CHAPTER 2 — The Woman They Thought Was Dead
Darkness surrounded me.
The roar of the wind disappeared, replaced by the distant sound of rushing water.
When I finally opened my eyes, every breath burned.
Pain shot through my entire body.
Above me, jagged cliffs disappeared into thick gray fog.
I was alive.
The killers had pushed me from nearly one hundred feet, but they had never bothered to study the terrain below.
Instead of crashing directly onto solid rock, I had fallen through the branches of several old pine trees. The branches slowed my fall just enough before I landed in a deep mountain pool hidden beneath the cliff.
The freezing water nearly drowned me.
Somehow, instinct kept me fighting.
I dragged myself onto the muddy riverbank, coughing blood and water until I could barely breathe.
Everything hurt.
My left shoulder felt dislocated.
My ribs screamed with every movement.
But I was alive.
Only minutes later I heard voices.
The three men.
"They couldn't have missed."
"Find the body."
"The boss wants proof."
I crawled beneath a fallen tree, covering myself with wet leaves while they searched only yards away.
One of them even stood on the rock above me.
"If the river carried her away, we'll tell Daniel she disappeared."
Another shook his head.
"No. He paid for certainty."
They searched for nearly half an hour.
Then they left.
As soon as their footsteps faded, exhaustion overwhelmed me.
I collapsed.
The next thing I remembered was the sound of helicopter blades.
A mountain rescue team had received an emergency signal from hikers who spotted torn clothing near the river.
When I woke again, I was lying inside a hospital.
The doctor smiled.
"You are incredibly lucky."
The police listened carefully as I explained everything.
The insurance papers.
The mountain trip.
The three hired killers.
My husband's betrayal.
One detective leaned forward.
"If we arrest him now, he'll deny everything."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
His answer changed everything.
"We let him believe you're dead."
For the next several weeks, my name disappeared from public view.
Only a handful of investigators, doctors, and my attorney knew the truth.
Daniel held a lavish memorial service.
He stood beside my portrait wearing a perfectly tailored black suit.
He cried.
He accepted condolences.
He thanked everyone for supporting him.
Television cameras captured the grieving widower.
Inside, he was celebrating.
Days later he submitted insurance claims worth twenty million dollars.
He also began transferring company shares into his own name.
Exactly as the detectives expected.
Meanwhile, the police quietly tracked every phone call between Daniel and the men he had hired.
One evening, hidden cameras recorded a meeting inside an abandoned warehouse.
"I paid you because I wanted certainty," Daniel snapped.
"The body disappeared," one thug replied.
"We searched everywhere."
Daniel slammed his fist onto the table.
"If she's alive..."
The room fell silent.
"...finish the job."
Those five words became the evidence investigators had been waiting for.
Still, Detective Harris wasn't satisfied.
"We need one final move," he said.
"The kind he'll never expect."
I looked at him.
"What is it?"
He smiled.
"You."
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Three weeks after my own funeral...
I walked back into my company's headquarters.
