Page 41 of The Incredible Kindness of Paper
Chloe dry-heaved, her stomach churning.
She needed to call the police. Where was her phone?
Out in the kitchen. Chloe kept it out of her bedroom so she wouldn’t stay up for hours mindlessly scrolling.
She staggered to her feet, legs threatening to give out beneath her as she hurried to the kitchen.
As Chloe grabbed her phone off the counter, she remembered that Becca had set up security cameras in a few strategic places around the apartment. There would be footage of whoever had done this. Not in Chloe’s bedroom, but of the flower being put on the kitchen table the first time, as well as anyone entering and exiting the apartment. Chloe hadnever been more grateful for Becca’s uptight desire to control the fine details of their lives.
Chloe opened the security camera app. Whoever put that flower on her bed must have come in while she was sleeping. An ice-cold chill shivered up her spine.
She watched the front door camera’s footage at high speed from the moment she came home until right now.
No one had entered or exited.
What?
Becca had already been home by the time Chloe arrived yesterday evening, and they had locked the door with the dead bolt. Chloe watched the footage again and confirmed that the front door had stayed closed the whole time.
Is there someone in the apartment with us?Panic knifed through Chloe’s chest.
But that would be impossible. Their apartment was barely bigger than two closets. And with all of Becca’s plastic organizational bins—neatly labeled with everything either of them owned—there was zero space for anyone to hide.
Chloe chewed on her lip as she clicked on the footage from the first time the paper rose had returned a little more than a week ago. That would be camera 2, the one Becca had set up on the counter to face their small dining table and the three-foot strip of space the landlord called a “living room.”
That evening, Becca had lectured Chloe about the origami flowers taking up the entire table. But when Chloe watched the film from that part of the night, she noticed that the crumpled-up rose was already there. Chloe hadn’t noticed it then, but it must have appeared earlier.
She started watching from an earlier part of the day. Chloe watched herself pack up in the morning, choosing which paper flowers to put into her basket and take to Central Park. There was no crumpled rose on the table.
But then, in the middle of the afternoon, it appeared.
She gasped.
Chloe backed up the footage by a minute.
No rose.
Then out of nowhere, it appeared.
“What in the world…?”
She watched it five more times, then cross-checked camera 1’s front door footage for the same time period.
Again, no one had entered or exited the apartment. There hadn’t been an intruder.Thank god.
But how was this happening?
Chloe ran back to her room and cradled the origami rose in her cupped hands.
“Who are you?” she asked, as if the paper could tell her who the person on the other side of the notes was.
Sometimes wishing can make a dream come true.
I guarantee it ABSOLUTELY does not.
I respectfully disagree, and I’m willing to bet you on it.
Name your wager. Because the odds are against you.
