He Blocked My Number the Night I Died Chapter 06

We didn’t send it to Sienna.

At the last second, I changed my mind.

“Send it to Caleb,” I told Ingrid, “From an anonymous account. With one line.”

You blocked her number. You never heard this. Listen now.

I didn’t get to see his face when he opened it. I only know what happened after.

On Friday morning, Caleb Vance was scheduled to give his first big interview since the fire. A national morning show. The headline in the promo was already written: Billionaire Widower Speaks: 1 Lost My Wife and Unborn Daughter:

Jude and I watched from the hospital lounge, Hope asleep on my chest in a tangle of wires, her skin warm against mine. Tessa had finally let me hold her that morning. I hadn’t put her down since.

The host leaned forward with practiced sympathy. “Caleb, take us back to that night. Where were you?”

He opened his mouth.

Nothing came out,

His eyes were bloodshot, sunk deep. He looked like he hadn’t slept since Thursday. He looked, actually, like a man who had played a thirty-nine-second recording over and over until four in the morning.

“I was with my wife’s sister, he finally said. “She was having a panic attack.”

“That must have been so hard for you,”

“No.” His voice was hoarse. “You don’t understand. Nora called me. She called me ten times. And I

The host shifted. This wasn’t the script.

*1 blocked her, Caleb said, “I blocked my pregnant wife’s number while our house was on fire. Because Sienna said Nors would try to pull me away. Because I was tired of choosing. So I just… chose. And I chose

wrong

The studio was dead silent.

“Caleb, the host said carefully, “I think we should-”

‘She went into labor, he whispered. “She was in the pool. She left me a message. She said, ‘I want you to know I called you first.”

He put his face in his hands. On live television.

I stopped breathing.

Jude’s hand found my shoulder. Warm. Grounding.

The segment cut to commercial.

Within ten minutes, it was trending.

#CalebVance

#ICalledYouFirst

#WhereWasHe

The comments that had called me “a lot” yesterday were turning, fast.

He BLOCKED her?? While she was in LABOR??

The sister knew. She KNEW. Look at her post timestamps.

Someone made a timeline and I’m going to throw up

Someone had. An anonymous TikTok, already at four million views. Sienna’s “panic attack” post at 4:58. Her post of Caleb holding her hand at 6:20-six minutes after the fire reached my house. Her funeral song. A zoom-in on the emerald ring, and a side-by-side with an old photo of my grandmother wearing it.

Why does the grieving sister have the dead wife’s grandmother’s ring?

I hadn’t made that video. I looked at Jude.

He shrugged, completely unrepentant. “Tessa’s sixteen-year-old. She’s very good at the internet.”

I laughed. Actually laughed, for the first time since the fire. Hope stirred and made a tiny squeak against my collarbone.

Then my laugh died.

Because a new notification came in. A news alert.

Sienna Ashford Breaks Silence: ‘My Sister Is Alive, She Faked Her Death to Destroy Me.’

My blood went cold,

I clicked.

Sienna, filmed in soft lighting, tears on her lashes.

“I have proof Nora is alive,” she said. “She’s been sending us threatening messages. She’s not well. She never has been. And I’m so scared for the baby. Nora shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near that child.”

She looked straight into the camera.

“Caleb, please. Our niece needs us. We have to find her before Nora hurts her.”

Our niece.

Before Nora hurts her.

She wasn’t just trying to save herself.

She was coming for my daughter.