Chapter 1 - The Empty Driveway
I gripped the leather steering wheel as the gray highway lines blurred into a continuous ribbon.
The salty coastal wind battered violently against the side of my small, aging sedan.
For the first time in forty years, I was not standing over a hot stove on the eve of Christmas Eve.
My phone buzzed relentlessly on the passenger seat beside my heavily packed overnight bag.
The glowing screen flashed rapidly with my daughter Sarah's name, followed by David's, then Sarah's again.
I knew exactly what they were staring at right now back in my quiet suburban neighborhood.
They were standing on my manicured front lawn, holding the hands of eight exhausted children, staring at a locked front door.
I had not left a polite explanatory note on the kitchen counter to ease their confusion.
I had not left the spare brass key hidden under the inflatable snowman on the porch as I usually did.
I had packed all the carefully wrapped presents and the entire holiday grocery haul into my spacious trunk.
The space beneath my towering, decorated Christmas tree was left completely and utterly bare.
My entitled children had treated me like a disposable, free babysitting service for the very last time.
I thought about all the years I had sacrificed my own happiness to ensure their holidays were entirely perfect.
I remembered the countless hours spent scrubbing dishes while they laughed and drank wine in the other room.
That afternoon, when I overheard Sarah callously planning to dump her kids and abandon me, something inside my heart permanently shattered.
I was no longer just an exhausted widow waiting for crumbs of affection from my own offspring.
I was a human being who deserved a peaceful holiday watching the ocean waves crash against the shore.
I pulled into the gravel driveway of the Pelican Inn, a charming bed and breakfast perched on a rocky ocean cliff.
The freezing winter breeze filled my tired lungs with an incredible, intoxicating sense of absolute freedom.
I turned off the engine and finally picked up my ringing phone to permanently block their numbers.
I wanted to erase their selfish voices from my life for just a few precious days.
Before my trembling finger could press the screen, a bizarre text message pushed through from an unknown number.
I opened the secure message and felt the warm blood drain completely from my face.
The message contained a high-definition, live video feed of my dark, empty living room.
I watched the screen in sheer terror as a dark, hooded figure walked slowly across my beloved hardwood floor.
Someone had secretly installed hidden surveillance cameras inside my private home without my knowledge.
The hooded intruder stopped in the center of the room and looked directly into the hidden camera lens.
May you like
He slowly pulled down his dark hood to reveal the face of my son-in-law, Mark.
Mark smiled a wicked, sinister smile and held up a shiny, metallic gasoline can.
