Summary

In Chapter 1, Mireille, the first-person narrator, tells the reader that she was kidnapped and held for 13 days.

The kidnapping took place when Mireille and her husband Michael were visiting Mireille’s parents in Haiti. They were taking their infant son, Christophe, to the ocean. When the gates to her parents’ estate opened and they drove onto the street, they were surrounded by three black Land Cruisers. Men holding machine guns surrounded their car. The men broke the car windows and pulled Mireille out of the car.

People gathered around Mireille as she begged someone to help her. No one helped. She lunged for her baby, but a man pointed a gun at her and told her if she did not cooperate, he would kill her family. Mireille looked at her family and considered how she did not love easily. Michael shouted to...