened them with their lives.
But now, they just naturally followed him.
Naturally, that was because of what they had just seen.
Stephen had harbored such a dark secret, and most likely, Ardum must have known about it or, even worse, actually supported it.
It was still very difficult for them to accept that the nice boss they had known for months actually had such a dark secret.
Kiara, especially, wanted to deny that Ardum knew about these things.
But the only way this would be possible was if all of this had been set up by Nick.
However, that was just too unrealistic.
It would have required so much work, and Nick would have even needed to fool a small girl into lying very convincingly.