Chapter 4 : Unsilenced Voice
941 Words
The apartment door forced open.
I bent behind the sofa, clutching Chloe’s phone against my chest. When two men stormed inside.
“Search every room,” one of them said.
“Miller said the phone has to be gone today,” the other answered.
I stopped breathing. Miller. Chloe was right. This wasn’t an accident. These men were here to clean up his mess.
They tore the place apart. Drawers crashed to the floor. Cushions got broken. Furniture got shoved around.
Meanwhile I laid low, listening to them as they destroyed what was left of my sister’s life. Every crash made the grief and rage burn hotter in my chest. They killed her. Or helped kill her. And now they wanted to erase the proof. Truly some humans are heartless. I pressed my back against the couch, carefully shifting my body so no sound would be made.
I pulled out my own phone as quietly as I could and started recording their voices. I needed some evidence. Something to use later when everything went to court, or when I finally had to explain all of this to Sebastian.
“Boss is pissed she got this far,” the first man said, his voice clearly sounding frustrated. “If that twin sister finds anything, we’re all finished.”
“Yeah, well, find the damn f*****g phone and we’re good. Miller wants it gone before anyone else gets their hands on it.”
Their words hit me like a punch to my belly. They knew about me and knew I was the twin, which meant my position in the penthouse was on borrowed time. The fear made my hands shake, but I forced my fingers to stay steady around my phone. I kept recording. This was real proof that could expose the entire operation.
One of the men walked into the bedroom, but suddenly stopped “Hey. This floorboard looks loose. Someone’s been here.”
My stomach dropped. In my rush to pull the phone out, I had left the wooden plank slightly out of place under the bed frame. A stupid, reckless mistake.
In a second footsteps turned and came directly toward the sofa. I went backward on my hands and knees crawling and keeping my phone pointed in their general direction while staying below the line of sight, trying to reach the fire escape door at the end of the short hallway.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,or else…it won't be funny” the man called, his voice in a mocking tone.
I reached the fire escape handle, pushed the bar down as quietly as I could, and slipped through the frame just as they flipped the sofa completely over. I scrambled down the stairs, taking them one step at a time, not daring to look back.
The phone stayed gripped tight in my left hand. I hit the alley at the bottom, sprinted out to the street, and kept moving until I managed to flag down a cab. I kept checking out the rear window the whole ride back, scanning every trailing vehicle, but no one seemed to be following.
I slipped back into the penthouse through the back entrance, trying to make my posture look natural and relaxed. But Sebastian was already home, hours earlier than his usual corporate schedule allowed. He stood near the windows, turning immediately toward the sound of the front door closing.
“Where have you been?” he asked, stepping forward.
I lied fast, forcing my voice to stay even . “Went for a walk. I needed to clear my head after everything with the funeral arrangements.”
He studied me for a long moment, his eyes lingering on my face as if looking for any sign of tension. “You don’t have to carry everything alone,” he said quietly. “I know things have been difficult between us, but I am here.”
His unexpected gentleness hit me hard. Guilt flooded in heavier than before. I was lying to this man every single day, inhabiting his dead wife's routine, using his resources, and pretending to be someone I wasn't. And despite his distant reputation, he was offering genuine support.
I mumbled something about being exhausted and escaped down the main hallway into the master bedroom, locking the door behind me.
Alone in the quiet room, I pulled out Chloe’s phone and powered it on. It took a long time to turn on, the screen flickering twice before settling on the home menu. I opened the single saved media file and hit play.
Chloe’s voice came up lower than usual and visibly shaken. “If you’re hearing this… I was right. Someone inside Cross Industries is trying to bury the truth about the missing funds. Don’t trust Miller under any circumstances. If anything happens to me”
The audio stream cut off immediately.
Something popped on the screen
“Remote Access Detected.”
Data files started disappearing one after another right off the interface. I desperately tapped at the screen, trying to access the settings, pull out the SIM card, and force a hard shutdown, but the system locked out all user input. Everything was erased in real time. The audio file, the document backups, the call logs. Gone completely.
Just before the phone went completely dead and black, one final notification popped up across the center of the display.
“We Know You're With The Phone .”
A split second later, someone knocked on my bedroom door.
Then Sebastian’s calm voice broke the silence from the hallway outside.
“Wife… who are you talking to in there?”
- Writer
