When Silence Speaks

Aria’s POV

Sunday night bled into Monday morning without rest. Aria lay awake with a question looped in her mind — Did Sienna make it home?

By dawn, she gave up on sleep. She showered, dressed, and reached for her phone. A message blinked on the screen — still no response. She tried calling. The line rang, then cut off.

At first, she brushed it off. Maybe Sienna had overslept, or lost her phone again. But a small, sharp worry began to form under her ribs.

By 10 a.m., Aria sent another message:

Aria: Morning, Sienna. Just checking in ... are you okay?

Aria: How’s work? Did Ethan notice anything?

The messages went through. No reply.

Her heart sank lower with every passing hour.

By noon, the office felt colder. Conversations hummed around her , fragments of laughter, gossip, the usual chaos , yet she felt detached, her focus somewhere else.

She opened her email. Nothing from Sienna. No meeting notes. No updates.

Odd. Sienna never missed a check-in.

Aria decided to call the department directly. “Hello, this is Amelia from Logistics,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Could you connect me to Sienna Miles, please?”

A pause. Then a hesitant voice replied, “I’m sorry, ma’am… Miss Miles is no longer with the company.”

Aria froze. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure. Her employee ID was deactivated this morning. HR hasn’t said much, but...” The line went quiet. “People are saying she’s… missing.”

The word hit her like ice water.

That evening, when the office emptied, Aria sat alone, staring at her darkened screen. She opened her chat history again — rereading Sienna’s last message from Saturday:

‘If we’re caught, promise me you’ll finish what we started.’

She whispered into the silence, “You’re not gone. You can’t be."

She sat frozen with phone clutched tight. Somewhere out there, someone had erased Sienna — and now, they wanted Aria to stay quiet.

Aria sat at her desk, staring at the small brown envelope Sienna had slipped into her hand two nights before she disappeared. Her fingers traced the worn edges. The wax seal had half-crumbled from age.

She hesitated only once before sliding a letter opener beneath it. The paper tore softly.

Inside lay a single folded sheet — yellowed, faintly smelling of dust and time.

Name: Gabriel Voss

Number: [phone]

Note (in Sienna’s handwriting):

He knows what Ethan did. He can help you — but trust him carefully.

She picked up her phone and dialed the number.

The line clicked after three rings. A deep, gravelly voice answered, cautious.

“Who’s calling?”

“My name is Aria Donovan,” she said. “Sienna Miles gave me your contact. I’m looking for answers about Ethan Cole.”

A pause. A soft intake of breath. “You sound just like him,” the voice murmured.

Aria frowned. “Like who?”

“Your father.”

The silence stretched, electric.

“You… knew my father?"

“I owed that man my life,” Gabriel said quietly. “And I’ve waited decades for this call.”

Her pulse skipped. “Waited?”

“For the day someone from his bloodline would finish what he couldn’t.”

Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the outline of her reflection against the glass — wide-eyed, trembling, changed.

“What do you mean?” she whispered.

Gabriel’s voice hardened, low and steady. “Your father discovered what Ethan was becoming long before anyone else. He tried to stop him… and he died for it. I’ve been waiting ever since — for someone brave enough to do what he couldn’t.”

The line crackled.

Aria gripped the phone tighter. “Then help me bring him down.”

The call ended abruptly, leaving her in silence — except for the faint sound of rain tapping against the glass.

Aria sat frozen, the truth sinking in. This fight had begun long before her — and her father had been part of it.

Some debts weren’t paid in money. They were paid in justice.