I forced myself up to my feet and ran, my boots slipping on the slick, wet pine needles.

Branches whipped my face in the darkness, leaving hot, stinging cuts across my forehead and cheeks.

I plunged deeper into the dark, rain-swept forest, using the heavy downpour and the howling wind to mask the sound of my footsteps.

I ran until my lungs burned like fire and the distant flashlight beams behind me finally faded into the thick gray mist.

Only then did I collapse against the trunk of a massive, rough-barked oak tree, gasping for air.

The rain beat down on my shoulders, soaking through my canvas jacket to the skin.

I reached inside my inner pocket, my fingers numb from the biting cold.

The documents were still there, crumpled but dry.

We had found them just minutes before the deputies kicked the cabin door in.

I pulled out Emily’s medical file first, shielding it from the rain with my body.

Under the faint, watery light of the moon breaking through the clouds, I saw Dr. Owen Vale’s signature on the falsified death report.