Chapter 1 - The Blood in the Rain
The freezing rain felt like ice needles striking my feverish skin as the white SUV vanished into the dark.
I lay on the sharp gravel of the highway shoulder with my hands desperately clutching my bleeding stomach.
The crumpled twenty-dollar bill rested in a muddy puddle just inches from my face.
Derek had thrown it at me with the ultimate and absolute disgust of a man flicking away a pest.
He had coldly told me to buy an Uber or some cheap medicine before driving off to see his mistress.
My surgical incision burned with a relentless fire that constantly threatened to pull me into unconsciousness.
I knew the severe infection would absolutely kill me if I stayed on the side of Interstate 87.
I slowly forced myself to roll onto my side despite the blinding agony ripping through my core muscles.
My loose gray dress was completely soaked with a terrifying mixture of cold rainwater and infected bodily fluid.
I dragged my body across the sharp stones toward the rusted metal post of the nearby mile marker.
Every single movement sent massive shockwaves of pure torture directly through my failing nervous system.
Derek truly believed I was a helpless orphan with absolutely no money and no powerful connections.
He had spent the last three years systematically breaking my spirit until I foolishly believed his cruel lies.
But I had willingly walked away from my past to escape a life far more dangerous than he could ever imagine.
I reached into the hidden inner lining of my jacket with violently trembling, freezing fingers.
I pulled out a small, waterproof satellite phone that I had kept securely hidden for extreme emergencies.
My vision swam with dark, hazy spots as I dialed a highly encrypted, private phone number.
The line rang only once before a crisp and terrifyingly professional voice answered.
I forced my dry, cracked lips to form the words as my physical strength finally began to fail.
I whispered my real birth name into the receiver and begged for immediate medical extraction.
The man on the other end of the line went completely silent for a fraction of a second.
Then he frantically shouted loud, aggressive orders to a tactical team in the background.
He returned to the phone and promised me that a medical helicopter was already tracking my exact GPS signal.
He also stated that my father had absolutely never stopped looking for me.
Before I could fully process his words, a pair of heavy boots crunched on the gravel right behind my head.
I looked up to see a strange, filthy man holding a large hunting knife gleaming brightly in the moonlight.
He stepped closer and pointed the sharp, rusted blade directly at my vulnerable throat.
He noticed the shiny satellite phone in my hand and aggressively demanded that I drop it.
I realized he was a ruthless scavenger who hunted the empty highway for stranded victims.
My heart hammered wildly against my ribs as I desperately tried to push myself backward into the mud.
The scavenger laughed a cruel, hollow laugh and told me that no one would ever hear me scream tonight.
He knelt beside my bleeding body and greedily snatched the twenty-dollar bill from the dirty puddle.
He confidently stated that my money, my phone, and my life now completely belonged to him.
I closed my eyes and prepared for the final, fatal strike of his heavy hunting knife.
Suddenly, a deafening roar completely shattered the terrifying silence of the stormy night.
A massive, blacked-out tactical helicopter descended rapidly from the clouds right above the highway.
Blinding white spotlights illuminated the entire road, turning the dark night into bright, artificial daylight.
The scavenger dropped his knife and raised his dirty hands in a state of absolute, paralyzing terror.
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A booming voice echoed through the helicopter's external speakers, shaking the wet ground beneath us.
The voice ordered the scavenger to step away from the billionaire's daughter or die where he stood.
