Chapter 1 - The Dark Parking Lot
I used to believe that love showed up when things were hardest.
That belief almost cost me my life.
My name is Rachel Monroe, and the night my child was born was the night I stopped confusing attachment with devotion.
I leaned forward until my forehead rested on the steering wheel.
I breathed like they had taught us in class.
Slow in, slower out.
My body ignored every instruction and did what it wanted.
The pain was blinding.
I reached for my phone to call for an ambulance, but my fingers were numb.
The phone slipped from my grasp and fell into the dark gap beneath the driver's seat.
I let out a desperate sob.
I was completely alone in the freezing car.
The streetlights flickered overhead, casting long, terrifying shadows across the empty pavement.
I squeezed my eyes shut as another contraction ripped through my spine.
When I opened them, someone was standing right outside my window.
A sharp rap of knuckles on the glass made me scream.
I stared through the rain-streaked window.
A woman with soaked blonde hair was peering in at me.
She did not look like a random passerby.
She looked frantic.
She pulled the door handle, but it was locked.
Roll down the window, she yelled, her voice muffled by the storm.
I hesitated, my hand hovering over the control.
Then she pressed a piece of paper against the wet glass.
My breath caught in my throat.
Written on the paper in bold black ink was my husband's name.
I unlocked the door.
The woman yanked it open and looked me dead in the eye.
May you like
We do not have much time, Rachel, she whispered.
Andrew sent me to make sure you never make it to that hospital.
