Chapter 4

Howard didn't come home all night. Tina knew he wasn't feeling guilty. He'd just been scared off by her desperate madness and was lying low for now.

She spent the whole day cleaning up the mess in the house.

In the mirror, her forehead was purple, her lip split, and faint finger marks lingered on her neck. She looked at herself calmly; there was no more fear or numbness in her eyes—only a cold, unshakable resolve.

She had to leave. Take her baby and escape this cage. But she had no money, no connection to the outside world. That made…