Chapter 5 - The Voice That Came From the Dead
The phone screen glowed in the darkness.
Nobody moved.
Nobody touched it.
Because everyone in that apartment had seen the same thing.
The name on the screen.
Ellen Miller.
Sadi’s mother.
A woman who had been buried six years ago.
The ringing stopped.
For a moment, there was only darkness.
Then the phone rang again.
Carmine immediately raised his hand.
“Don’t answer.”
Sadi looked at him.
“But—”
“Don’t.”
His voice was firm.
Not because he wanted control.
Because he was afraid of what might happen if she did.
Gabriel watched through the video call.
His face had lost all color.
“Answer it.”
Carmine turned.
“Boss.”
“Answer it.”
Everyone looked at Gabriel.
The dying man who had faced bullets, betrayal, and enemies without fear was now staring at a phone with the name of a dead woman.
Sadi slowly reached for it.
Her fingers shook.
The moment she touched the screen, the call connected.
For three seconds, there was only static.
Then a voice came through.
“Sadi?”
Her entire body froze.
She knew that voice.
Not because she had heard it recently.
Because she had spent years wishing she could hear it again.
“Mom?”
Nobody spoke.
Not Carmine.
Not the guards.
Not Gabriel.
The voice on the phone was quiet.
Weak.
But real.
“Sadi, you need to listen carefully.”
Tears immediately filled Sadi’s eyes.
“No.”
She stepped backward.
“No, this isn’t possible.”
“Sadi.”
The voice became more urgent.
“You cannot stay there.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
A painful pause.
Then:
“I’m sorry.”
Those two words broke something inside her.
Because they were the same words her mother used whenever she knew something was about to hurt her.
“Mom, where are you?”
The voice continued.
“Gabriel Falcone is in danger.”
Everyone looked toward the phone.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Sadi looked at him.
“You know him?”
Silence.
The voice on the phone became quieter.
“Sadi, do not trust anyone in that house.”
Gabriel stared.
Even he seemed unable to process what he was hearing.
“Ellen.”
His voice came through the video call.
The room froze.
The voice on the phone stopped.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then the woman whispered:
“Gabriel?”
That single word changed everything.
Because she knew him.
Not from stories.
Not from newspapers.
Personally.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
His breathing became heavier.
“Where are you?”
The phone remained silent.
Then:
“You should have found the truth years ago.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“What truth?”
The call suddenly became distorted.
Static filled the room.
Sadi pressed the phone closer.
“Mom?”
The voice returned for one second.
“Don’t let them find the—”
The call disconnected.
The screen went black.
Nobody moved.
Then Gabriel spoke.
“She’s alive.”
No one answered.
Because nobody knew what to say.
Sadi looked at him.
“My mother knows you.”
Gabriel looked away.
“Yes.”
“How?”
The question was simple.
But the answer was not.
Gabriel had spent years believing his past was buried.
Now it was standing in front of him.
Alive.
Breathing.
Calling his name.
Carmine stepped closer.
“Boss.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You knew about Ellen Miller?”
Carmine hesitated.
Only for a second.
But Gabriel noticed.
And that second was enough.
“What?”
Carmine looked away.
Gabriel’s voice became colder.
“Carmine.”
“I knew the name.”
Sadi stared at him.
“You knew my mother?”
“No.”
“Then why did you recognize it?”
Carmine remained silent.
Gabriel pushed himself higher despite the pain.
“Answer her.”
Carmine finally spoke.
“Because your father had a file about her.”
The room changed.
Again.
Sadi felt like every answer only created more questions.
“My father?”
Carmine nodded.
“Years ago, before Gabriel took control, his father investigated a company connected to illegal medical supplies.”
Sadi remembered the thread.
The stitches.
The notebook.
The warnings.
“What company?”
Carmine looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel understood.
And he hated it.
Because he knew the name.
“The Aurelian Group.”
Sadi whispered the words.
Because those letters were almost the same ones she saw on the surgical container.
A.
V.
R.
Dr. Cole suddenly looked up from the medical supplies.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned.
The doctor walked toward the container they had brought from Gabriel’s room.
He removed the damaged label carefully.
Behind it was another marking.
A company symbol.
A small golden circle with three black lines.
Sadi stepped closer.
Her face changed.
“That symbol.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You know it?”
“My mother drew it.”
Nobody spoke.
Sadi stared at the symbol.
“She drew it hundreds of times.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Gabriel watched her carefully.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
But she did.
At least part of her did.
Because she remembered the night before her mother disappeared.
Not died.
Disappeared.
Sadi had always believed the official story.
A car accident.
A hospital.
A funeral.
But now everything felt different.
Her mother had known something.
She had hidden things.
She had prepared for someone to come looking.
Gabriel looked at the phone.
“We need to find Ellen.”
Carmine nodded.
“We will.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
“She will find us.”
Sadi frowned.
“What?”
Gabriel stared at the disconnected phone.
“She called from somewhere.”
Carmine understood.
“She wanted us to know she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened.
“She wanted someone else to know too.”
Before anyone could respond, every security alarm in the building activated.
The guards immediately moved.
Carmine checked his phone.
“Someone entered the estate.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
Carmine looked at the screen.
Then went completely still.
“What?”
Carmine did not answer.
Gabriel’s voice became sharper.
“Who?”
Carmine slowly turned the phone around.
The security camera showed the mansion entrance.
A woman was standing there.
Older.
Tired.
Wearing a simple coat.
Security guards surrounded her.
But nobody dared touch her.
Because they recognized her.
Sadi covered her mouth.
The woman on the screen looked exactly like the voice from the phone.
Exactly like the woman from her childhood memories.
Gabriel stared.
His entire world stopped.
Because Ellen Miller was standing inside his home.
Alive.
Carmine whispered:
“She came here alone.”
Gabriel looked at the camera.
“Open the door.”
“Boss—”
“Open it.”
The main entrance camera zoomed closer.
Ellen slowly lifted her head.
And looked directly into the lens.
Then she raised one hand.
Holding an old photograph.
A photograph Gabriel had never seen before.
The door unlocked.
Ellen stepped inside.
And the first words she said were not to Sadi.
They were to Gabriel.
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“You need to know what your father did to my daughter…”
Then she turned the photograph over, revealing the name written on the back…
