Chapter 1

Rain lashed against the twisted metal of the Mercedes.

Hallie could not breathe.

The steering wheel pinned her chest to the driver's seat. Every shallow gasp sent a sharp, stabbing pain through her ribs.

A paramedic shoved his upper body through the shattered window. His heavy jacket smelled of wet asphalt and copper.

He pressed two gloved fingers hard into the side of her neck.

"Pulse is thready and irregular!" he yelled over the storm.

Blood ran down Hallie's forehead. It mixed with the cold rain and stung her eyes. Her vision blurred at the edges. She felt the heat leaving her fingertips.

Another paramedic crouched on the wet road. He dug through her ruined Birkin bag. He pulled out her cracked smartphone.

The screen flickered. The paramedic, wearing clean gloves from his kit, carefully held the device. He managed to activate the screen, his gaze falling on the emergency contact pinned at the top.

Aidan.

The phone began to ring. The sound was faint over the heavy rain. Hallie felt a weak flutter in her crushed chest. She just needed him to answer.

Three thousand miles away, inside the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, classical music played.

Aidan stood near a quiet balcony. He felt the heavy vibration of his custom phone in his suit pocket.

He pulled it out. He looked at the screen. The name Hallie flashed brightly.

His jaw tightened. A hard knot of annoyance formed in his stomach. He stepped out onto the cold balcony and pressed the answer button.

"What game are you playing now?" Aidan asked. His voice was completely flat.

The paramedic pressed the phone to his ear and shouted.

"Is this Mr. Aidan Monroe? Your wife has been in a severe car crash. She is fading fast!"

Silence stretched over the line for one full second.

Hallie's heart gave a painful, hopeful squeeze. He was going to come. He had to come.

Then, a low, harsh laugh came through the speaker. The sound pierced right through the rain and into Hallie's ears.

"Tell her this is a pathetic way to stop the divorce," Aidan said. "I do not have time for her crazy games."

The line went dead. The paramedic's jaw tightened for a second before he tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, his entire focus snapping back to the woman pinned in the wreckage. "Forget him! We're losing her!" he yelled to his partner.

That cold laugh was the last thing Hallie felt. A heavy, freezing weight dropped into her stomach. The tear at the corner of her eye mixed with the blood and rolled into her hair.

The heart monitor attached to her arm let out a loud, continuous piercing sound. The jagged green lines on the screen snapped into a single, flat line.

The paramedic climbed onto the stretcher. He placed his hands over Hallie's chest and pushed down hard.

The loud crack of her ribs breaking echoed in the rain.

But Hallie did not feel the pain.

A strange sensation of weightlessness took over. The heavy pressure on her chest vanished.

She felt herself rising. Her perspective shifted upward. She floated in the cold air, looking down at the twisted car.

She watched the paramedic sweating and pushing on her chest. She looked at her own face. It was pale and completely still.

One of the paramedics stopped. He looked at his watch. He shook his head and stepped back.

Hallie reached out her hand. She tried to grab the man's shoulder. Her fingers passed right through his thick jacket.

She stared at her transparent hands. She was dead. She was stuck in this cold air, entirely separated from her body.

A black body bag was unrolled on the wet road. The men lifted her heavy body and placed it inside. The sound of the zipper closing was deafening.

They loaded the bag into the back of the ambulance. The doors slammed shut. The red and blue lights flashed as the truck drove away into the dark.

Hallie floated alone above the empty cliff. A massive wave of panic hit her.

Then, a strong pull yanked at her chest. It was not a physical hand, but a violent magnetic force.

It wrapped around her invisible throat. It pulled her forward. She had no control. She was dragged through the storm, moving faster than the wind, pulled by the deep obsession buried in her mind.