Chapter 6 – The Notebook
Lucy was discharged two weeks later.
She refused to return to the house she shared with Alex.
Instead, she moved into her older sister Emma's apartment on the north side of Chicago.
The only things she took were clothes, baby supplies...
...and the small notebook she had carried inside the elevator.
Emma found her reading it one evening.
"What is that?"
Lucy handed it over.
Every page contained timestamps.
Symptoms.
Heart rates.
Observations.
The final page was different.
The handwriting shook violently.
8:58 p.m. Elderly male losing consciousness.
9:05 p.m. Child barely responsive.
9:16 p.m. Doors opened.
Then only three more lines.
"Alex saw me."
"He chose Valerie."
"I finally believed what I had refused to see."
Emma closed the notebook slowly.
"You wrote this before anyone spoke to you?"
Lucy nodded.
"So no one influenced your memory."
"No."
Emma reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
"Keep this safe."
"Why?"
"Because someday, someone is going to claim you imagined everything."
Lucy looked down at the notebook.
Every page had been written while trapped inside the elevator.
Every timestamp matched the emergency dispatch logs.
It wasn't just a diary anymore.
May you like
It was evidence.
And before long, it would become the piece that no lawyer on Alex's side could explain away.
