Chapter 1—Escape
Susan went to the window and gazed out at the drizzling rain, listening to the tick-tock of the grandfather clock in the hallway that reminded her time was running out. In exactly ten minutes, she would walk out the door and disappear with a stranger to an unknown destination. And finally, be able to escape her husband, Blaine, the man who had terrorized her for five long years. She repeatedly looked over her shoulder, expecting him to appear at any moment.
Susan gazed at herself in the bathroom mirror with scrutiny. Her lips were tight, and she had dark circles under her eyes, giving her the appearance of a woman much older than thirty-two. Sleep-deprived for days, knowing this moment was going to come. In her mind—she’d left two years ago after she found out about Blaine’s affairs. She took a deep breath, tunneled her fingers through her shoulder-length blonde hair, and applied lip gloss. Her fingers trembled as she removed her wedding rings and placed them on the sink.
She glanced at her watch. It was 1:57 p.m.—time for her date with destiny. The stranger had merely been a voice on the phone that gave her explicit instructions, but now it was time to act. Susan looked around one last time at her familiar surroundings, and a pang of sadness hit her hard. An unread book lay on her nightstand. She picked it up and stuffed it in her carry-on bag. Somehow, it gave her comfort.
Run, Susan, run, the voice in her head whispered. She grabbed her belongings and ran down the steps and out the door. The door slammed shut behind her. The air smelled like burning leaves; leaves she had raked and burned yesterday. She ran as fast as she could down the paved driveway to the country road, her bags swinging and brushing against her faded blue jeans. The gray herringbone sweater that she’d thrown on over her white shirt seemed too warm even on this crisp autumn day.
Susan tried to convince herself not to look back, but she could not resist one last glance. The large, two-story brick country house set in the middle of an expansive, well-landscaped yard was her childhood home. Her mind flooded with memories—the screened-in porch where she’d spent many happy hours quilting and working on scrapbooks. The wood stacked neatly at the back corner of the house, ready for winter—wouldn’t be needed. It looked peaceful, like a well-kept country estate. No one would guess it was a home where a former Navy Seal had terrorized her for years, using every psychological trick in the book to destroy her. All she wanted was to distance herself from the house and Blaine. She no longer cared about material things: her quilts, her pottery collection, her expensive dinnerware. These things didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that she stay alive. She was sad to leave her family albums but had tucked away a picture of her parents in her bag.
When she was halfway down the driveway, a crow shrieked, sending a jolt through her body. She craned her neck, looking down the gravel road for signs of the stranger. Hope sprang when she caught a glimpse of a black car traveling at breakneck speed, leaving a trail of dust behind.