Summary

In Chapter 1, Gwen Proctor, along with her children, Lanny and Connor, are staying in a motel twelve days after her ex-husband, Melvin Royal, escaped from prison. She believes that Melvin is after her and her children. She recalls how even while he was in prison he had people working for him on the outside who corralled her into the location he wanted her to be so that he could manipulate her. She indicates that she and her children barely survived his manipulation.

Gwen gets a text on her new phone. She knows before she looks at it that the text is from her serial killer ex-husband. She uses her anger to shield herself from whatever the text might say. When she looks at it, she is surprised the text is actually from Absalom, a man whom Gwen once thought was helping her. Instead...