The sky was a dull, heavy gray, and a thin drizzle began to smear across my windshield.

I turned on the wipers, their rhythmic squeaking the only sound in the car.

I kept checking my rearview mirror, half-expecting to see Daniel’s black SUV tailing me.

My thoughts drifted to Lucas and Mason.

I had left them with my sister, but I knew Daniel’s lawyers were already drafting emergency custody papers.

I had to find something to stop him, and I had to find it today.

The city thinned out as I drove north.

The concrete buildings gave way to overgrown lots and rusted chain-link fences.

The old reservoir was a dark, flat expanse of water surrounded by dead trees.

I turned onto a narrow, cracked asphalt road that hugged the water’s edge.

The houses here were small, single-story cottages built in the nineteen-fifties.

Many had peeling paint and overgrown lawns.

I slowed down, looking at the rusted house numbers on the mailboxes.

I found number 1422 at the very end of the lane.

It was a small blue house with a covered porch and white trim that had turned yellow.