Chapter 2: The Voice That Should Not Exist
PART 2 π
I sat completely still.
The room felt like it had lost all its air.
"What do you mean he may not be d\*ad?" I said.
"I was at his funeral, Mom.
I was seventeen years old.
I stood at his grave."
Helena's hands were shaking.
She wouldn't look at me directly.
"There was no body," she said quietly.
"The casket was closed.
I was told he d\*ed in a car accident overseas.
But three weeks after the funeral, I received a letter.
No return address.
It said Gabriel had chosen to disappear.
That he had discovered something inside Aurelia that frightened him enough to walk away from everything β including us."
"And you never told me."
"I didn't believe it.
I burned the letter.
I told myself it was someone being cr\*el." She finally looked up.
"But Emma β G.M.
Those are his initials on that document.
And that notation was added four days ago."
My phone buzzed on the table.
Unknown number.
Miriam reached for it first.
"Let it go to voicemail."
It rang again immediately.
I picked it up.
The voice on the other end was older.
Careful.
And it said three words before the line went silent.
"Emma.
It's me."
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What Emma heard next β and what Gabriel Mercer has been hiding for over a decade β is in the full story.
Click the link below to read everything.
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The truth behind the forged document is bigger than Nathan, bigger than Celeste, and it started long before Emma's wedding day.
π
