My husband had just left for a business trip when my six-year-old daughter whispered, 'Mommy... we have to run
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Chapter 4 / 5
Chapter 4: The Setup
By noon, everything changed.
Police found evidence in the house—tampered gas lines in the basement.
A delayed ignition device.
A staged accident.
If we had stayed—
We wouldn’t have survived.
And Derek?
He wasn’t far.
They found him in a motel fifteen miles away.
Waiting.
Waiting for the call that never came.
When they arrested him, he didn’t fight.
He just smiled.
Later, an officer told me what he said:
“She wasn’t supposed to leave the house.”
But we had.
Because Lily listened.
May you like
Because she believed her fear.
Because she spoke.
