ANMELDENThe rest of the afternoon passed in a haze that Emma struggled to make sense of.She returned home after leaving the gallery, yet home no longer felt like home. Every room carried the lingering memory of the previous night. The damaged lock on the front door had already been removed by forensic officers, but the marks remained. The splintered wood around the frame seemed to mock her every time she looked at it.For hours she wandered aimlessly between rooms, unable to settle.Every time she closed her eyes she heard the same sounds again.The banging.The footsteps.The fear.The certainty that she was about to die.What disturbed her most, however, was not the memory of her former boyfriend.It was the memory of Jessica.The image refused to leave her mind.Jessica standing in the studio surrounded by shades of red.Jessica calmly painting while breaking news reported a death.Jessica looking almost indifferent.And then those words.He was alive when I left him.At first Emma had di
Emma left the gallery shortly after noon.She needed air.Needed distance.The studio suddenly felt suffocating.Every brushstroke.Every shade of crimson.Every word Jessica had spoken seemed to follow her out into the street.The city was alive around her.Traffic crawled through the roads.People hurried between shops.Children laughed somewhere in the distance.Normal life continued exactly as it always had.Yet none of it felt real.Emma walked without direction.Her thoughts looping endlessly."He was alive when I left him."The words refused to leave her alone.Perhaps Jessica had meant nothing by it.Perhaps it had been a joke.A poorly timed attempt at humour.But the look in her eyes had said otherwise.Jessica had not looked shocked.She had not looked saddened.If anything, she had looked relieved.Emma hated herself for even thinking it.Jessica had saved her.Supported her.Protected her.When nobody else had.Yet the feeling remained.Small.Persistent.Like a splinter
Jessica didn't sleep.Daisy's words followed her home.They followed her into the darkness.They followed her into every restless thought.Who was she becoming?For the first time in months, she had no answer.Henri's letter sat on the kitchen table.The notebook remained locked away.Neither had been touched.The apartment felt unusually quiet.Almost peaceful.At half past midnight, her phone rang.Emma.Jessica answered immediately."Emma?"The young woman's voice was barely recognisable.Terrified."He got in."Jessica stood instantly."What?""He's inside."The words dissolved into panic.Jessica could hear movement.A door slamming.Footsteps.Crying."Listen to me."Jessica's voice became calm.Controlled.The same tone she used during emergencies."Lock yourself in the bedroom.""I am.""Stay there."A sob."I can hear him."Jessica closed her eyes."Do not come out."The line remained open.For several minutes all Jessica heard was breathing.Fear.Silence.Then a noise.A he
Daisy stopped calling.At first, Jessica barely noticed.There were always meetings.Always deadlines.Always reasons to be busy.Three days passed.Then five.Then a week.Eventually, the silence became impossible to ignore.For years, Daisy had been a constant presence.A message.A phone call.A surprise coffee.Some small reminder that Jessica wasn't facing the world alone.Now there was nothing.The absence felt deliberate.Because it was.The realisation arrived on a Tuesday afternoon.Jessica was reviewing exhibition proposals when a member of staff appeared at her office door."Daisy's here."Jessica looked up immediately.Relief appeared before she could stop it."Send her in."The response came almost instantly."She said she'd wait downstairs."Something about that felt wrong.Daisy never waited downstairs.She walked in.Made coffee.Complained about paperwork.Acted as though she owned the place.Jessica stared at the doorway for several seconds.Then stood.The gallery c
Jessica saw the headline before she read the article.It appeared on her phone while she waited for coffee.Three words.Simple.Devastating.Woman Hospitalised Again.For a moment, she didn't recognise the name.Then she did.Emma.The cup nearly slipped from her hand.Jessica opened the article immediately.Her eyes raced through the details.The attack had happened the previous evening.Outside a supermarket.Witnesses intervened quickly.An ambulance arrived within minutes.Emma would recover physically.The article repeated that fact several times.As though repeating it made the story acceptable.Jessica read the piece twice.Then a third time.Each reading left her angrier.Not because of what it said.Because of what it didn't.There was no mention of the months of reports.No mention of the emergency calls.No mention of the warnings.No mention of the fear.Only the final outcome.The visible damage.The part people could no longer ignore.The part that forced attention.The
The notebook disappeared three days later.Not because Jessica threw it away.Because she moved it.From the office.To her apartment.The change seemed insignificant.A practical decision.Nothing more.At least that was what she told herself.The truth felt different.The office belonged to the gallery.The apartment belonged to her.One was public.The other was private.One represented Henri's world.The other represented her own.The distinction mattered.More than she wanted to admit.That evening, rain swept across Paris once again.Jessica sat alone at her dining table.The notebook open.Emma's case file beside it.The room was silent except for the distant sound of traffic.For several minutes she did nothing.Then she began reading.Not the police reports.Not the witness statements.The chronology.The dates.The sequence of events.The pattern.Weeks of warnings.Weeks of reports.Weeks of fear.Then the assault.The progression felt horrifyingly predictable once viewed i







