A breathing sound that didn’t belong to her teddy. She hadn’t screamed. She’d whispered into the phone instead.
Later, investigators discovered the man had escaped from a nearby construction site where he’d been hiding for days. He’d slipped into the house through an unlocked basement window, crawling under Mia’s bed when he heard footsteps. Her parents had checked the doors.
They hadn’t checked the windows. That night, Mia slept in her parents’ room. But she refused to put her bed back against the wall.
“Why?” her mom asked softly. Mia hugged her teddy and whispered, “So I can see if someone comes back.”
And somewhere in the quiet neighborhood…
another basement window was still open.
