Chapter 1 — The Day I Came Home
Eight weeks.
That was how long I had been gone.
Eight weeks of sleeping under fake names, wearing clothes that didn’t belong to me, and pretending I wasn’t terrified every single night.
My mission near the Canadian border was supposed to last three weeks.
Then the evidence changed.
The people we were tracking were not ordinary criminals.
They had government connections.
Money.
Power.
And enough influence to make people disappear.
I survived because I had one thought repeating in my mind.
Go home.
Every night, I looked at the small pink birthday gift inside my backpack.
A bracelet for Lily.
A bracelet with a tiny golden heart.
She had told me six months earlier:
“Mommy, when you come back, I want you to put it on me yourself.”
That promise kept me alive.
But when I opened my front door, I didn’t see my daughter running toward me.
I saw her on her knees.
Crying.
Her tiny hand pressed against the cold marble floor.
And a red designer heel beside her fingers.
My heart stopped.
A woman I had never seen before sat on my couch.
In my house.
Wearing my husband’s robe.
Drinking champagne.
“Scrub harder,” she said.
Lily’s shoulders shook.
“Maybe then you’ll learn not to ruin expensive things.”
I didn’t breathe.
I didn’t blink.
I only saw my little girl.
My daughter.
My reason for coming home.
Then I spoke.
“Take your foot away from her.”
The woman slowly turned.
And smiled.
May you like
Like she wasn’t afraid.
Like she had no idea who had just walked through the door.
