My Best Friend Died In A Crash Seven Years Ago—Last Night, I Got A Text From Her Number

Seven years after my best friend Adira died in a car crash, I got a text from her number: a photo of us as teenagers. Then: Check your mailbox.

Inside was an envelope with old pictures of us—and one new photo of me, taken in secret last year.

When I called, her voice answered: “It’s me. Meet me at the lookout.”

At dawn, I went. She was there—alive. She’d fled the crash, terrified after the married man she was with died. For years she drifted, watching my life from afar.

Now she was dying of leukemia. She introduced me to Kian, her son, and asked me to take him.

Two years later, he’s mine. We light a candle for her every night.

Adira ran out of fear, but in the end she came home. And in losing her, I found family and forgiveness.