**Diary Entry**
After the funeral of our fifteen-year-old daughter, my husband kept insisting we throw away her things. But while clearing her room, I found a strange note: *”Mum, look under the bed, and youll understand everything.”* What I saw there shattered me
Life seemed to freeze the moment we buried our only childbarely fifteen. I remember standing by her grave, barely able to keep myself upright. People murmured condolences, but their words blurred into silence. All I saw was her white coffin.
In the days that followed, my husband wouldnt let up. “We need to get rid of her things,” he kept saying. “Theyre just memories. Keeping them will only make the pain worse.”
I couldnt fathom how he could say that. These werent just *things*they still carried her scent, her touch, her presence. I resisted for weeks, but eventually, I gave in. One evening, I finally mustered the strength to step into her room, untouched since the day she left.
The moment I opened the door, it hit meeverything was exactly as shed left it. Her perfume lingered in the air. An open notebook lay on her desk. I picked up each itemher favourite jumper, hair clips, the novel shed been readingclutching them as if they could bring her back, even for a second.
Then, a folded piece of paper slipped from one of her textbooks. My heart lurched.
Unfolding it, I recognised her handwriting: *”Mum, if youre reading this, look under the bed. Youll understand.”*
I read it again, hands trembling. Something cold coiled in my chest. What did she mean?
Gathering my courage, I knelt and peered beneath the bedand what I found knocked the breath from my lungs.
A dusty bag sat tucked in the shadows. Inside were a few notebooks, a small trinket box, andher phone. The same phone my husband had claimed was *”lost.”* A sickening dread settled over me.
The phone still worked. The first thing I saw was a chat with her best friend.
**Excerpts from the Messages**
*15 February, 22:17*
**Her:** I cant take this anymore.
*22:18*
**Friend:** Whats wrong?
*22:19*
**Her:** Dad screamed at me again. Said if Mum ever found out, hed make sure we both regretted it.
*22:21*
**Friend:** God, youre scaring me Did he hurt you?
*22:22*
**Her:** Yeah. Not the first time. The bruise on my armI told Mum it was from school, but Im scared.
*22:24*
**Friend:** You have to tell your mum or go to the police!
*22:26*
**Her:** He said hed kill me if I did. I believe him. When hes angry, hes terrifying.
*22:28*
**Friend:** You cant keep this to yourself
*22:29*
**Her:** Youre the only one I can talk to. If anything happens to me its him.
The words burned through me. Every message carved itself into my mind. I kept rereading them, flashes of herwide-eyed, withdrawn in those last monthsflooding my vision. Id told myself she was just being a teenager.
But now I knew the truth.
My daughter didnt leave on her own.
She was taken by the man Id trusted most.
*Some horrors arent buried with the dead. They live in the silence we refuse to break.*
