His wife died of a heart attack, and during the funeral, due to confusion, the wife forgot her phone in the coffin. Unexpectedly, he received a text message from his late wife in the middle of the night.
The night passed, and the house in Quezon City had only a flickering yellow light in front of Marites’ altar. The smoke of incense drifted, making the atmosphere even more tiring. Antonio sat motionless, his eyes red from crying, but deep down he was extremely tired. Since his wife’s sudden heart attack, he had almost no strength left. Everything had fallen on him: organizing the funeral, receiving guests, taking care of his little daughter who had recently lost her mother… Antonio only forced a smile to outsiders, but when he returned to the empty house, he was surrounded by sadness again.
What worried him most was the phone that was lost on the day of the funeral. He remembered that he was still holding it in his hand when he bent down to look at his wife’s face one last time. After that, everything became a blur. When he discovered it, the coffin was closed, and the coffin was rolling. Antonio consoled himself that someone would find it, or that it would be okay if it was lost. But at midnight that night, when it was just the two of them left in the quiet house, the truth sent a chill down his spine.
The phone he thought was gone… Suddenly sent a text message to his own number. The message was short:
“Tonio, I’m still here. Don’t fool them.”
Antonio was stunned, his hand shaking as he held the spare phone he had just borrowed. Who could text from his number, when both the SIM and the phone were in the coffin with his wife? Most importantly, the content was the same as Marites’ voice when she had told him.
Covered in darkness
The next morning, Antonio went to a phone shop near their house. He asked the employee to check the text message history and the location of the phone number. The young man looked at it and looked up, surprised:
– Your number is currently sending signals near Loyola Cemetery. The last message was sent at 1:12 am.
Hearing this, Antonio got goosebumps. Loyola Cemetery is where his wife was buried. He tried to calm down, thinking that maybe the phone had fallen into the casket and still rang. But who had sent the message?
That afternoon, after taking his daughter to his mother’s house in Marikina, Antonio returned to the cemetery alone. The wind blew through the coconut trees, the wild grass rustled in the new graves. He headed straight for the place where Marites was buried. The grave was still fresh, the earth had not yet hardened, the funeral wreath still smelled of yellow chrysanthemums. He sat down, placed his hand on the cold tombstone:
– Marites… If you are the one being asked, give me a sign.
A little later, the cellphone in his hand vibrated. A new message arrived, still from his own number:
“Don’t trust the person next to you. Someone is hiding the truth about my death.”
Antonio was sweating profusely, his eyes widening as he looked around. The cemetery was hopeless. The message turned all his beliefs upside down. The doctor had already concluded that Marites had had a heart attack, but why was this a warning?
The letter left behind
That night, around midnight, another message appeared…
“Look in my desk drawer. What you need is there.”
Antonio opened his wife’s desk drawer with shaking hands. Amidst the messy pile of papers, he found a sealed envelope. Marites’ handwriting was familiar:
“If anything happens to me, give this to Tonio.”
Inside, in addition to a stack of medical papers, there was also a short handwritten note:
“Tonio, my health has not been good lately. I suspect that something is deliberately making my condition worse. I have discovered that the medicine I am taking has a strange smell, and every time I take it, my heart beats abnormally fast. I cannot confirm, but if anything happens to me, find out the truth. Don’t trust everyone around me.”
Antonio was stunned. The text message warnings seemed to be in line with Marites’ concerns. He looked at the medical records again: there were test results showing a strange substance in the blood, but no clear diagnosis.
He remembered the unfinished bottle of heart medicine that Marites was taking that was still in the drawer. When he opened it, a pungent smell that was different from the normal medicine hit Antonio. Goosebumps rose on Antonio’s skin. Marites might have been poisoned.
Suspicion and truth
Antonio’s mind flashed with the image of Rogelio, Marites’ closest companion. In the past, he had often gone to Marites’ house to get documents when he was busy. Once, he even joked: “Rogelio knows where my medicine cabinet is.” On the day of the funeral, Rogelio came to pay his respects, his eyes averted.
