Chapter 5 - The Phone Call From the Dead
The phone kept ringing.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The screen continued glowing in Bianca’s hand.
Evelyn Cole.
Adrian stared at the name like the world had stopped making sense.
His mother.
The woman whose photograph was sitting downstairs.
The woman whose funeral he had missed.
The woman who had been gone for one hundred days.
“No.”
His voice was barely audible.
Bianca’s face turned pale.
She looked at the phone.
Then at Adrian.
Then at me.
I noticed it immediately.
She wasn’t confused.
She was scared.
“Answer it,” Adrian said.
Bianca didn’t move.
“Bianca.”
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
“It’s impossible.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“I said answer it.”
She finally pressed the button.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Only breathing.
A slow, quiet breath.
Then a voice came through the speaker.
A voice that made Adrian stop breathing.
“Adrian.”
His face changed.
Because he knew that voice.
Every child knows their mother’s voice.
Even after years.
Even after death.
Even after goodbye.
“Mom?”
The word came out broken.
Bianca immediately looked at him.
I felt a cold wave move through me.
Because I had never heard Adrian sound like that.
Not when he left.
Not when he asked for a divorce.
Not when he saw the memorial.
Only now.
Only hearing her voice.
“Adrian,” the voice repeated.
“You finally came home.”
He grabbed the phone from Bianca.
“Mom?”
His hand was shaking.
“This isn’t possible.”
A pause.
Then:
“You always said that when the truth was too painful.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
I watched him struggle.
He wanted to believe.
He wanted to deny.
He wanted to find a logical explanation.
But there are some moments where logic disappears.
“Where are you?”
The voice remained calm.
“Not where you think.”
Adrian looked around the room.
“Who has this phone?”
Another silence.
Then Evelyn spoke.
“Ask Bianca.”
Everyone froze.
Bianca’s expression changed.
“What?”
Adrian turned slowly.
“What did she mean?”
Bianca stepped backward.
“I don’t know.”
But this time, Adrian didn’t believe her.
Neither did I.
“Mom,” he said into the phone.
“Tell me what is happening.”
Evelyn’s voice became softer.
“Adrian, listen carefully.”
The room became silent.
Even the baby stopped crying.
“Do not trust the person who brought my grandson into this house.”
Adrian looked at Bianca.
Her face lost all color.
“What?”
I felt my heartbeat increase.
Grandson.
The word stayed in my mind.
Because Evelyn knew.
She knew about the baby.
But how?
She had died before Adrian came home.
Before he introduced Bianca.
Before anyone knew.
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
The voice on the phone trembled slightly.
“Your son is not the only secret they brought back.”
Adrian looked confused.
“Who is they?”
The call suddenly became distorted.
A sharp noise filled the room.
“Mom?”
Static.
Then the voice returned.
“Adrian, you need to find the—”
The call ended.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Adrian stared at the phone.
Then at Bianca.
“What did she mean?”
Bianca didn’t answer.
“Bianca.”
“I don’t know.”
He laughed once.
But there was no humor.
“You don’t know anything today.”
She looked hurt.
“You think I’m lying?”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
That was the first time I saw Adrian look at Bianca the way he used to look at me when he suspected something.
The same cold distance.
The same doubt.
The same disappointment.
She noticed it too.
“After everything I did for you?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Everything you did?”
Her eyes filled with anger.
“Yes.”
She pointed toward me.
“You brought me here.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Bianca looked directly at me.
“You think you know everything because you stayed with his mother.”
I didn’t respond.
She continued.
“You think you were the only one who helped Evelyn?”
Adrian turned.
“What are you saying?”
Bianca stopped.
Too late.
The words were already out.
I stepped closer.
“What did you do for Evelyn?”
She looked away.
“Nothing.”
Again.
That word.
Nothing.
Adrian noticed too.
He walked toward her.
“Tell me.”
Bianca hugged the baby.
“I helped her.”
“How?”
Silence.
“How?”
His voice became stronger.
Bianca looked at him.
“I was there when you weren’t.”
That sentence hurt him.
Because it was true.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then I understood something.
Bianca wasn’t just a random woman.
She was connected to Evelyn.
The question was how.
And why had Evelyn warned Adrian about her?
Adrian looked at me.
“You knew she helped my mother?”
“No.”
“But she was around?”
I shook my head.
“I never saw her.”
Bianca looked surprised.
“What?”
I watched her carefully.
“You never saw me?”
“No.”
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
Something else.
Like she had just realized something.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
She didn’t answer.
Adrian stepped between us.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
Bianca looked at the baby.
Then at Adrian.
Then she whispered:
“Evelyn asked me to keep him safe.”
The room froze.
Adrian stared.
“Safe from what?”
Bianca’s eyes moved toward me.
And for a second, I thought she was going to say my name.
But she didn’t.
“She said there was someone close to you who would destroy everything.”
Adrian looked at me.
I felt the weight of his eyes.
Not because he blamed me.
Because he was afraid.
“What did my mother know?”
Bianca shook her head.
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me what you know.”
She swallowed.
“She knew you were being watched.”
A chill went through me.
“By who?”
Bianca didn’t answer.
She looked toward Evelyn’s office upstairs.
“The answer is in that room.”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
“She hid something there.”
I immediately remembered the room.
The photograph.
The letter.
The documents.
The things we had not found.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
Bianca’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because Evelyn made me promise.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“She trusted you?”
“Yes.”
“More than me?”
Bianca looked down.
That silence was enough.
Adrian walked away.
Slowly.
Like every step was becoming heavier.
His entire life was falling apart in front of him.
The woman he abandoned had protected his mother.
The woman he replaced knew secrets about his family.
And his dead mother was somehow still trying to warn him.
I followed him upstairs.
This time, he didn’t stop me.
We returned to Evelyn’s room.
The door was still open.
The photograph still hung on the wall.
But now we looked differently.
Not for answers.
For evidence.
Adrian searched through the desk drawers.
I checked the shelves.
Minutes passed.
Then Adrian stopped.
“Claire.”
I turned.
He was holding something.
A small black notebook.
Old.
Worn.
With Evelyn’s handwriting on the cover.
“What is it?”
He opened the first page.
His expression changed.
“What?”
I walked closer.
He turned the notebook toward me.
The first line was written clearly.
Not a diary entry.
Not a note.
A warning.
If Adrian brings Bianca home, it means I failed to stop him.
My heart stopped.
Adrian looked at me.
Then slowly turned the page.
The next sentence was waiting underneath.
May you like
Because Bianca is not the person Adrian should fear.
And beneath it was a name.
