Chapter Ten: The Voice That Should Not Exist
1175 Words
The phone slipped from Damien Moretti’s fingers.
It didn’t fall far—just enough to hit the desk with a dull, echoing sound—but in the silence that followed, it felt like a gunshot.
No one in the room moved.
Marco was the first to react. “Boss?”
Damien didn’t answer.
His eyes stayed fixed on the screen, as if the call might still be there. As if the voice might return.
But there was nothing.
Only silence.
Only the storm outside the glass.
Rafael stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Who was it?”
Damien slowly picked up the phone again.
Locked screen. No number. No trace.
But the voice… that was not something he could mistake.
It belonged to someone who should not exist anymore.
Someone buried in the past.
Someone who had been erased from his world long before the Moretti empire became what it was today.
His jaw tightened.
“Trace it,” he ordered coldly.
Marco hesitated. “It’s already gone. It was spoofed through multiple layers. Whoever did it knows our system.”
That sentence changed the air in the room.
Not just an enemy.
A professional one.
A ghost operating inside their level.
Elena Romano, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
“Or someone who used to be inside your system.”
Damien’s gaze shifted slightly toward her.
Not accusing.
Measuring.
Elena held his stare. “You’re not the only one with enemies from the past.”
A heavy silence followed.
Then Rafael muttered, “We’ve got too many ghosts already.”
No one disagreed.
Three floors below, Ariana Brooks was still trapped in the hidden corridor.
The darkness had not fully released her fear.
Every sound felt amplified now—each drip of water, each distant echo of footsteps above.
But she had not stayed frozen.
She had moved.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Following the tunnel back toward what she hoped was an exit.
Her flashlight flickered weakly in her hand.
The blueprint she had found earlier was folded tightly in her pocket.
Every few steps, she stopped to listen.
Nothing.
Too much nothing.
That was what scared her most.
Because in a place like the Moretti estate, silence was never empty.
It was intentional.
A warning.
She turned a corner—
And stopped instantly.
Something was there.
On the wall.
Fresh.
A marking.
Red paint.
A symbol.
Three intersecting lines forming a sharp, incomplete triangle.
Ariana’s breath caught.
She didn’t know what it meant.
But she knew one thing instantly.
This wasn’t part of the mansion.
This was new.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she stepped closer.
The paint was still slightly wet.
Whoever left it had passed here recently.
Very recently.
She backed away slowly—
Then froze again.
Footsteps.
Not far.
Behind her.
Slow.
Controlled.
Deliberate.
Ariana turned off her flashlight instantly and pressed herself against the wall.
Darkness swallowed her again.
The footsteps grew closer.
One set.
Then another.
Two people.
Maybe three.
Voices followed.
Low.
Careful.
“…she saw something.”
“She can’t leave this section.”
A pause.
“If she reaches upstairs, everything collapses.”
Ariana’s heart slammed painfully in her chest.
They were talking about her.
She bit her lip hard to stop herself from breathing too loudly.
The footsteps stopped.
Right at the corner.
Less than a few meters away.
Silence.
Then one voice spoke quietly.
“Check left.”
Another replied.
“No need. She wouldn’t go that way.”
A beat.
Then—
They moved on.
Ariana didn’t breathe until the sound fully disappeared.
Her legs nearly gave out.
But she forced herself forward again.
She had no choice.
Not anymore.
Upstairs, Damien stood alone in his office again after the meeting dissolved into chaos.
Everyone had left except Marco, who remained near the door.
The storm outside had grown stronger.
Lightning flashed across the sky, briefly illuminating Damien’s reflection in the glass.
Controlled.
Unreadable.
But not calm.
Never calm.
Elena’s words lingered in the room.
Someone who used to be inside your system.
Damien finally spoke.
“Pull every record from the past ten years.”
Marco frowned. “That’s a lot of data.”
“I didn’t ask about volume.”
Marco nodded once. “Understood.”
As he turned to leave, Damien added, “And find out who accessed the prison logs last week.”
Marco paused.
“That’s restricted access.”
Damien’s eyes darkened slightly.
“Exactly.”
Marco left without another word.
The office fell into silence again.
But it didn’t last.
A soft knock came at the door.
Then it opened without waiting for permission.
Elena Romano entered.
Again.
As if she had never been told no in her life.
She closed the door behind her.
“We need to talk,” she said.
Damien didn’t look at her immediately. “We already are.”
“This isn’t about the engagement anymore.”
That made him turn.
Elena’s expression was different now.
Less composed.
More alert.
“I recognize that symbol,” she said.
Damien’s eyes sharpened instantly.
“What symbol?”
“The one your security team hasn’t identified yet.”
A pause.
“I’ve seen it before.”
Silence thickened.
“Where?” Damien asked.
Elena hesitated.
That hesitation mattered more than words.
Then she answered quietly.
“Inside my father’s private archive.”
The air in the room shifted instantly.
Damien’s voice dropped.
“Explain.”
Elena stepped closer.
“That symbol belongs to an old faction. One that was erased years ago… or so everyone believed.”
Damien’s expression remained unchanged.
But something behind his eyes shifted.
Recognition.
Or memory.
Elena continued, “If they’re back now, then your attack, the traitor, the deleted footage… it’s all connected.”
Damien finally spoke.
“Names.”
Elena shook her head slightly.
“I don’t have names.”
A pause.
“But I know one thing.”
Her voice lowered.
“They don’t want your empire.”
Another pause.
“They want you specifically erased.”
At that exact moment, somewhere beneath the mansion…
Ariana stopped running.
She had found something.
A door.
Not like the others.
This one was metal.
Old.
Hidden behind collapsed stone.
She approached slowly.
Her fingers touched the surface.
Cold.
Heavy.
Locked.
But not from the outside.
From within.
A soft sound suddenly echoed behind her.
A click.
Ariana turned slowly.
The corridor behind her was empty.
But the door in front of her…
Was no longer locked.
It was open.
Just slightly.
Enough to reveal darkness inside.
And from that darkness—
A whisper emerged.
“You found it faster than expected.”
Ariana’s blood ran cold.
The voice was not familiar.
But it was calm.
Certain.
Like it had been waiting for her specifically.
And then the door opened wider.
Slowly.
Revealing whoever was inside.
And Ariana realized something that made her entire body freeze.
This wasn’t just a hidden room.
It was a command center.
And she had just walked directly into the heart of the enemy.
- Writer
