I did not reply.
I made a screenshot that included the number and time, then contacted Detective Sato.
She asked me to preserve the original message and bring the phone to the station.
Elena drove because my hands were shaking.
Sato treated the threat seriously but did not promise she could trace its origin immediately.
She asked whether anyone besides Patricia could have accessed the footage.
I told her about Wesley Pike and the strange interest in my brother’s shop.
She listened without interrupting.
The officer assigned to digital evidence made a secure copy of the message.
He explained that a forwarded image alone would not prove who captured it or sent it.
That answer was disappointing, but I appreciated his refusal to invent certainty.
Outside the station Elena asked whether I wanted to stay at her apartment.
I wanted to say no because I hated the thought of leaving my house to someone who had invaded it.
I said yes because sleep was becoming impossible.
That evening I packed one bag and turned off the lamp beside the couch.
I left the mantel clock uncovered for the first time in days.
It looked ordinary again.
That was somehow worse.
Chapter 16: Elena Draws a Boundary
Elena’s apartment was on the third floor above a bakery that started work before sunrise.
The smell of bread traveled through the stairwell every morning, and I discovered that a place could feel safe without being completely silent.
On our second night there, she asked to talk about the argument Patricia had overheard.
I had hoped we could postpone it until the investigation ended.
Elena said that waiting for someone else’s behavior to stop affecting our lives would give Patricia more power than she deserved.
We sat at her kitchen table while a delivery truck rattled below.
She explained that my reluctance to make plans had hurt her before the camera was discovered.
I admitted that I often treated emotional questions as if they were financial problems that required perfect information.
She laughed once, without amusement.
“People do not come with guaranteed outcomes, Marcus,” she said.
I told her I wanted to build a future with her but had worried that the machine shop’s debt would make me a liability.
She said she would rather know an uncomfortable truth than receive a reassuring answer that concealed it.
We talked until midnight about money, marriage, independence, and the difference between a promise and a prediction.
