The Echo Of Silence
2419 Words
The elevator doors had been closed for a full minute but Seraphina Marlowe was still staring at the brushed steel surface. The reflection that stared back was pale and fractured. It was the face of a woman who had just realized her entire marriage was a meticulously constructed lie built on a foundation of graves.
Subject 247. Aria Voss.
The name echoed in her mind and drowned out the muffled sounds of chaos erupting from the ballroom downstairs. Her husband was not the bumbling incompetent who forgot anniversary dates and spilled wine on expensive rugs. He was a man who could disarm her brother in a heartbeat and threaten her father with the destruction of an empire.
Seraphina turned away from the elevator. She could not chase him. He was already gone and the man who walked out those doors was a stranger.
She walked back toward her father's office. The heavy oak doors were slightly ajar. Inside the atmosphere was toxic with fear and adrenaline. Cassius was sitting on the leather sofa clutching his arm while a private physician who was always on call for the family’s indiscretions administered a painkiller injection.
Magnus Marlowe stood behind his desk. He was no longer the terrified man who had watched his stock price plummet. He was the CEO again. He was the predator who had clawed his way to the top of the food chain. He was barking orders into a secure satellite phone while his eyes scanned the multiple screens embedded in his desktop.
"I want a containment team at the server farm in Zurich," Magnus snapped. "And get the PR firm on the line. Draft a statement. We are the victims of a cyber-terrorist attack. Deny the whistleblower allegations. Call them fabrications from a disgruntled former employee."
Seraphina stepped into the room. Magnus looked up and his eyes narrowed. He ended the call and placed the phone face down on the rosewood desk.
"Go to your room Seraphina," Magnus said. His voice was dismissive. "We are handling it."
"You aren't handling anything," Seraphina said. She walked past Cassius who flinched as if he expected her to strike him. She stopped directly in front of her father’s desk. "You are covering it up."
"I am protecting this family," Magnus replied. "Something you seem incapable of doing."
"Is it true?" Seraphina asked. She placed her hands on the desk to steady herself. "Did you kill his sister?"
Magnus sighed. It was a sound of deep disappointment. He walked around the desk and placed a hand on her shoulder. It felt heavy and cold.
"Seraphina," Magnus said, his voice dropping to a paternal soothe. "Kaelen Voss is a con artist. A professional liar. Do you really believe a word that comes out of his mouth? He has spent three years pretending to be a fool. He infiltrated our home and ate our food and slept in your bed while plotting to dismantle us."
"He knew the file number," Seraphina insisted. "He knew about Bangkok."
"He is a corporate spy," Cassius spat from the couch. The drugs were kicking in, slurring his speech but not dampening his venom. "He probably hacked the archives. Found an old buried file about a failed trial and spun a sob story to manipulate you. There was no sister. There was no murder. It is leverage. That is all it is."
Seraphina looked at her brother. His arm was in a sling and his face was pale with sweat. He looked pathetic.
"He broke your arm in one second," Seraphina said. "Does that seem like a corporate spy to you? He moved like a soldier."
"He is a thug," Magnus said. He squeezed her shoulder harder. "And he is a threat. I have dealt with threats before. This one will be neutralized before sunrise."
"You put a hit on him," Seraphina whispered. "Fifty million dollars."
"I did what was necessary." Magnus pulled away and walked back to the window. "You need to wake up, darling. You married a man who does not exist. The Kaelen you think you know is a fiction. The man who left this room tonight is a terrorist who is trying to bankrupt your inheritance. He does not love you. He used you."
The words hit her like physical blows. He used you.
Seraphina closed her eyes. Memories flooded back. Three years of marriage. The way Kaelen would listen to her vent about the board meetings. The way he would make her tea when she was working late. The way he would smile sheepishly when her mother insulted him. Was it all an act? Was every gentle touch and every supportive word just a strategic move on a chessboard she didn't even know she was playing on?
But she remembered his eyes in the hallway. ‘I stayed because somewhere in the middle of this nightmare, I fell in love with you.’
He had looked so tired when he said it. It was the only moment tonight that felt real.
"If you kill him," Seraphina said, opening her eyes. "If you kill him, you prove him right. If he dies, the dead man's switch activates. You heard him."
"We have people working on that," Magnus said, waving his hand dismissively. "We will find the encryption keys. We will scrub the servers. By tomorrow morning Kaelen Voss will be a tragic footnote in the obituaries. A car accident perhaps. Or a mugging gone wrong."
Seraphina looked at her father and she saw him clearly for the first time. The expensive suit and the humanitarian awards were just costumes. Beneath them was a man who would burn the world to save his quarterly earnings.
"I am going home," Seraphina said. Her voice was hollow.
"That is best," Magnus nodded. "Stay off the internet. Do not speak to the press. Security is waiting to escort you."
Seraphina turned and walked out. She did not look at Cassius. She did not look at the guards. She walked through the corridors of the estate that she had grown up in and it felt like a foreign country.
She reached the main entrance where the valet was waiting with her car. But instead of getting in, she stopped.
The driveway was empty. The black sedan that had taken Kaelen away was long gone. The night air was biting and cold.
Curiosity was a dangerous thing in the Marlowe family. It was a trait that had been bred out of her siblings but Seraphina had always been the defect. She needed to know. She needed to know if the last three years of her life were a lie.
She dismissed the valet and walked toward her own car, a silver Aston Martin parked near the fountain. She slid into the driver’s seat and locked the doors.
She pulled out her phone. Her fingers hovered over Kaelen's contact. It was a picture of him eating a burger at a diner, looking ridiculous with ketchup on his chin. It was a photo she had taken six months ago when they had snuck out of a gala early.
She pressed the call button.
It rang once. Twice. Three times.
"The number you have dialed is no longer in service."
She lowered the phone. He had burned the line. Of course he had. Kaelen Voss was dead. The Architect had taken his place.
Seraphina gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. She felt a tear slide down her cheek, hot and angry. She wasn't crying because she was sad. She was crying because she was furious. She was furious at her father for being a monster. She was furious at herself for being blind. And she was furious at Kaelen for being the most capable, dangerous, and brilliant man she had ever met while pretending to be nothing.
She wiped the tear away.
"You want to play games, Kaelen?" she whispered to the empty car. "Fine."
She started the engine. She wasn't going home to cry into a pillow. She wasn't going to wait for the news to report his death.
Kaelen had mentioned a name. Jakarta. But he had also mentioned something else in the hallway. He had said he built a dead man's switch.
If Kaelen was the mastermind he claimed to be, he wouldn't have kept the evidence on a remote server. He would have kept a physical backup. He was old fashioned that way. He liked tangible things.
Seraphina put the car in gear. She knew where he kept his "useless" hobbies. The small storage unit in the industrial district where he claimed he worked on restoring old radios. She had always thought it was a pathetic little pastime for a man with no ambition.
Now she realized it was the perfect cover.
She slammed her foot on the gas. The Aston Martin roared down the driveway, leaving the Marlowe estate behind. She was done being the pawn. If there was a war coming, she needed ammunition.
And she was going to find it before her father’s hit squad found her husband.
- Writer
