Chapter 1The Mudslide's Echo

I forced my husband to take our allergic daughter to the hospital. Because of that, his best friend, Chloe, a single mom, claimed she and her child got into the wrong cab and were brutally murdered.

My husband, Ethan, was consumed by guilt.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I suggested a trip to a nearby national park to clear our heads.

But when a massive mudslide hit, he grabbed the urn containing the ashes of Chloe and her daughter and ran, leaving me and our daughter, Lily, trapped in the most dangerous part of the ravine.

I called him 99 times. He declined every single one. Finally, he sent one text message.

"A year ago, your petty jealousy got Chloe and her daughter killed. Now you can't even let their ashes rest in peace?"

Trapped for ten days, Lily and I were severely dehydrated and fading fast.

Ethan, who was the captain of the local Search and Rescue volunteer team, kept leading his squad in circles around the outer perimeter.

And Chloe—the woman who was supposed to have died a year ago—showed up at the command center, accompanied by my own parents.

"Ethan, maybe you should just tell them the actual coordinates where Maya and Lily got trapped. I'm worried they might not make it..."

She was cut off by Ethan and my parents, who all let out cold, mocking laughs.

"It's barely been a week and a half," my mom sneered. "When you and your daughter had to fake your deaths and hide for a whole year because of her psychotic jealousy, how much did you suffer?"

"You couldn't even leave the house, and your poor little girl couldn't even go to her favorite amusement park out in the open."

Ethan's voice was like ice. "I just want her to taste exactly what it feels like to wait to die. Once she feels that, she'll never dare target you again."

As the second wave of the mudslide roared toward us, I held my daughter's already cold, lifeless body tightly and closed my eyes.

Ethan. Mom. Dad. You got your wish. Lily and I will stay in this valley forever.

You don't have to be conflicted anymore. No one will ever compete with Chloe again.

...

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

"I read that the golden window for mudslide rescue is 72 hours. If we keep dragging this out, I'm genuinely terrified something terrible is going to happen to them."

Chloe's voice was thick with manufactured anxiety, but my parents just scoffed dismissively.

"Relax," my dad said. "Maya has always been unkillable. How is she going to die that easily?"

"When you guys were six, you both fell into the river. We grabbed you out immediately, but you still caught a terrible fever."

"Maya was stuck in that freezing water all night, and she still managed to crawl up the bank and walk home perfectly fine."

My mom chimed in, "When you were twelve, some guys cornered you two in an alley. You fainted on the spot. Maya got her leg broken and still managed to drag herself home to get help."

"It's only been ten days, not ten months. She's fine."

Even Ethan added to the chorus.

"Your parents are right. She's not that fragile."

"I'm just making her suffer a little bit. It's not like I'm actually letting her die."

"She needs to be trapped long enough to truly understand how hard it was for you that night—standing alone on the side of the road with a baby, begging for a ride. Only then will she finally stop making life difficult for you and your daughter."

Chloe opened her mouth to argue, but a sudden gust of mountain wind hit her.

She let out a single, delicate cough.

Instantly, all three of them went into full panic mode.

My dad rushed forward, wrapping a heavy fleece blanket around her shoulders.

My mom unscrewed a thermos, frantically pouring her hot water.

And Ethan, the Search and Rescue captain, immediately halted the entire operation, ordering a full retreat down the mountain.

Chloe tried to stop him.

"I just coughed once, it's nothing! Please, we have to rescue Maya and the baby first."

But Ethan was adamant.

"Your health is the absolute priority."

"People can survive up to 21 days in mudslide conditions. We have plenty of time to rescue her later."

Surrounded and protected by my parents and my husband, Chloe was escorted down the mountain. Ethan used his authority to order his entire rescue squad to accompany them, claiming they needed to "escort a medical liability."

Lily and I were trapped in a rock crevice less than thirty feet away from where they were standing.

Hearing their entire conversation, my daughter—who hadn't had a drop of water in ten days—looked up at me, her voice impossibly weak.

"Mommy... do Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa hate Lily? Is that why they won't let the rescue men come get us?"