Chapter 1
When the world ended, David Lee abandoned me and our daughter, leaving us in the ruins while he escorted his high school sweetheart, Olivia Quinn, to the Safety Zone.
I had to hack through swarms of zombies with a knife, carving a path of blood just to hide my daughter in a cramped supermarket basement.
Years later, when the Safety Zone fell, my daughter did the unthinkable. To save David and Olivia, she shoved me directly into the path of the undead.
As the teeth tore into my flesh, I heard her cold voice. "Olivia is my real mother. If you hadn't been so obsessed with keeping Dad for yourself, the three of us would have been a real family."
I gasped, my eyes snapping open. I was back to the day before the water supply was poisoned.
*****
David kissed my cheek, the picture of a devoted husband. "Honey, I'm heading to work. See you later."
His face was a mask of deceptive gentleness.
For years, I had been blinded by a love that made me foolishly trust him, allowing him to treat our marriage like a suggestion while he poured his affection into Olivia.
Because he was a top-tier specialist, he had been granted a spot in the sanctuary before the collapse, along with a plus-one for a family member.
He never even considered me or our daughter, Mia Lee. His choice was always Olivia. If the sanctuary hadn't been breached, they would probably be married with a new family by now.
I saw through him now.
His touch made my skin crawl, but if I wanted to outlive those two in the coming nightmare, I had to keep my mask on.
Thinking back to how I once settled into my role with David, I said softly, "Come back soon."
David didn't suspect a thing. He turned and walked out the door. The moment it clicked shut, my smile vanished. I sank onto the sofa and pulled out my phone, checking the date.
Based on the old timeline, the water contamination crisis would hit Riverbend City in ten days. From the first calls for national aid to total collapse, it took less than a month.
That meant I had forty days until David would abandon me and Mia, taking his "family member," Olivia, to the sanctuary.
And because of poor management, the sanctuary only lasted two months. By then, I was gaunt and skeletal, perpetually covered in a stench of dried blood and sweat, but I was alive.
Mia was a stranger to hunger and bloodshed. I gave everything to keep her safe, only for her to turn her back on me for David and her alleged mother, Olivia.
How could I possibly fail to recognize the child I carried in my own womb? Did David switch her with Olivia's infant right after I delivered? Regardless, Mia was no longer my concern.
My power was limited. I couldn't save Riverbend City from a disaster that was already silently brewing, let alone a world this broken. I could only save myself. And this time, I would be more than happy to wave goodbye to David and Olivia.
I started by stockpiling supplies with my own money. When that was nearly gone, I switched to the debit card David used for my "allowance."
In my previous life, he had plenty of chances to ask for it back before he left, but he never did. It could only mean one thing: the money he transferred each month was just a fraction of his real income.
The day slipped by. It was a Friday, so I drove to the high school to pick up Mia.
"Mom!" Mia called out.
The moment she saw me, she ran over and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug as if she truly adored me.
She certainly inherited David's flair for drama. Seizing the moment, I pulled a couple of hairs from her head. I intend to have her DNA tested twice.
If she wasn't my biological daughter, I had to find my real child. If she was, well, I would just have to write her off as a lost cause.