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Chapter One

Amy…

My name is all that is written on the plain white envelope taped to the mirror

I step out of the stall inside the bathroohter and joy of the evening’s charity event I’ve been enjoying fades away Fear and dread slahand yet it is It is, and I knohat it oes gray I fight the flashback I haven’t had in years, but I ahtmare The scent of s screams shreds my nerves There is pain and heartache, and the loss of all I once had and will never know again

Fighting a certainmemories I can’t let this happen Not here, not in a public place Not when I’ on my door

On wobbly knees and four-inch black strappy heels that had made me feel sexy only minutes before and clumsy now, I step forward and press my palms to the counter I can’t seeoes towhite-blond hair I’ve worn draped around ht rather than tied at e ofGone too are the dark-rilasses I’ve often used to hide the pale blue eyes both ofit too easy for me to see the empty shell of a person I’ve become If this is what I am at twenty-four years old, what I will be like at thirty-four?

Voices sound outside the doorway and I yank the envelope fro , two feossip about some man they’d admired at the party I suddenly need to confirainst the wall, I open the sealed envelope to remove a plain white note card and a key drops to the floor that looks like it goes to a locker Cursinghand, I bend down and scoop it up For aI shove tosensation in my eyes to read the few short sentences typed on the card

I’ve found you and so can they Go to JFK Airport directly Do not go ho you need

My heart thunders ininside of it It’s the tattoo that had been worn on the arer who I’d met only once before He’d saved my life and helped me restart a new one, and he’d er and I have to run

I squeeze ain, ain I will lose everything, and while everything is so much less than before, it’s all I have I crumble the note in my hand, desperate to o away After six years of hiding, I’d dared to believe I could find “normal”, but that was a o when I’d left my job at the central library as a research assistant, to work at the e

Straightening, I listen as the woer erupts inside ain and I tear the note in tiny pieces, flush them down the toilet and shove the envelope into the trash I want to throay the key too, but some part of me won’t let that happen Probably the sht now

Unzipping the small black purse I have strapped across ht budget, I’d splurged on for this new job; I drop the key inside, sealing it away I’ to finish ht here in New York City The note didn’t say I’d been found It only warned ain I don’t I need ti to have to wait until after the party

Decisionfor the door I do not want anyone to see ht nohen I have no idea who “me” is or will be tomorrow In a zone, that numb place I’ve used as a survival tool al of that symbol on the note, I follow the soft hu a roonificent artwork I tell et lost in the crush of patrons in business attire, while waiters toting trays offer chaer foods, but I don’t I siun, and I know is now gone My “zone” has failed me

“Where have you been?”

The question comes as Chloe Monroe, the only person I’ve let myself consider a friend in years, steps in front of me, a frown on her heart-shaped face Fro around her shoulders to her outgoing personality and fun, flirty attitude, she isI am not but hoped I would become

Noill lose her Noill lose ain

“Well,” she prods when I don’t reply quickly enough, shoving her hands onto her hips

“Where have you been?”

“Bathroom,” I say “There was a line” I sound aard I feel aard I hate how easily the lie comes to me, how it defines me A lie is all that I am