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Chapter 1

The world had caved in on Amelia Bailey

Literally

Aftershocks froritty earth under her cheek, jarring her out of her hazy micronap Dust and rocks showered around her Her skin, her eyes, everything itched and ached after hours—she’d lost track of how many—beneath the rubble

The quake had to have hit at least seven on the Richter scale Although when you ended up with a building on top of you, somehow a Richter scale didn’t seem all that pertinent

She squeezed her eyelids closed Inhaling Exhaling Inhaling, she drew in slow, even breaths of the dank air filled with dirt Was this what it was like to be buried alive? She pushed back the panic as forcefully as she’d clawed out a tiny cavern for herself

This wasn’t how she’d envisioned her trip to the Bahamas when she’d offered to help her brother and sister-in-laith the legalities of international adoption

Muffled sounds penetrated, of jackhammers and tractors Life scurried above her, not that anybody seemed to have heard her shouts She’d screae a hoarse croak now

Time fused in her pitch-black cubby, the air thick with sand Or disintegrated concrete She didn’t want to think what else She re realization that her third-floor hotel roo way beneath her feet But after that?

Her mind blanked

How long had she been ento the lines of half a day while she drifted in and out of consciousness She wriggled her fingers and toes to keep the circulationiony from scrapes and bruises and probably worse, but she couldn’t h to check Still, she welcomed the pain that reassured her she was alive

Her body was intact

Forget trying to sit up Her head throbbed fro was ain, she willed back hysteria The fog of claustrophobia hovered, waiting to s her whole

More dust sifted around her The sound of the jackhammers rattled her teeth They seemed closer, louder, with even a hint of a voice Was that a dog barking?

Hope hurt after so ht, there had to be soafter the earthquake All those efforts could easily be for soht not find her for hours Days