Page 5 (1/2)

Chapter One

I’m not a person who panics

Not when I found my father after he’d overdosed when I was seven years old I calmly called 911 and followed their instructions until an ambulance arrived

Not onday when a hurricane ruined our ceremony on the beach

Not when my water broke in the middle of an irit my teeth and wait for him to finish his speech before I was taken to the hospital

Not even when my husband hit me for the first time

Or the second

And especially not when I finally found my backbone underneath fractured ribs and escaped the beautiful house that had become my prison, with my two-year-old and not much else

But noas panicking

I was speeding

Veering in and out of traffic

Scrolling frantically throughup at the road

Never would I be on my phone and drive Never Because I usually hadtoit that way

But my son wasn’t in the car

Which hy I was panicking

Because my abusive, soon-to-be-ex-husband, also detective and son of a senator, kidnapped my son

And I didn’t knohere he was

I didn’t knohere my son was

A fist fastened around led, in short, quick bursts

At the same time, a location popped up on my phone and I veered across three lanes of traffic at the last et to my exit

I prayed that I didn’t get pulled over as I sped through the streets of LA Most people would have been happy to see the flashing blue and red lights behind them after their son was kidnapped by his abusive father I was not most people in this situation

And the police had proved to be worth less than nothing

“So you don’t have pri bored, and hardened to my distress

The police in the precinct had originally been concerned and responsive when I rushed in there to inform them that my son had been kidnapped That was until they found out he was kidnapped by his father No, that was after they found out who his father was