My brother thought it was funny to give my daughter a dog bowl with scraps while the whole family laughed. She broke down, and in that moment, something inside me snapped. Forty-eight hours later, they all discovered exactly what a mother does when you humiliate her child.

We plunged into the icy water of the river, the freezing current instantly numbing my legs and knocking the breath from my lungs.

I held Elena tightly against my side, keeping her head well above the water as the swift current carried us downstream, away from the burning wreckage of the helicopter.

The cold was agonizing, a thousand needles piercing my skin, but it was the only thing keeping us alive.

Behind us, the shouts of the tracking team grew fainter, drowned out by the roar of the river and the crackle of the forest fire we had left behind.

We floated for what felt like miles, drifting through the dark, winding canyons of the forest until the current finally slowed down near a rocky bank.

I dragged myself and Elena out of the water, collapsing onto the smooth stones, gasping for air as my body trembled uncontrollably from hypothermia.

Elena was shivering violently, her lips turning a faint shade of blue.

I pulled her close, wrapping my wet arms around her to share whatever body heat I had left, looking around the dark environment to find shelter.

We were completely alone in the wilderness, without a phone, without transport, and with an international syndicate hunting us down.

The FBI had failed. The law had failed.

The realization hardened something deep inside my soul, burning away the last remnants of the ordinary mother I had tried to be.

If the system couldn't protect my daughter, then I would have to destroy the system myself.

I looked down at the tactical rifle I had managed to keep hold of through the river, its black metal gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

I knew where Victor's secret backup drives were hidden—the ones I hadn't uploaded to the federal server because they contained information too dangerous for public consumption.