"At my daughter’s birthday, my sister smashed the cake into her face as a joke. My little girl fell backward, clutching her cheek and crying in pain. The next morning, my mother begged me not to report her. Then the ER doctor studied the X-ray, locked the door, and called 911.

The darkness inside the cabin was absolute and terrifying.

Someone had cut the main breaker from the hallway panel.

"Mommy!"

Lily’s panicked voice echoed from the center of the room.

I moved blindly toward the sound of her voice, keeping the gun raised.

Suddenly, a heavy vase smashed into the side of my head.

I stumbled sideways, my vision swimming with bright flashes of pain.

Someone kicked the back of my knees, sending me crashing hard onto the wooden floor.

The gun slid out of my grip and skittered away into the darkness.

"Did you really think you could stop us?"

My mother’s cruel voice whispered from somewhere just above me.

I felt a pair of hands wrap tightly around my throat, squeezing with brutal force.

I thrashed wildly, gasping for air that I could not reach.

I reached out blindly and my fingers brushed against the sharp shards of broken window glass.

I grabbed a large, jagged piece of glass and drove it backward into my attacker’s leg.

Vanessa let out a blood-curdling shriek and released her grip on my neck.

I scrambled forward on my hands and knees until I bumped into the wooden dining chair.

I frantically untied the thick ropes binding Lily’s hands and feet.

I scooped my daughter into my arms just as a flashlight beam clicked on across the room.

David was holding the flashlight in one hand and my stolen police gun in the other.

"End of the line, Sarah," David sneered, aiming the weapon at my chest.

I kicked the heavy dining table forward, sending it crashing into David’s legs.

The gun fired wildly into the ceiling as he lost his balance.

I did not look back.

“Which daughter is yours?” should have been a harmless question

The first wineglass shattered at 8:07 p.m

The moment the mafia boss’s wife called me “an illiterate servant,”

I carried Lily through the shattered window and ran directly into the freezing, storm-swept woods.

We plunged into the absolute darkness just as a chorus of vicious, barking dogs echoed from the cabin porch.

Chapter 6 - The Fight in the Dark