Alexa didn't sleep that night.
She sat on the edge of her bed long after the call ended, staring at the dark screen of her phone.
We need to talk.
The voice had been calm. Too calm.
It wasn't someone asking for money.
It wasn't a wrong number.
It wasn't random.
They knew her name.
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
Across the room, Mira shifted in her sleep. Luna murmured something softly before turning over.
Alexa stood and walked toward them.
She knelt beside the mattress, brushing Luna's hair away from her face.
"I won't let anything happen to you," she whispered.
Even if she didn't know what "anything" was yet.
The next morning felt heavier.
She tried calling the number back.
It was switched off.
Her chest tightened.
On her way to work, she kept glancing behind her.
Was someone following her?
Or was her mind playing tricks on her?
At work, she made a mistake—spilled water across the hallway floor.
"Are you okay?" her supervisor asked.
"Yes," she answered quickly.
But she wasn't.
By evening, she convinced herself it was nothing.
Maybe someone from the past.
Maybe a mistake.
Maybe—
Her phone rang again.
Unknown number.
This time, she answered immediately.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice steady.
A pause.
Then the same voice.
"You've been carrying too much alone, Alexa."
Her breath stopped.
"Who are you?"
Another pause.
"I'm someone who knows what happened the night your parents died."
The world tilted.
Her parents.
No one talked about that night.
No one.
Her throat went dry. "What are you talking about?"
But the line went dead again.
Alexa stood frozen in the middle of her tiny living room.
Her mind raced.
That night.
The fire.
The accident.
Her mother slipping at work.
It had all been tragic. Unfortunate. Coincidence.
That's what everyone said.
So why did that voice sound so certain?
She looked toward the bedroom where Mira and Luna were doing homework.
They had already lost so much.
She couldn't let the past drag them into something dangerous.
But the question burned inside her.
What really happened that night?
And why now?
Outside, somewhere far from the quiet street she lived on, a man stood by a tall glass window overlooking the city lights.
His phone rested in his hand.
"She answered?" someone behind him asked.
"Yes."
"And?"
He didn't turn around.
"Soon," he said quietly.
"Everything will unfold."
The city lights flickered below.
And in a small apartment across town, Alexa felt the first crack in the life she had worked so hard to hold together.