Page 95

Each one is followed by a phone number, an address, or a short reminder written in Celeste’s neat handwriting.

School uniform.

Apartment approved.

Needs dentist.

Call after hearing.

New job starts Monday.

I turn another page and find more names, more addresses, and more notes until the pattern becomes impossible to miss.

This notebook isn’t about Celeste. It’s about the people whose lives crossed hers.

The entries stretch across several years. Some names appear once before disappearing, while others return with updates that read like milestones in lives slowly coming back together.

She wasn’t keeping records. She was keeping promises.

I keep reading until one name stops me.

Nora Bell.

The next mention appears only a few pages later. Then another. By the fourth entry, I stop skimming altogether.

Met through Haven House.

Interview Monday.

Apartment finally approved.

Ask Michael about scholarship.

Doing much better.

Christmas presents delivered.

Every later note grows shorter, as though Celeste needed fewer words because she already knew the story behind them.

I run my thumb across her handwriting again.

Nora Bell isn’t another name buried in a notebook. Every note beside her name follows another piece of her life, from interviews and apartments to scholarships and Christmas presents, until the entries grow shorter because Celeste no longer needs reminders to remember who she is.

I close the notebook and rest my hand on the cover.

Nora Bell might not have the answers I’m looking for. But she’s the best place I’ve found to start.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Emma

MAY 28TH

Kira wheels her suitcase into my apartment as soon as I open the door, leaving me to step aside with a piece of toast in one hand and only one shoe on.

“You could’ve told me you were coming,” I say as she kisses my cheek and continues into the kitchen.

“I tried to call last night.” She pulls my phone from beneath the dish towel on the counter and hands it to me. “You’ve become difficult to check on and I miss you. You live closer than ever and I see you less.”