His wife died of a heart attack, and in the funeral, out of confusion, the husband forgot his phone in the coffin. Unexpectedly, he received a text message from his deceased wife in the middle of the night.
Night fell, and the house in Quezon City only had a flickering yellow light in front of Marites’ altar. Incense smoke drifted, making the atmosphere even more stifling. Antonio sat motionless, his eyes red from crying, but deep inside was extreme fatigue. Since his wife passed away from a sudden heart attack, he had almost no strength left. Everything was coming down on him: arranging the funeral, receiving visitors, taking care of his little daughter who had just lost her mother… Antonio only tried to force a smile at outsiders, but when he returned to the empty house, loneliness surrounded him again.

What bothered him the most was the phone that disappeared 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 for the last time. After that, everything became hazy. When he discovered it, the coffin was closed, and the hearse had already rolled away. Antonio consoled himself that someone would find it, or it would be okay if it was lost. But at midnight that night, when only the two of them were left in the quiet house, the truth sent a chill down his spine.

The phone he thought he had lost… suddenly sent a text message to his own number. The message was short:

“Tonio, I’m still here. Huwag kang magpaloko sa kanila.”

Antonio was stunned, his hand trembling as he held the spare phone he had just borrowed. Who could text from his number, when the SIM and phone were both in the coffin with his wife? Above all, the content was just like Marites’s voice when she told him.

Darkness enveloped

The next morning, Antonio went to a phone store near his house. He asked the employee to check the text message history and the location of the phone number. The young man looked it up and looked up, surprised:

– Your number is currently transmitting signals near Loyola Cemetery. The last message was sent at 1:12 am.

Hearing this, Antonio got goosebumps. Loyola Cemetery was where his wife was buried. He tried to calm down, thinking that maybe the phone had fallen in the coffin and was still ringing. 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 whistled through the coconut trees, the wild grass rustled on the new graves. He went straight to where Marites was buried. The grave was still fresh, the soil had not yet hardened, the funeral wreath still smelled of yellow chrysanthemums. He sat down, placed his hand on the cold tombstone:

– Marites… if it were you, give me a sign.

At that moment, the borrowed phone in his hand vibrated. A new message had arrived, still from his own number:

“Huwag kang magtiwala sa taong nasa tabi mo. May nagtatago ng katotohanan sa pagkamatay ko.”

Antonio was sweating, his eyes wide open as he looked around. The cemetery was deserted. The message turned all his beliefs upside down. The doctor had already concluded that Marites had suffered a heart attack, but why this warning?

The letter left behind

That night, at midnight, another message appeared…

“Hanapin mo sa drawer ng mesa ko. Nandoon ang kailangan mo.”

Antonio opened his wife’s desk drawer with trembling hands. Among the messy pile of papers, he found a sealed envelope. Marites’s handwriting was familiar:

“Kung may mangyari sa akin, ibigay ito kay 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 someone is deliberately making my condition worse. I discovered that the medicine I took has a strange smell, and every time I take it, my heart beats abnormally fast. I can’t confirm it, but if anything happens to me, please find the truth. Don’t trust everyone around me.”

Antonio was stunned. The warnings in the text message turned out to be consistent with what Marites had worried about. He checked the medical papers again: there were test results showing a strange substance in the blood, but there was no clear diagnosis.

He remembered the unfinished bottle of heart medicine Marites had taken that was still in the drawer. When he opened it, a pungent smell different from normal medicine hit Antonio. Goosebumps rose in Antonio’s skin. Marites might have been poisoned.

Suspicion and the truth

Antonio’s mind flashed with the image of Rogelio, Marites’s closest colleague. In the past, he often came to Marites’s house to get documents when she was busy. Once, she even joked: “Rogelio knows where my medicine cabinet is.” On the day of the funeral, Rogelio came to pay his respects, his eyes evading.

Antonio took the medicine bottle to a doctor he knew at the Philippine General Hospital. The preliminary results surprised the doctor: the medicine contained a small amount of a heart 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 evasive eyes, the message in the envelope. His gentle, devoted wife might have passed away not because of fate, but because of a cruel hand.

The last message

That night, Antonio placed the envelope and the medicine bottle in front of his wife’s portrait, whispering:

– Don’t worry, I will find the truth.

The borrowed phone on the table rang one last time. A message from his own phone – the one that was buried deep underground:

The borrowed phone on the table rang one last time. A text message from his own phone – the one buried deep underground:

“Salamat. Ngayon panatag na ako. Protektahan mo ang anak natin.”

Antonio burst into tears. He didn’t know if it was a trick of the hidden person or a message from the underworld. But he believed that Marites was still watching. And at all costs, he would not let his wife’s death be forgotten like a sudden heart attack.

Investigation in the Dark

After the night of receiving the last message, Antonio knew he couldn’t let things stop. He went to the Quezon City police station and met an officer he knew – Lieutenant Santos – who was his old classmate. Antonio gave Marites’s envelope, the remaining vial, and the initial test results.

Lieutenant Santos was silent for a long time, then nodded:

– This is important evidence. But to convict someone, we need more direct evidence. You must be mentally prepared, because this will be a difficult and possibly dangerous investigation.

Antonio nodded, his eyes determined:

– I’m ready. I owe my wife the truth.

The trap was set

The police secretly investigated Rogelio. They discovered that he had had a secret relationship with Marites many years ago, but she had broken it off. Some former colleagues said that Rogelio was bitter about being rejected many times, even saying: “Kung hindi akin si Marites, walang makakaangkin sa kanya.”

To gather more evidence, Lieutenant Santos suggested that Antonio pretend to “want to make peace” with Rogelio, inviting him to his house. During the meeting, Antonio secretly installed a recording device in the living room.

A glass of wine was poured, Antonio looked straight at Rogelio:

– Rogelio, I’ve been thinking a lot lately. The doctor said that Marites’s death had many strange points. You were the closest person to her in the company… do you know anything?

At first, Rogelio avoided it. But when the alcohol kicked in, he started to blurt out:

– Marites… she was always arrogant. I showed her what it felt like to lose control. A few pills… and her heart couldn’t take it anymore.

Antonio sat motionless, his hands clenched under the table. Everything Rogelio said was recorded.

The net of heaven was wide open

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’s pills. Tests confirmed it was a dangerous cardiac 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 quietly in the audience, holding his little daughter in his arms. When the judge sentenced Rogelio to life in prison for premeditated murder, tears welled up in his eyes. He wasn’t happy, just deeply relieved: justice had finally been served.

A Promise in the Cemetery

One windy afternoon, Antonio took his daughter to Marites’s grave at Loyola Cemetery. He placed a bouquet of white flowers on the grave and whispered softly:

– My dear, the truth has come to light. The one who harmed you has paid the price. My child and I will live on, but we will never forget you.

Suddenly, the phone in his pocket vibrated. A blank message, with only a red heart symbol, was sent from the phone number that had been buried with his wife. Antonio stood still, tears falling. He was not 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 taking care of his daughter. He still kept the envelope, the medicine bottle and the court’s verdict in a wooden box, as a testament to his journey to find justice.

Every night, he burned incense for his wife and said:

– Sleep well, Marites. I did exactly as you told me: protect our child, 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 torment.