General Introduction "
I never believed that silence could be terrifying…
But that night taught me that silence sometimes comes just before disaster.
It was past midnight, and the city was wrapped in a heavy stillness, broken only by the soft sound of rain against the window. I was sitting in my small room, going through some work papers, trying to convince myself that tomorrow would be better.
Then the phone rang.
Just one tone… enough to change everything.
I looked at the screen. An international number.
I hesitated for a moment. My heart started beating uncomfortably, as if something inside me had already sensed fear before I did. I pressed the answer button.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a man’s voice—cold, formal… completely lifeless.
“Are you a relative of Kiara Rossi?”
My hand froze around the phone.
Kiara…
My sister’s name.
“I’m her sister…” I said slowly, as if the words were too heavy to speak. “What happened?”
He was silent for a few seconds. Those seconds felt longer than a lifetime.
Then he said:
“We regret to inform you… Ms. Kiara passed away during childbirth.”
The sound inside me collapsed before the phone even fell from my hand.
No…
That’s not real.
That’s a mistake.
Or a bad joke.
“No… you’re wrong…” I whispered, quickly bringing the phone back to my ear. “My sister wasn’t even pregnant…”
But the other end didn’t respond to my words. He simply continued, in the same cold tone:
“The baby survived. He is currently in the hospital.”
Then the call ended.
I didn’t move.
I didn’t cry.
Even the air inside my chest stopped, as if it had forgotten how to reach me.
My sister…
The only thing I had.
The one who sacrificed everything for me.
The one who left alone so I could live.
Dead?
I didn’t know shock could feel like this…
Not just pain, but a complete emptiness.
The next morning, I was at the airport.
I don’t know how I got there.
I don’t know who packed my bag.
Or when the tears stopped falling.
All I knew… was that I had to go to Italy.
To the place where my sister was taken from me.
To the place where everything began and everything ended.
As the plane took off, I looked out of the window.
The clouds were white… peacefully so, in a way that made me angry.
I whispered to myself:
“Kiara… what did you hide from me?”
But I didn’t know that the real question wasn’t what she had hidden…
It was: who was she afraid of?