Antonio took the bottle of medicine to a doctor he knew at the Philippine General Hospital. The initial results shocked the doctor: the medicine contained a small amount of a cardiac stimulant, which, if used for a long time, could cause heart failure or sudden death.
Antonio clenched his fists. Everything came together: his wife’s sudden fatigue, Rogelio’s averted eyes, the message on the envelope. His gentle and loyal wife might have passed away not because of fate, but because of a cruel hand.
The final message
That night, Antonio placed the envelope and the bottle of medicine in front of his wife’s picture, whispering:
Don’t worry, I’ll find the truth.
The borrowed phone on the table rang for the last time. A message from his own phone – the one buried deep underground:
The borrowed phone on the table rang for the last time. A text message from his own phone – the one buried underground:
“Thank you. Now I am at peace. Protect our child.”
Antonio burst into tears. He didn’t know if this was a deception by the hidden person or a message from the underworld. But he believed that Marites was still watching. Despite this, he would not let his wife’s death, which seemed like a sudden heart attack, be forgotten.
Investigating in the Darkness
After the last night of receiving the message, Antonio knew that he could not let things stop. He went to the police station in Quezon City and met an acquaintance, Lieutenant Santos, who was his former classmate. Antonio handed over Marites’ envelope, the remaining vial, and the initial test results.
Lieutenant Santos was silent for a long time, and then he nodded:
– This is important evidence. But to convict a person, we need more direct evidence. You must be mentally prepared, because this will be a difficult and potentially dangerous investigation.
Antonio nodded, his eyes focused:
– I am ready. I owe my wife the truth.
The trap is set
The police are secretly investigating Rogelio. They discover that he had a secret relationship with Marites many years ago, but it was ruined by him. According to some former colleagues, Rogelio became angry when he denied it several times, and said “If Marites is not mine, no one can claim her.”
To gather more evidence, Lieutenant Santos suggested that Antonio pretend to “want to make peace” with Rogelio, and invited him to his house. During the meeting, Antonio secretly placed a recording device in the living room.
A glass of wine was poured, Antonio looked directly at Rogelio:
– Rogelio, I’ve been thinking a lot lately. The doctor said that there were many strange points in Marites’ death. You were the closest person to him in the company… Do you know anything?
At first, Rogelio avoided it. But when the alcohol got in, he started talking:
– Marites… He’s always been arrogant. I showed him what it feels like to lose control. A few pills… And his heart couldn’t take it anymore.
Antonio sat motionless, his hands clasped under the table. Everything Rogelio said was recorded.
The net of heaven is wide
The next day, Lieutenant Santos and the investigation team raided Rogelio’s apartment. In his medicine cabinet, they found a vial of white powder similar to the substance mixed in Marites’ pills. Tests confirmed that it was a dangerous heart stimulant.
Faced with the undeniable evidence – the recorded confession, the vial, and the test results – Rogelio collapsed and was led away in handcuffs.
On the day of the trial, Antonio sat silently in the audience, holding his young daughter. When the judge sentenced Rogelio to life in prison for premeditated murder, tears welled up in his eyes. He wasn’t happy, he was just sad that justice had finally been served: justice had finally been served.
A Promise in the Cemetery
One windy afternoon, Antonio took his daughter to Marites’ grave in the Loyola Cemetery. He placed a bouquet of white flowers on the grave and whispered softly:
– My love, the truth has come out. The person who hurt you has paid the price. My daughter and I will still be alive, but we will never forget you.
Suddenly, the cell phone in his pocket vibrated. A blank message, with only a red heart symbol, was sent from the phone number buried with his wife. Antonio stood up, tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t sure if it was a coincidence, or a comfort from afar.
But he believed: Marites could rest in peace.
The End – Justice and Peace
From then on, Antonio devoted all his time to caring for his daughter. He still kept the envelope, the medicine bottle and the court verdict in a wooden box, as evidence of his journey to find justice.
Every night he burned incense for his wife and said:
– Sleep well, Marites. I did what you told me to do: protect our daughter, and protect the truth.
Outside, Manila was still noisy, but in Antonio’s heart, there was a peaceful silence – something he had regained after months of suffering.