Chapter 1: The Message
It was 2:17 AM when my phone suddenly lit up.
I was alone in my apartment. The rain was hitting my window, and the entire city was asleep.
I looked at my screen.
One new message.
My heart stopped when I saw the name.
Mom ❤️
But there was one problem.
My mother had been dead for three years.
I stared at the screen, unable to move.
Then another message arrived.
"Sweetheart, I know you miss me. But there is something I never told you. Something you need to know before tomorrow."
My hands started shaking.
I opened the conversation.
The message continued:
"Go to the old house. Look underneath the floorboard in my bedroom. And please, whatever you do, don't trust Daniel."
Daniel.
My husband.
The man sleeping next to me.
I slowly turned my head toward him.
He was awake.
And he was staring directly at me.
"Who are you texting?" he whispered.
I quickly locked my phone.
"Nobody," I replied.
He smiled.
But it wasn't his usual smile.
It was the kind of smile that made me feel like he already knew everything.
The next morning, I drove to my mother's old house.
I hadn't been there since her funeral.
Everything looked exactly the same. The old curtains, the photographs, the little wooden table where she used to drink her coffee.
I went straight to her bedroom.
Underneath the third floorboard, I found a small black box.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed my mother standing next to a man I had never seen before.
On the back, she had written six words:
"The truth about your father is here."
I felt my knees go weak.
My entire life, I had been told that my father had died before I was born.
But the man in the photograph…
Was standing in front of my mother's house.
And the date written underneath the picture was yesterday.
I immediately called Daniel.
He answered after the first ring.
Before I could say anything, he whispered:
"Please tell me you didn't find the box."
I couldn't breathe.
Because suddenly I understood one thing.
My mother hadn't been trying to tell me a secret from the past.
She had been trying to warn me about what was happening right now.
To be continued…
Would you open the box if you were me? And would you trust Daniel?