Right after the funeral of our 15-year-old daughter, my husband insisted that I get rid of her belongings, but while cleaning her room I found a strange note:

“Mom, look under the bed and you’ll understand everything.”

When I looked under the bed, I saw something terrible… 

Right after the funeral of our only daughter, who had just turned 15, life seemed to come to a halt.

I remember standing by the grave, barely able to keep on my feet.

People around me were saying something, offering condolences, but I could hardly hear anything. There was only her white coffin.

After the funeral my husband kept saying:

— We need to throw away all her things. They’re just memories. They’ll torture us as long as we keep them at home.

I couldn’t understand how he could say that. These weren’t just things — they were her scent, her touch, her dresses, her toys. I resisted as long as I could, but after a month I gave in. I decided to clean her room, where I hadn’t stepped in almost a month.

When I opened the door, it felt like everything was still the same. The air still carried a faint scent of her perfume, and on the desk lay an open notebook.

I picked up each item carefully — her dress, her hair ties, her favorite book. I cried, holding them against my chest, as if that could bring her back for just a moment.

But then, from one of her textbooks, a small folded piece of paper fell out. My heart skipped a beat.

I unfolded it — and instantly recognized my daughter’s handwriting.

On the paper it said:
“Mommy, if you’re reading this, look under the bed immediately and you’ll understand everything.”

I read it over and over again, my hands trembling. My chest tightened. What could she have meant?

Gathering my courage, I knelt down and looked under the bed… and what I saw there left me in shock.  To be continued in the first comment 

With shaking hands I pulled out an old bag from under the bed. Inside were some things: a couple of notebooks, a little box with trinkets, and my daughter’s phone. The very phone my husband had said was “lost.” My heart sank with a terrible premonition.

I turned the phone on — it still worked. The first thing I did was open the messages. There was a chat with her friend.

Fragments of the chat:

February 15, 10:17 PM
Daughter: I can’t take this anymore 

10:18 PM
Friend: What happened?

10:19 PM
Daughter: Dad yelled at me again. He said if Mom finds out even a single word, he’ll make sure we both regret it…

10:21 PM
Friend: God, you’re scaring me… Did he hit you?

10:22 PM
Daughter: Yes… not the first time. A bruise on my arm, I tell Mom it happened at school, but… I’m scared 

10:24 PM
Friend: You have to tell your mom or go to the police, this is way too serious!

10:26 PM
Daughter: He said he’ll kill me if I tell anyone. I believe him, when he’s angry — he’s terrifying…

10:28 PM
Friend: But you can’t keep all of this inside…

10:29 PM
Daughter: I’m writing to you because I can’t tell anyone else. If something happens to me, know this — it was him.

These lines burned my hands like fire. Each message carved itself into my mind. I read them over and over, and images filled my head — her frightened eyes, how she had withdrawn more and more in the last months.

I didn’t want to believe back then that something serious was happening to her…

And in that moment I realized: my daughter did not leave on her own. She became the victim of the one I had believed to be the closest person in my life.