Chapter 3 - SHADOWS IN THE REARVIEW
Daniel drove my rusted sedan while I sat in the back seat, holding Lily close against my chest. The car heater blasted lukewarm air against our legs, but my hands remained ice-cold.
"Where are we going?" Daniel asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror. "I have a small apartment near campus, but Derek knows where it is. If he gets desperate, he'll look for you there first."
"No," I replied, smoothing Lily's soft hair. "We can't go anywhere tied to the family. Derek has access to private security teams. He tracks my phone."
I immediately popped the SIM card out of my phone and handed it to Daniel. "Throw this out the window."
Daniel didn't hesitate. He cracked the passenger window and tossed the small plastic chip into the dark snowbanks lining the highway.
"I have a friend from college," I said, remembering Sarah. "She lives in an old farmhouse two hours north, near the lake. She's been asking me to visit for years, but Derek always forbade me from seeing her."
"Why did he forbid it?" Daniel asked.
"Because Sarah is a criminal defense attorney," I answered quietly. "She recognized the signs of emotional control three years ago. Derek made sure I cut ties with her."
We drove in silence for the next hour. The highway grew darker as we moved further away from the suburban sprawl and into the forested countryside. In the quiet darkness of the car, the physical pain in my body began to assert itself. My ribs throbbed with every breath, and my left eye was swollen almost entirely shut.
"Anna," Daniel said softly, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. "How long has he been hitting you?"
I looked out at the passing black trees. "It started small. Six months after the wedding. A shove during an argument. A wrist grabbed too hard. Then he apologized, brought me jewelry, and wrote a twenty-thousand-dollar check to Dad's company."
"And Dad took it?"
"Dad called it a 'generous gesture of goodwill,'" I said bitterly. "Every time Derek laid a hand on me, a check followed to the Callahan household within forty-eight hours. It became a pattern. I was his punching bag, and our parents were his shareholders."
Daniel slammed his fist against the steering wheel. "I didn't know, Anna. I swear to God I didn't know where that money was coming from. Dad told me it was consulting fees."
"I know, Danny," I reassured him. "You were the only one in that house who looked at me like a person tonight."
Suddenly, high beams flashed brightly in our rearview mirror.
A heavy SUV had pulled up behind us on the deserted two-lane road. It was tailgating our sedan, its bright LED lights blinding Daniel through the mirror.
"Daniel, speed up," I said, my heart launching into my throat.
"I can't go much faster, this car is twenty years old!" Daniel pressed the accelerator, but the engine groaned under the strain.
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The SUV accelerated, coming up alongside our driver's side. Through the tinted glass of the passenger window, I saw the silhouette of a heavy-set man in a suit—one of Derek's personal drivers.
The SUV began to nudge our car toward the icy guardrail.
