Aria's POV
"Miriam," I said sharply, my pulse hammering now, "start making sense."
But Miriam never got the chance.
The phone remained pressed to Lucian's ear while the room around us seemed to lose all sound. Even Marcus stopped moving near the doorway. The air itself felt frozen.
Lucian's face had turned unreadable.
Not angry.
Not shocked.
Worse.
Empty.
"Say something," I whispered.
On the phone, the older male voice gave a low chuckle, calm and controlled in a way that made my skin crawl.
"You always did inherit your mother's silence when you were emotional," the voice said. "Interesting to see that hasn't changed."
Lucian's fingers tightened around the phone hard enough that I heard the plastic creak.
"My father is dead."
"No," the voice replied smoothly. "He simply became inconvenient to the world he created."
Miriam lowered her eyes.
Which meant she knew the voice too.
A cold realization slid through me.
She hadn't just discovered this recently.
