Chapter 6 - The Voice From The Past
The phone kept ringing.
Nobody touched it.
Nobody breathed.
The old device sat inside the wooden box, glowing in the darkness.
The name on the screen remained unchanged.
Mara.
My name.
My hands became cold.
"That's not possible."
My mother's voice was barely a whisper.
I looked at her.
For the first time since I saw her again, she looked truly afraid.
Not afraid of Adrian.
Not afraid of Lucian.
Afraid of that phone.
"What is it?"
Nobody answered.
I picked it up.
The screen was cracked.
The battery should have been dead.
The phone should have been nothing more than an old piece of plastic forgotten inside a box.
But it was alive.
And someone was calling me.
My thumb hovered over the answer button.
"Mara."
Adrian's voice stopped me.
I looked at him.
"Don't answer."
The words shocked me.
Because Adrian Voss was the kind of man who never hesitated.
But now...
He was asking me not to do something.
"Why?"
His eyes moved to the phone.
"Because whoever is calling that phone knows things they shouldn't know."
I looked down.
The phone continued ringing.
"Like what?"
Adrian didn't respond.
My mother did.
"Like your future."
I stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
She stepped closer.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"That phone was created for one purpose."
"Which is?"
"To contact the person who would inherit everything."
I laughed quietly.
Not because it was funny.
Because nothing made sense anymore.
"I don't inherit anything."
My mother looked at Adrian.
Then at Lucian.
"You do."
The room went silent.
I looked at Adrian.
"What?"
Nobody spoke.
The phone kept ringing.
I pressed the answer button.
Everyone reacted.
Adrian moved forward.
But it was too late.
The call connected.
At first, there was only silence.
Then breathing.
Slow.
Calm.
A voice finally spoke.
"Mara."
My heart stopped.
Because I knew that voice.
Not because I had heard it before.
Because it sounded like a memory.
A voice from dreams.
A voice from childhood.
"Who is this?"
The person on the other end didn't answer immediately.
Then:
"You have your mother's eyes."
I froze.
My mother covered her mouth.
Adrian's expression changed.
"Father."
The word came out quietly.
I looked at him.
Father?
No.
That wasn't possible.
Adrian's father had been dead.
Everyone knew that.
But tonight I had learned something.
Everyone was wrong.
The voice on the phone laughed softly.
"Still protecting secrets, Adrian?"
Adrian stepped closer.
"How are you alive?"
The man ignored him.
His attention stayed on me.
"Mara."
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"Who are you?"
A pause.
Then the answer.
"The man your mother spent twenty years trying to hide you from."
My stomach dropped.
My mother stepped forward.
"Don't listen to him."
The voice heard her.
And became softer.
"Hello, Elena."
My mother's face changed.
She looked like she had been punched.
Nobody had called her by that name.
Not in front of me.
Not ever.
"You know her?"
The voice replied:
"I knew her before Adrian was born."
Adrian's expression turned darker.
"Enough."
The voice ignored him.
"Mara, your mother lied to you."
I looked at Elena.
My mother.
The woman who disappeared.
The woman who watched me grow up from a distance.
The woman who let me hate her.
"What is he talking about?"
She shook her head.
"Don't."
"Tell me."
My voice broke.
"Everyone keeps telling me to wait."
I looked around the room.
"Wait for answers."
"Wait for explanations."
"Wait until it's safe."
I held the phone tighter.
"I waited twenty years."
Nobody moved.
"So now I want the truth."
The silence after my words was painful.
Then the voice on the phone said:
"Good."
A chill went through me.
"Your mother always wanted you to be strong."
I frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"She didn't disappear to abandon you."
I looked at Elena.
"Then why?"
The voice became serious.
"Because she discovered what Adrian's family built."
My eyes moved to Adrian.
"What?"
The voice continued.
"An empire built on blood."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"Don't listen to him."
The voice laughed.
"Still pretending you don't know?"
The room became tense.
I looked at Adrian.
"Is it true?"
He didn't answer.
That was enough.
I stepped back.
"You knew."
"Mara."
"No."
I shook my head.
"You knew there was something."
Adrian looked at me.
"I knew there were things my father did."
"Your father?"
I looked at the phone.
Then back at him.
"He's alive."
Adrian didn't deny it.
"And you knew."
His silence hurt more than any answer.
The voice spoke again.
"Ask him about the night your mother vanished."
My mother looked at Adrian.
A strange sadness crossed her face.
"Adrian..."
He closed his eyes.
Like he was remembering something he had spent years trying to forget.
"What happened?"
I asked.
No answer.
"What happened that night?"
Adrian finally spoke.
Quietly.
"I was there."
The words hit me.
My heart stopped.
"You were what?"
"I was there."
The room felt smaller.
"You were there when my mother disappeared?"
Adrian nodded once.
I couldn't breathe.
"And you never told me?"
His eyes met mine.
"I was trying to protect you."
I laughed.
A broken laugh.
"Everyone says that."
The phone suddenly went silent.
The call ended.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Just silence.
Then a message appeared.
From the same unknown number.
Adrian saw it.
His face changed.
"What does it say?"
I looked at the screen.
Three lines.
Three sentences.
You have ten minutes.
Leave the building.
Or your mother dies again.
My blood turned cold.
I looked at Elena.
She looked terrified.
Because she knew something.
"What does this mean?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she walked toward the window.
Slowly.
Then she pulled back the curtain.
I followed her eyes.
Across the street.
A black car was parked in the darkness.
The engine was running.
Someone sat inside.
Watching us.
Adrian immediately grabbed his weapon.
"Everyone down."
The room exploded into movement.
Guards rushed to the windows.
Lucian pulled Elena away.
I stood frozen.
Because the person inside the car wasn't hiding anymore.
The window lowered.
A figure stepped out.
Even from that distance, I could see his face.
And I knew him.
Not because I had met him.
Because I had seen him in the photograph.
The man from my mother's past.
The man everyone thought was dead.
Adrian whispered:
"No..."
I looked at him.
"Who is that?"
Adrian's face turned pale.
Because the man outside lifted his hand.
And waved directly at me.
Then he walked toward the entrance.
The same entrance where Adrian's security team was waiting.
The doors unlocked.
May you like
From the outside.
And someone entered the building who should have been dead for twenty years...
