Chapter 4 - The Voice From My Mother’s Past
The voice came again.
"Adrien..."
Nobody moved.
Not even the guards.
The elevator doors continued closing slowly, blocking the darkness inside.
Adrien stood frozen.
I had never seen him like that.
Not angry.
Not dangerous.
Just completely still.
Like someone had taken away the one thing that kept him in control.
"Who is that?" I whispered.
He didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the elevator.
The voice came from somewhere behind us.
Somewhere inside the old hidden hallway.
"Adrien..."
This time, I heard it clearly.
It was a woman's voice.
Older.
Calm.
Familiar.
And for some reason, my heart started beating faster.
Because I knew that voice too.
Not because I had heard it recently.
But because I had heard it in my childhood.
In old memories.
In moments I thought I had forgotten.
"Mom?"
The word escaped before I could stop it.
Everyone looked at me.
Adrien turned immediately.
"What did you say?"
I swallowed.
"I..."
My voice shook.
"That sounded like my mother."
The entire hallway went silent.
One of the guards lowered his weapon slightly.
"Boss..."
Adrien didn't look away from me.
"Clara."
His voice was different.
"Are you sure?"
I wanted to say no.
I wanted to tell him I was confused.
That fear was making me imagine things.
But I couldn't.
Because some part of me already knew.
"I haven't heard that voice in years."
Adrien stared at me.
"Your mother is dead."
The words hit harder than I expected.
I knew that.
Of course I knew that.
My mother died three years ago.
A car accident.
At least, that was what everyone told me.
But suddenly, standing inside that hidden hallway, surrounded by secrets, I wasn't sure I believed anything anymore.
"Then why did you look scared when you heard her?"
Adrien didn't answer.
And that was my answer.
Something moved behind the elevator doors.
A shadow.
Everyone raised their weapons again.
Adrien stepped forward.
"Stay here."
"No."
He looked back at me.
"Clara."
"I came this far because of my mother."
His expression hardened.
"This isn't a game."
"I know."
"You don't know what you're walking into."
I looked at the old necklace in his hand.
"My entire life has been a lie."
A pause.
"So I think I deserve to know why."
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Adrien did something I never expected.
He handed me the necklace.
"Keep this."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because if someone wanted you to find it..."
He looked toward the elevator.
"They wanted you to remember something."
The doors opened again.
Slowly.
The inside was empty.
The voice was gone.
But something was waiting.
A small recording device sat on the elevator floor.
Adrien picked it up.
No one touched it.
No one spoke.
There was only a small red light blinking.
Recording.
The guard looked at Adrien.
"Should we play it?"
Adrien stared at the device.
Then at me.
"Yes."
The guard pressed the button.
Static filled the hallway.
Then a woman's voice appeared.
A voice that made my entire body freeze.
"Clara..."
I covered my mouth.
It was her.
My mother.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakably her.
"If you are hearing this, it means they failed to keep you away."
My eyes filled with tears.
Adrien looked down.
The recording continued.
"I know you have questions."
A pause.
"I know you believe I abandoned you."
I shook my head.
"No..."
The guards looked at me.
I didn't care.
Because my mother was speaking.
After three years of silence.
"I need you to listen carefully, Clara."
Her voice became quieter.
"Do not trust anyone who tells you they are protecting you."
I looked at Adrien.
He didn't react.
But I noticed his hand tighten.
"Not even Adrien Moretti."
The entire hallway changed.
Every guard looked at him.
I looked at him too.
The recording continued.
"Adrien was the only person who tried to save me."
I stopped breathing.
"But he made one mistake."
A pause.
"He trusted the wrong person."
Adrien closed his eyes.
Like those words confirmed something he already feared.
The recording continued.
"Clara, if you are standing beside Adrien right now..."
The sound became distorted.
Then my mother's voice returned.
"Ask him about the night I disappeared."
I looked at Adrien.
He didn't move.
"Ask him why he told everyone I was dead."
My heart dropped.
I stared at him.
"What?"
Nobody spoke.
The recording ended.
The hallway was silent.
I turned toward Adrien.
"She said you told everyone she was dead."
He looked at the floor.
"Clara..."
"No."
My voice became louder.
"You knew my mother?"
He didn't answer.
"You knew she disappeared?"
Still nothing.
"You knew she wasn't just in an accident?"
The silence was unbearable.
Finally, Adrien looked at me.
"I knew."
The honesty hurt more than a lie.
I stepped back.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"And you never told me?"
"I didn't know who you were."
That stopped me.
"What?"
Adrien took a breath.
"Your mother spent years trying to hide you."
He looked at the necklace.
"When she disappeared, everyone believed she was dead."
"But you didn't."
"No."
His eyes met mine.
"I knew she was running."
"From who?"
Adrien didn't answer.
Again.
That same silence.
That same fear.
I was starting to understand something.
Adrien Moretti wasn't hiding information because he wanted power.
He was hiding it because he was afraid of what would happen if I knew.
"Who was she running from?"
Before he could answer, every phone in the room vibrated at the same time.
The guards immediately checked their devices.
Adrien's phone lit up.
One message.
Unknown number.
He opened it.
Then his face changed.
"What is it?" I asked.
He didn't respond.
He turned the phone toward me.
There was a photograph.
My blood turned cold.
It was a picture of me.
Taken tonight.
Inside the mansion.
Standing next to Adrien.
But that wasn't what terrified me.
The picture was taken from behind us.
From inside the hallway.
Someone had been watching us.
The message underneath contained only one sentence.
"She finally found the man who killed her mother."
Nobody spoke.
Adrien stared at the screen.
Then suddenly, the lights went out again.
This time, there was no alarm.
No warning.
Just darkness.
A second later, the sound of a door unlocking came from the end of the hallway.
Everyone turned.
The old hidden door beside the elevator slowly opened.
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And someone whispered from inside:
"Clara Bennett..."
