He didn’t answer at first. His mouth opened, then closed, desperation flickering across his face. The plane hummed around them, oblivious. Elise reached out instinctively, her hand hovering near his arm, unsure how to steady someone unraveling so quietly.
His voice emerged low and strained. “The bible… did it have a pressed flower between the pages?” he asked. “Or a note, folded small—just one line?” Elise froze. She had never mentioned those details. Only she and her father knew about them. If she had an inkling before, it was growing into a certainty.