Free Web NovelChapter 97: The Unspoken Truth
At the office, Olivia’s name was now on everyone’s lips. Projects that were once considered impossible, she now completed with excellence, one after another.
Every presentation she made, the big boss would nod in satisfaction, offering endless praise.
Today, she succeeded in securing the "Mega-Retail" project that Delia had always coveted.
Olivia watched Delia from the corner of her eye.
Delia, who was usually calm, now looked very different. She bit her lip until it went pale, her fingers pressing against the keyboard too hard
tap, tap, tap
the sound echoing like an unstable heartbeat. Delia no longer looked at Olivia with arrogance, but with a look full of suspicion, as if she were watching an animal waiting for its time to die.
Olivia felt an unfamiliar sense of satisfaction. Every time she walked down the office corridor, she could feel the admiring gazes of her colleagues.
Delia, usually calm and dominant, now appeared restless. Delia was often seen biting her lip, glaring sharply at Olivia from the neighboring desk every time Olivia received praise.
Olivia herself began to believe that her life was finally on the right track. She had won.
However, every time she looked in the office bathroom mirror, she saw something different. Her face appeared slightly pale, her eyes a bit sunken.
Success during the day was merely a mask trying to cover the cracks in her soul.
When night fell... back again in her dreams, the silver-haired man appeared. This time, he was no longer standing behind the fog. He stood at the end of the road, static like a statue. Distant, yet his presence was so dominant that the dream felt like reality.
However, over time... the man who often appeared in her dreams was now closer. He stood in front of the door to Olivia’s house.
His face was still unclear, but Olivia could feel those eyes looking directly at her, peering through the walls of her bedroom.
It was as if something had happened between them. She tried to observe his features, but a white mist obscured his face.
The voice finally became audible. Not a whisper, not an echo, but a voice so clear, like someone standing right behind her ear. The voice was deep, full of painful longing.
"I am searching for the way home to your side."
On the Fourth Night, Olivia jolted awake.
The room was pitch black, with only the faint blue light from the phone screen on the nightstand reflecting in her pupils.
Her phone turned on by itself.
Olivia went stiff. Her heart raced. There were no app notifications, no messages from anyone. No WhatsApp icons or emails. Only a pitch-black screen with one line of sharp, glowing white text
"Do you remember me?"
Olivia shivered. She reached for the phone, her fingers slick with cold sweat. She tapped the screen, trying to find the source of the message, but the moment she touched it, the display went dead.
Empty.
There were no message logs, no notification history, nothing. The phone returned to its original lock screen as if it had just come fresh from the factory.
Olivia gasped for air. She looked around her silent room. The phone hadn’t been hacked. Something else had entered her world. Something that knew where she was, and now, she knew... the silver-haired man was no longer just a character in a dream.
Olivia looked at the phone screen, which had returned to normal. Her hands trembled slowly. She was confused... was someone playing with her? Or was there something forcing her to realize something?
For the first time in a long while, Olivia didn’t dare to close her eyes again.
That night, Olivia transformed into a detective within her own world. She no longer cried. She was no longer confused. She was focused.
She began to organize all the evidence on her table: screenshots of the white screen, empty notification logs, and Google searches that yielded no results. It was all in vain.
There were no logical answers. However, when she opened her small notebook, a pattern began to form. She wrote with hands that were no longer shaking.
Silver-haired man. (Appears in every dream).
Mysterious notification. (Comes when she starts to remember).
Delia. (Most important: Delia knows about ’the man’).
Wait. Olivia stopped writing. The pen in her hand dropped to the floor.
She recalled their conversation two weeks ago, when Delia came to her house to drop off project files. Delia had let slip..
"That annoying man won’t let you have any peace, will he?"
Olivia had never mentioned anything about dreams. Never mentioned any man. How could Delia know?
Olivia began to realize that Delia didn’t just know; she was also watching.
The next day at the office, the air felt heavier. Olivia walked in with firm steps, casting off all the fear she had felt the night before. She had to win this psychological war.
She walked to Delia’s desk. Delia was busy typing, her fingers dancing with full confidence. Olivia stood there, her expression calm, as if she were just an employee coming to ask about a project.
"Delia," Olivia called. Her voice was soft, devoid of any anger.
Delia stopped typing. She turned her chair, her eyes looking at Olivia with a gaze that was hard to read, like a predator waiting for its prey to walk into a trap.
"Yes?" Delia sipped her coffee.
"What about the ’Mega-Retail’ project? Is there anything you don’t understand yet?"
Olivia leaned in slightly, pretending to look at Delia’s screen.
"It’s not about the project. I just remembered... when you came to my house two weeks ago. Before you left, you mentioned something about... that man."
Olivia intentionally paused, letting the silence settle in. She wanted to see Delia’s reaction.
Delia did not answer.
She did not blink. The room became deathly quiet, as if the sound of the air conditioning and the typing of other colleagues had suddenly vanished.
The silence dragged on... one second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Olivia could feel the thumping of her own heart in her earlobes. She was gambling with her life.
Then, slowly, the corners of Delia’s lips lifted. Not the usual cynical smile, but a smile full of pity. The smile of a ’guardian’ watching its prey begin to fall into the abyss. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Hm... I didn’t think he would be this dedicated to you, would he?"
Delia said it slowly, yet it was still audible to Olivia.
"Hey! Did you hear me?" Olivia said softly, smiling, though it didn’t reach her eyes.
Olivia stood stiffly in front of Delia’s desk. She expected an answer. She expected Delia to snap, or get angry, or perhaps try to deny it. But all she got was a smile.
A thin smile slowly spread across Delia’s face. It wasn’t a smile of victory, nor was it a mockery. It was the smile of someone watching a child who had just tripped on the edge of a deep ravine.
Delia did not answer Olivia’s question. She only stared directly into Olivia’s eyes, as if searching for something within.
"Why don’t you ask yourself...?"
Delia’s voice was very soft, almost like a whisper of wind in the corridor.
Olivia froze.
"What... what do you mean?"
Delia didn’t answer immediately. She rose from her chair very slowly, each movement looking graceful and controlled. She straightened her corporate attire, as if she had just finished carrying out a major task.
She stood straight in front of Olivia, looking down at her. Silence reigned for a moment. The sound of ringing phones at other desks seemed so far away, as if they were both in different dimensions.
Then, with a tone full of painful pity, Delia spoke
"Olivia... if you knew the truth..."
Delia stopped for a moment, her eyes cold as she looked at Olivia, as if she were holding something back.
"...perhaps the way you look at me would change."
"Maybe even worse?"
She said it with a small laugh, straightened her hair, and walked away. She passed Olivia without looking back, her footsteps calm, leaving Olivia frozen in the middle of the busy office.
Olivia fell silent. Those words repeated over and over in her head.
The way you look at me would change.
Why? What did she mean? Was Delia actually not an enemy? Had Delia been trying to protect her all this time from something far worse than the dream itself?
Olivia watched Delia’s back as she walked further away. She felt as if she had just seen a tightly closed secret door, and Delia had just given her the key to open it but the key was too sharp, and she was afraid to hold it.
Around Olivia, the office grew noisy again with the sounds of work, but she didn’t hear anything. Her thoughts were focused on one question
What does Delia know about me that I don’t know myself?
She looked back at her computer. The screen was now blank, clean white, like a canvas waiting to be filled with a truth that would destroy everything.
