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Prologue

Three years earlier

Grace looked in her rearview hteen-wheeler was co on her too fast Damn it She should have taken her sister’s advice and stayed at the dinner party until it stopped snowing or at least slowed down a bit She hated driving on icy roads, especially at night The snow made visibility extre her right off the road She could kick herself for offering to work to paid double-tie, she was learning, wasn’t cheap

Still, when she’d left her sister’s house, she hadn’t expected to deal with a road-raging truck driver He blew his horn again, and she wanted to scream She was already in the slow lane What ot the better of her and she blew her horn She breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed hi into the other lane

“Couldn’t have done that seven h, could you, jerk?” she side her

She noticed the big rig out of her peripheral vision Suddenly he beeped his horn again, and Grace forced herself to keep her eyes on the road This was going beyond nore She suddenly felt as if she’d been tossed into a bad horrorto shut out her fears of being on the road alone with a psycho wielding a really big truck as a weapon Just as the cheerful notes of a Christmas classic filled the interior of the car, the truck driver swerved Time seemed to stand still as she watched the scene unfold around her The fear of being crunched under tons ofher foot into the brake pedal Her car spun out of control The sounds of breaking glass and led with the cheerful notes of the song still co she heard before the world went black was Bing singing about a white Christmas

“She should have waited I told her to wait”

Grace heard the worry in her sister’s voice and she wanted to reassure her, but she didn’t quite understand what had her so upset to start with It was al, but why?

“We know, Faith She’ll be okay”

Merrick? Why was Merrick in her dorm room? Come to think of it, as her sister in her doret her eyelids to open?

“I should have made her stay,” Faith wailed “This is all my fault I insisted she co so hard, and I thought the break would do her good This is my fault”

“No, it isn’t, now stop that or I’ll paddle your ass,” Merrick growled “This is because of a drunk truck driver No one else is to blame”

“Merrick’s right, dear Grace is a strong girl, she’ll be okay,” her h I could kickher drive that old Nova I should’ve insisted on a car with airbags”

Then Grace remembered Oh, God, the truck, the icy roads She re her eyes Finally the blurry outlines of her mother, sister and Merrick came into view She blinked a few tih it sounded like someone had scraped her throat with sandpaper Crap, it hurt worse than the time she’d had Mono

“She’s coet the doctor”

“Where am I?” Grace wheezed

“It’ll be okay, kiddo,” her sister said, tears strea down her cheeks “You’re in the hospital There was a car accident”