Dane's POV
A buzz from my phone told me I had a new message. For a moment, I didn't touch it. My eyes stayed locked on Lila, searching her face, because there was something in her expression that chilled me to the bone.
The notification sat on the screen like a weight, but I couldn't bring myself to open it. Deep down, I already knew who it was from. If Hailee really had left us something, then whatever waited inside that message… I wasn't sure my heart was strong enough to face it.
My hand trembled as I hovered over the screen, terrified of what I might see.
Finally, with a shaking breath, I tapped the message.
Hailee's face appeared, filling the screen, and my chest seized. She was sitting on her bed, her posture too still, her eyes carrying that kind of sadness that eats a soul alive from the inside.
For a second, I almost dropped the phone.
"I don't even know how to begin…"
