MIA POV
The new guard has a cough.
That is the first thing Mia learns about him. A small, dry cough he does every seven to nine minutes, like a clock she didn't ask for. She hears it through her door at 6 a.m. and she lies still in her bed and she counts.
Seven minutes. Cough.
Eight minutes. Cough.
Nine minutes. Cough.
She files it. She gets up.
She has one day, maybe less, before Dante figures out exactly what she saw from that library chair. She knows this the way she knows the basil needed more sun by watching, by paying attention, by understanding that smart men move fast once they realise they've been careless.
So she moves faster.
She asks Elena at breakfast. Casually. The way you ask for something you don't need.
"Do you have a spare journal? And pens? I want to write letters. To Rosa. It helps me feel less " She pauses. She lets the pause do the work. "It helps."
