The phone Call
Chapter one
“The phone call”
“Hey Mia, I want you to have this.”
“What's that, Mum?”
Mia was getting ready early, as always, for work when she turned around and saw her mother holding a tiny jewelry box and handing it to her. “It's a gift I got from your father when we were teenagers.” She took Mia's hand and placed the box in her hand. “I want you to keep it.”
“But… why? You told me Dad was dead, which means you're supposed to keep his memory alive, so you keep it.”
“No, no, my dear, that's not what I said.”
“Then what was the story again?” She took the box, opened it, and a little smile curled at the corner of her lip. “Dad gave you this? It's beautiful,” she said as she lifted the necklace out of the box and wore it around her neck.
‘Well, there's no time for storytelling. You have to get to work early. Maybe when you get back, we'll talk about it.” She smiled and turned around, grabbing a rusty brown bag. “I'll see you when you get back. Now, before you go, have breakfast. I'm heading to the market, and I'll be right back.”
As soon as Tessa left the house, Mia went down to the kitchen and made herself breakfast. After she was done eating, she looked at the clock, and there was still a lot of time, so she headed to the couch in the living room and turned on the television.
“Mr. West has invited all his special guests for an announcement. Will it be that he will finally make his son the next heir of his company? What could this urgent announcement…”. She changed the channel, interrupting the news broadcaster as he was announcing the event at West Holdings.
She sighed.
“How do they manage to end up on the news? Rich people think it's all about their money; every day, one story or the other about each of them, and all they do is spend money on expensive dresses and cars, ugh!”
She found the news uninteresting because they were only broadcasting about wealthy people, not society’s affairs. And Tessa always tells her not to get in the way of wealthy people; they would always use money to clear their guilt and solve whatever crisis they had.
Ring! Ring!
A telephone on the living room’s table was ringing.
She spotted it immediately, hesitated at first, and let it ring, hoping the caller would give up, but it never stopped ringing.
Disturbed by the noise. Mia went to get the call. She stood before the phone. The ringing got even louder. She asked under her breath. “This is the telephone Mum asked me not to receive calls from. What do I do now?”
Ring… Ring… The sound was consistently loud.
She picked up the phone and a strange voice responded. “Hello, Tessa… are you there? It's Morgan. The caller said, waiting for an answer.
For a moment, Mia was calm; she wondered who it could be.
“Who is this, please”? She asked.
Immediately after the caller heard Mia’s voice, the call ended.
“Hello? Hello? Sir?” There was no response from the caller.
She felt uneasy; fear crawled beneath her skin. She thought the phone no longer worked, but a few minutes ago she answered a call, and the caller said her mother's name.
She dropped the phone and went back on the couch. Her food became cold, and her appetite was no more.
“Why would Mum tell me not to take calls from this telephone when it clearly works? And who is this person that knows her? I know almost everyone she knows. How do I not know about this? What could Mum be hiding or doing? She was lost in her thoughts.
“Mia, you're home?” Tessa was surprised to walk in and met Mia.
“Mum, who's Morgan? I just answered a call from someone named Morgan. Is there something I should know? Confused and devastated. Mia kept throwing questions at her mother.
Tessa lost grip of the grocery bag and spilled all the food items to the ground. Her heart raced with fear, but she fought desperately with a smile
Mia was running late. Regardless, she wanted to know the truth. Disappointment settled heavily in her chest.
“You're going to be late, dear. Get your things ready and leave; otherwise, they might fire you.”
“Leave my work out of this; I'll handle it. All I want is the truth from you, Mum, who is Morgan!”
“Why are you always trying to know everyone around me, Mia, if this is about your father? I told you already.”
Mia had always taken her mother as her best friend; she told her everything, leaving no crumbs, only to find out she was keeping a secret? No way!
“Then who is Morgan, Mum? Wait, are you seeing someone else and aren't telling me about it?” She burst out in anger. She wasn't cut out for any more suspicion.
“Seeing someone?” When Tessa heard those words, she took a deep breath. She eased up. She thought today would be the day she told her daughter who her father was, but it turns out it wasn't what she'd been thinking that Mia suspected.
“You think I was seeing someone, Mia? Morgan was an old friend who helped me out before, so no, I'm not. quickly dried her tears and picked up her groceries.
“So you mean Morgan is just an old friend of yours?” Mia was convinced that at least it wasn't true. However, she wasn't happy about her mom lying about the telephone.
Snap! “I'm late already.”