Extraits

Prologue

It only took one heartbeat to change my whole life. One chilling phone call in the middle of the night.

The screams. I’ll never forget that bloodcurdling sound. It echoed in my head, like a train horn in an underground tunnel, bouncing from one wall to the other. It wasn’t until TJ wrapped me in a hug that I realized those screams of pain and sorrow were mine.

On more nights than not, my own screams haunted my dreams. I’d lost count of the number of times I’d woken up in a dead panic, icy cold and clammy. All because my mom had been murdered.

It was gut-wrenching.

Mom had been my best friend, my world, and when she had been shot at point blank in what the cops had said was a robbery on West Twenty-Fourth Street, my world crumbled. Hearing the words “Sorry, honey, your mom is dead” from a complete stranger made the air stall in my lungs.

Chinatown had been one of my mom’s favorite places in Chicago, mostly for the food. Carrying an order of sweet and sour chicken and beef lo mein, she had been on her way home that Friday night, walking down the same street we’d walked countless times, only five blocks from our little condo. Five measly blocks—that was all that had stood between my mom and her life.

There were perks to living in the city. Public transportation. Museums. Shopping. Virtually everything you needed was at your fingertips. But then again, there were huge sacrifices.

I learned that the hard way.

Grief came in waves, choppy and fierce, breaking the heart. It was time I swam, before I simply sunk, the waves devouring my soul.