Chapter 1

The last thing I remember before the world went black was the scent of rain on hot asphalt and the blinding glare of headlights. When I woke up, the first thing I felt was a dull, throbbing pain that seemed to start in my skull and spread to every corner of my body. The world was a muffled blur of sounds and darkness.

My name is Ava Chen. I' m a forensic psychologist. Or, I was.

Before the darkness, my life had a clear, sharp focus. I was on the verge of completing the profile of the "Shadow Creek Killer," a serial murderer who had been terrorizing the city for months. My work was my passion, a puzzle of human darkness that I was uniquely skilled at solving.

But a darker puzzle had crashed into my personal life. My mother, the kindest soul I knew, was killed in a hit-and-run. The police had no leads. The case went cold almost immediately.

The grief was a constant weight, a cold stone in my chest. I channeled all of it, all my pain and all my skill, into one single purpose: finding the person who killed her. I started my own investigation, creating a profile of the driver. I was close, so close I could feel it. I had a theory, a thread to pull that I knew would unravel everything.

That was the night the headlights found me.

A violent, deliberate impact. A hit-and-run, just like my mother's.

My fiancé, Dr. Liam Miller, the city's most celebrated neurosurgeon, became my rock. He was there when I woke up in the hospital, his voice a soothing balm in the terrifying darkness. My eyes were bandaged. I couldn't see. My hands, my tools for drawing and writing, were shattered, wrapped in thick casts.

"Ava, my love, I' m here," he whispered, his hand gentle on my forehead. "I' m not going anywhere."

He told me they caught the driver, a drunk who was now behind bars. He told me our baby, our unborn son Leo, was safe. He promised to take care of me, to be my eyes and my hands until I healed. I clung to his words, to his presence. He was the only light I had left.

Months passed in a fog of pain, physical therapy, and Liam' s suffocating care. My hands were slow to heal, the pain a constant reminder of my helplessness. My blindness was absolute.

Today was a follow-up appointment. Liam had a major surgery, so he arranged for another doctor to wheel me to the ophthalmologist' s office. As the nurse removed the bandages, a strange tingling started behind my eyes.

Then, a flicker. A shape. Color.

My sight was coming back.

Tears of pure, unadulterated joy streamed down my face. I could see. The blurry face of the nurse, the white walls of the clinic, my own mangled hands in my lap. I had to tell Liam. I had to share this miracle with him.

I asked the nurse to take me to the surgical wing. I wanted to surprise him, to see the look on his face when he saw my eyes were open. We stopped outside the operating room he was using. The "in surgery" light was on. I could hear voices through the door, low and urgent.

One voice was Liam's. The other belonged to a younger doctor, Ben Carter.

I leaned closer, my heart pounding with excitement.

But the words that drifted through the door were not words of healing. They were words of pure, unimaginable horror.

"Dr. Miller, Mrs. Chen' s hands are showing signs of recovery again," Dr. Carter said, his voice strained. "Do you really want to break her fingers again? This is the eighth time."

My breath caught in my throat. Eighth time?

"She' s already lost her mother, and little Leo was killed by you," Ben' s voice trembled. "You want to protect Charlotte, but you don' t need to destroy Ava!"

Leo... killed? By Liam?

My mind went blank. The joy from moments ago evaporated, replaced by an icy dread that was colder and more final than any blindness.

Then, Liam' s voice, calm and chillingly rational.

"If Ava draws the killer' s profile, Charlotte' s life will be ruined. Charlotte is so innocent; it was just an accident."

Charlotte. Charlotte Hayes. His new research assistant. An innocent accident?

"Charlotte and I are about to get married," Liam continued, and every word was a nail in my coffin. "I can' t risk anything."

I felt the world tilt on its axis. My ears were ringing.

"I promised Charlotte that her son is my only son, and I' ll never fail them! It' s fine if Ava doesn' t have a child; I' ll take care of her in her old age. I' ll spend the rest of my life atoning to her."

I clapped my good hand over my mouth to stifle a scream. My body trembled violently in the wheelchair. The man I loved, my hero, my savior. He was my monster. The killer of my mother was his mistress. And he, the man who swore to protect me, had murdered our unborn child. He had systematically, repeatedly, broken my hands to keep me from finding the truth.

He wanted to destroy me to protect his new family.

A wave of agony so profound it felt like death washed over me. But beneath the pain, something else sparked. A cold, hard resolve.

If this is what he wants, I thought, a bitter, silent vow forming in the ruins of my heart. Then I will give it to him.