A Promise at the Grave

I slid my finger under the flap.

I tore it open.

Chapter 14 — Three Days Before

Inside were three pages, covered in blue ballpoint ink, in Chloe’s careful looping hand, and at the top of the first page was a date, and when I saw the date my chest constricted, because it was three days before she had entered the hospital to give birth.

She had written this knowing.

She had written it as a just-in-case, a message left behind by a young woman who had somehow sensed she might not survive, and had wanted to make sure that if she did not, the truth would not die with her.