THE NOTE IN HER NOTEBOOK
(Elena's POV)
At seven in the morning, my phone lit up with a photograph from the storage unit on Ninth Street.
A cream envelope, bigger than a page, lying flat on bare concrete. Written on the front in blue ink, one line.
D. Cross.
Under the photo, five words from him.
Don't leave the floor. I'm coming.
Mia was awake when I turned around.
Her eyes were only half open and her voice came out thin, but the machine above her head was doing the thing it was supposed to do. Slow and steady. No hurry in it.
"You slept in the chair," she said.
"I did."
"Was he here?"
"Which he?"
"The quiet one." She closed her eyes again. "He stood by the window at four in the morning. I saw him before they took me in."
I sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Mia. The letters f
