I drove like a madwoman. The old quarry was seven miles north. When I arrived, I saw a battered pickup truck and a man in camouflage waving me toward the treeline.
“There!” he shouted.
I ran. Branches whipped my face, but I didn’t feel them. I saw something light between the trees.
At first, I didn’t recognize her. Her expensive designer coat was in rags. Her face was swollen, hair matted with blood and dirt. She lay on her side, curled up like a child.
“Olivia, baby.” I dropped to my knees.
She opened one eye; the other was swollen shut. Her arm was twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Mom…” Her voice was a broken wheeze.
“I’m here. The ambulance is coming.”
“No,” she gasped, grabbing my hand with surprising strength. “No hospital. They have people everywhere. Gavin… he won’t stop her.”
“Who did this?” I asked, my voice trembling with a rage I had never known.
She licked her split lips. “Lucille Sterling.”
I froze. Her mother-in-law. The philanthropist. The woman who graced the covers of local magazines.
“She said I have dirty blood,” Olivia whispered, tears mixing with the blood on her face. “She said I was a disgrace to their family.”
A siren wailed in the distance. Olivia panicked, trying to sit up. “Mom, please. If I go to the hospital, she’ll finish it. She has connections. Take me home.”
I looked at the hunter, Sam, who had followed me.
“Did you see who dropped her off?” I asked him.
“No. I found her alone.”
