Chapter 1

A year ago, I forced my husband to rush our daughter to the hospital after she had an allergic reaction. That decision led to my best friend, a single mother, and her daughter getting into the wrong car — and losing their lives.

My husband has carried that guilt with him ever since.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I suggested taking a trip to a nearby mountain resort to clear our heads.

But when the mudslide came, he grabbed my best friend's and her daughter's urns and ran away with their ashes, leaving me and our daughter behind at the entrance of the ravine, where the mudslide was most likely to hit.

I called him ninety-nine times. He hung up every time.

"A year ago, your jealousy got Nessa and her daughter killed, and now you won't even let their ashes rest?"

By the tenth day, my daughter and I were barely hanging on.

And Caleb, captain of the search-and-rescue team, kept his team searching only around the outskirts of the valley, never entering.

While Vanessa — my best friend, the best friend who was supposed to have died a year ago — showed up at the site with my parents at her side.

"Caleb, maybe you should just tell them the exact location where Bri and the baby got caught. I'm scared they won't make it…"

My parents and Caleb cut her off with a cold laugh.

"It hasn't even been that long. A year ago you and Tansy faked your deaths and went into hiding for a whole year because of her jealous fits."

"You didn't dare set foot outside. Tansy couldn't even go to her favorite amusement park without hiding."

"I just want her to know what it feels like to wait for death, so she'll never dare come after you again."

The second wave of mudslide hit, and I closed my eyes with my daughter's already cold body in my arms.

Caleb, Mom, Dad — just as you wanted, my daughter and I are going to stay in this valley forever.

You won't have to deal with us anymore. No one will ever fight you for anything again.

…

"But Bri and the baby have already been trapped for ten days!"

"I heard the best time for rescue after a mudslide is seventy-two hours. If we keep dragging it out, I'm afraid something's really going to happen to them."

Vanessa's voice was full of worry. My parents only scoffed.

"Relax. Sabrina's always the luckiest one, ever since she was little. She won't die that easily."

"When you two were six, you fell into the river together playing around. We were quick — pulled you out immediately — but you still caught a bad cold and ran a fever that wouldn't break."

"Sabrina soaked in that river a whole day and night and was fine. Climbed out and walked herself home."

"At twelve, when those thugs cornered you in that narrow alley, you fainted on the spot. Sabrina had her leg broken and still crawled back to get help."

"It's only ten days trapped, not ten months. She'll be fine."

Even Caleb joined in.

"Mom and Dad are right. She's tougher than that."

"I just want her to suffer a little. I'm not actually sending her to her death."

"She has to be trapped long enough to understand how hard it was for you that time, alone on the roadside trying to flag down a ride with the baby. Only then will she stop targeting you and Tansy."

Vanessa opened her mouth to speak again, but the valley wind caught her.

She only gave a small cough, and all three of them went tense in an instant.

My father immediately pulled out the blanket he had brought and draped it over her shoulders.

My mother handed her warm water.

Caleb went further—he called off the rescue and ordered an immediate withdrawal.

Vanessa stopped him.

"It was just one cough, it's nothing. Save Bri and the baby first."

But Caleb held firm.

"Your health matters most."

"People have survived being trapped after mudslides for up to twenty-one days. We still have time."

Vanessa was escorted out, shielded by my parents and Caleb, and the whole rescue team was pulled away too, using the excuse of escorting an injured person out.

My daughter and I were left trapped in a crack in the rock, less than ten meters from where they stood.

Hearing their conversation, my daughter — ten full days now without a drop of water — asked me weakly.

"Mommy, do Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa really hate Chessie? Is that why they won't let anyone come save us?"