Chapter 5 - The Last Message From Mia
"Lena... if you are watching this, it means they already found you."
Mia's voice filled the old storage room.
Nobody moved.
Nobody even breathed.
I stared at the screen, unable to believe what I was seeing.
The woman in front of me was the same woman who used to sit beside me during late shifts, sharing cheap coffee in the kitchen because neither of us had time for real breaks.
The same woman who laughed when customers complained.
The same woman who always told me I was stronger than I believed.
But the person on the screen looked different.
She looked afraid.
Not nervous.
Not stressed.
Terrified.
Mia looked directly into the camera.
"If you are seeing this, please listen carefully. Do not trust anyone at Bellhaven."
My eyes moved toward Sebastian.
For a second, I wondered if Mia meant him.
He noticed.
And somehow, that hurt him.
"I don't know who you can trust anymore," Mia continued. "But I know one thing. They will try to convince you that I disappeared because I ran away."
She paused.
"They are lying."
Emma covered her mouth.
Sebastian stepped closer to the screen.
"Mia..."
His voice was barely audible.
The video continued.
"I found something hidden inside Bellhaven. Something that was never supposed to exist."
Mia looked over her shoulder.
Like she was afraid someone was nearby.
"There is a reason employees disappear. There is a reason people leave without saying goodbye."
She leaned closer to the camera.
"And Lena..."
My heart stopped.
"Do not blame yourself."
I felt tears forming before I even understood why.
Because those words were exactly what I had needed to hear.
For three months, I had wondered if I should have done something.
Called someone.
Looked harder.
Asked more questions.
But Mia knew.
She knew I would blame myself.
The video continued.
"The night I disappeared, I wasn't running away."
A sound came from the recording.
A door opening.
Mia turned toward it.
Her face changed.
Someone had entered.
The video suddenly became shaky.
"Lena, if you still have the key..."
I looked at the silver key on the table.
My breathing stopped.
"...you have to find the room beneath the old restaurant."
Sebastian looked around the storage room.
"We're already there."
But Mia wasn't finished.
"The truth is not in this room."
A pause.
"The truth is where they kept the original records."
The screen flickered.
Then Mia whispered:
"And the person who helped them hide everything is someone you see every day."
The video stopped.
The room went silent.
No one spoke.
Because everyone was thinking the same thing.
Someone inside Bellhaven had helped.
Someone close.
Someone trusted.
Emma slowly looked at Sebastian.
"Who?"
He didn't answer.
I looked at him.
"You know something."
His silence confirmed it.
My chest tightened.
"Sebastian."
He looked at me.
"There was someone who managed Bellhaven's private operations three months ago."
"Who?"
His expression became darker.
"Victor Cross."
The name meant nothing to me.
But Emma reacted immediately.
"He's dead."
Sebastian nodded.
"Everyone thinks he is."
I stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Sebastian walked away from the computer.
"It means someone wanted everyone to believe he disappeared."
The room suddenly felt colder.
"Why?"
"Because Victor was the person who controlled everything behind the scenes."
I looked at the video.
At Mia's frightened face frozen on the screen.
"And you think he's alive?"
Sebastian didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
We left the storage room an hour later.
But the questions followed us.
Too many questions.
The biggest one was simple.
Who was the person Mia warned me about?
The person I saw every day.
The person who helped hide the truth.
When we returned upstairs, Bellhaven looked completely different.
The same expensive tables.
The same golden lights.
The same people pretending nothing was wrong.
But now I knew.
There were secrets beneath the marble floors.
Secrets people had killed to protect.
Sebastian walked beside me.
"You need to leave the city."
I stopped.
"What?"
"Tonight."
I looked at him.
"No."
His expression hardened.
"Lena."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You don't get to decide everything for me."
He looked surprised.
Maybe because nobody spoke to him that way.
Maybe because he wasn't used to someone like me refusing.
"I am not running."
"This isn't about being brave."
"Then what is it about?"
His voice became quieter.
"It's about staying alive."
The words hit me.
Because I realized something.
Sebastian wasn't trying to control me.
He was afraid.
Afraid something would happen to me.
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Again.
Sebastian immediately looked at the screen.
"Don't answer."
But I did.
I don't know why.
Maybe because I was tired of being afraid.
Maybe because I needed answers.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then a voice.
Not the same voice as before.
A woman's voice.
"Lena."
My blood ran cold.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it many times.
At Bellhaven.
During every shift.
"Who is this?"
The woman laughed softly.
"You really don't remember me?"
I couldn't speak.
Sebastian watched my face.
"Lena, hang up."
The woman continued.
"You were always kind to me."
My hand tightened around the phone.
Kind?
There was only one person who spoke like that.
Someone who worked at Bellhaven.
Someone I trusted.
Then the woman whispered:
"You should have listened to Mia."
The call ended.
I slowly lowered my phone.
Sebastian looked at me.
"Who was it?"
I looked toward the restaurant entrance.
Because suddenly I knew.
The person behind everything wasn't hiding outside.
They had been standing beside me this entire time.
I whispered:
"It was Claire."
Sebastian's expression changed.
"Claire?"
I nodded.
The same Claire who asked if I was okay.
The same Claire who told me Sebastian was watching me.
The same Claire who had stood beside me every night.
Sebastian immediately reached for his phone.
"Call security."
But before he could finish, every screen inside Bellhaven suddenly turned black.
The lights flickered.
The restaurant went silent.
Then all the monitors displayed one image.
A photograph of Mia.
Underneath it was a message.
Written in red:
"YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT HER ALONE."
Sebastian looked toward the entrance.
May you like
The front doors slowly opened.
And Claire walked inside holding a folder with Mia's name on it.
