Chapter 1

Through the thick glass window of the fire simulation chamber, my four-year-old daughter, Lily, was frantically pounding her tiny hands against the door.

Choking black smoke had turned her little face a terrifying shade of purple. The heart rate monitor next to the glass was blinking wildly, the numbers screaming at 190. The piercing alarm cut through my ears like a knife.

"Open the door. Let her out. Now." I screamed, my voice cracking.

But Carter held my wrist in a vice grip, pinning my hand away from the emergency stop button. "Her training session isn't over yet."

"She has a congenital heart condition. She is your own daughter, Carter."

He didn't even look at the monitor. "Valerie is having a panic attack down the hall. I have to go to her. The system is automated. Nothing will go wrong."

The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him. In that exact second, Lily's body went limp like a doll with its strings cut. She collapsed headfirst into the swirling black smoke.

I went completely wild. I grabbed a heavy fire extinguisher from the wall and began smashing the glass door, blood dripping from my split knuckles.

By the time Carter returned, holding a weeping Valerie in his arms, the paramedics had already stopped their chest compressions.

Valerie huddled against his chest, shedding fake tears. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have had a panic attack."

Carter tightened his arm around her shoulders. "It's not your fault, Valerie."

I supported myself against the cold wall, my voice reduced to a raspy, broken whisper. "Then what about my daughter?"

He looked at me with those cold, detached eyes. "It was a necessary sacrifice for the research."

I stared at his hypocritical face, my heart turning into a block of ice.

Fine. Carter, since you taught me what sacrifice means, now it's my turn to teach you.