Chapter 1
Present Day
A flash of my father’s smile and the way he grumbled my childhood nickname, Chrissy, knocked me awake in the dead of night, my arms and legs convulsing, flailing, and kicking, and my heart banging, triggering a scream from the back of my throat as if I was being attacked. The bed sheets were drenched in sweat.
I heard the panic in my husband’s voice when I woke him, the bed creaking and shifting beneath our impulsive movements.
Our dog Darth Vader yelped and jumped off the bed to the floor as my haste to free myself from my dreams disturbed him.
I felt Philip’s firm grip on my arm, rattling me out of my second nightmare this week.
“Christian,” he said, groping in the dark for the bedside lamp and filling the room in warm, yellow light.
I sat upright, the sheets
