My husband thought I had fallen down his mother's front steps by accident, until he watched the security footage and noticed something moving behind me...

Thirty minutes after Detective Bradley left our house, the storm hit the city. Heavy sheets of cold rain lashed against our living room windows, rattling the glass in their frames. The sky turned an ominous, bruised slate gray, swallowing the daylight.

I sat on the sofa, clutching a mug of tea with both hands to stop the persistent trembling in my fingers. Paige sat beside me on her laptop, monitoring the local court registry feeds for updates on the warrant. Nolan paced the floor, phone pressed to his ear, waiting for Bradley's confirmation.

When Nolan’s phone finally rang, he answered on the first ring. "Bradley? Did you get her?"

I watched Nolan’s face. What little color he had regained over the past few hours drained away instantly.

"What do you mean she’s gone?" Nolan demanded, his voice cracking. "There was an officer outside the clinic wing!"

He listened, his breathing shallow and rapid.

"She switched clothes with a visiting nurse during the afternoon shift change," Nolan repeated aloud, his eyes darting toward me with naked panic. "Her car is missing from the parking lot, and Marcus Sterling claims he hasn't heard from her in six hours."

"How could they let her walk out?" Paige shouted in outrage. "She’s a wanted felon!"

"Bradley's issuing a state-wide APB," Nolan said, dropping his hand from his ear as he ended the call. "They’re checking airports and bus depots. They think she might try to cross into Canada before her passport is flagged."

"She won't go to Canada," I said, a sudden, cold certainty settling into my stomach.

Both Nolan and Paige looked at me.

"She’s out of money," I whispered, pointing to the loan document still sitting on the table. "Arthur Vance's men gave her an ultimatum. If she runs without the cash, they will track her down wherever she goes. She has nothing left. No reputation, no social standing, no house. Her only way out of this nightmare is to finish what she started."

Before Nolan could answer, a violent crack of thunder rattled the foundation of the house.

Instantly, the ceiling lamps flickered once, twice, and died.

The entire house plunged into pitch-black darkness, save for the blue glow of Paige's laptop screen and the erratic flashes of lightning cutting through the living room windows. The refrigerator hummed to a sudden halt. The electronic security panel on the wall let out three dying beeps: *System Offline. Power Failure.*

"The security system," Paige breathed, her voice tight with panic.

"The backup battery should kick in," Nolan said quickly, pulling a heavy flashlight from the drawer and clicking it on. The beam sliced through the shadowy gloom of the room. He walked to the panel and pressed the keypad. Nothing happened.