Chapter 6 - The Dead Man’s Voice
Nobody spoke.
Not even Callum.
Because Sadie Miller’s father had been dead for twelve years.
Everyone knew that.
There was a funeral.
A grave.
A death certificate.
Everything.
Yet his voice had just come through her phone.
“Sadie?”
The voice repeated her name.
She couldn’t answer.
Callum took the phone from her hand.
“Who is this?”
The voice laughed softly.
“Callum Russo.”
The room went silent.
“You sound surprised.”
Callum’s expression became unreadable.
“Identify yourself.”
“You already know.”
“No.”
A pause.
“Because if you did…”
The voice lowered.
“You would be more afraid.”
Callum’s grip tightened.
“Where are you?”
The man laughed again.
“You still ask questions like your father.”
The words hit him.
Callum’s face changed.
“What did you say?”
The call ended.
Immediately.
Marcus looked at him.
“Boss?”
Callum ignored him.
He looked at Sadie.
“Tell me everything about your father.”
Sadie looked overwhelmed.
“I told you. He died.”
“I know what you told me.”
His voice softened slightly.
“I’m asking what you don’t know.”
That question broke something inside her.
Sadie sat down.
“My father was a financial advisor.”
“For who?”
She hesitated.
Then looked at Callum.
“For your family.”
Nobody moved.
Callum felt like the ground shifted beneath him.
“My father worked for Anthony Russo.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know.”
She looked frustrated.
“I was twenty when he died. My mother refused to talk about it. Every time I asked questions, she told me to forget.”
Callum stared at the floor.
A memory surfaced.
His father.
The secret meetings.
The missing files.
The locked office.
Things he had ignored.
Things he thought were part of the past.
Maybe they weren’t.
Marcus interrupted.
“Boss.”
Callum looked up.
“We have another problem.”
“What?”
Marcus held up a tablet.
“We traced the phone number.”
“And?”
Marcus looked at Sadie.
“It belongs to someone who officially died twelve years ago.”
Sadie went pale.
Callum looked at the screen.
A name appeared.
Daniel Miller.
Sadie’s father.
The impossible had become real.
Someone dead had contacted them.
And someone inside Callum’s world had been hiding the truth for more than a decade.
Then another message appeared.
A video file.
Sent from the same number.
Callum opened it.
The screen showed an old recording.
A man sitting in a dark room.
Older.
Tired.
Afraid.
Daniel Miller.
Sadie covered her mouth.
Her father looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this…”
He paused.
“I’m already gone.”
Sadie’s eyes filled with tears.
Daniel continued.
“But if Callum Russo is there…”
The video froze for a second.
Then his next words appeared.
“They killed your father.”
Callum stopped breathing.
Because the next sentence changed everything.
“They didn’t kill him for money.”
A pause.
“They killed him because he discovered the truth about the Russo family.”
The screen went black.
May you like
And beneath the video appeared one final message.
Your father wasn’t the victim, Callum. He was the reason everything started.
