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Chapter One – August 2002   He paused for a moment, wiping the sweat from his brow and cursing the sweltering heat of early August in North Carolina. He’d been pushing an old lawnmower across his neighbors’ yard for what felt like an eternity when a red Jeep pulled into their driveway. The Jeep halted just shy of the bumper of Henry Ryan’s old Ford pickup and he saw Samantha, their granddaughter, hop out. She smiled broadly when she saw him and he killed the lawnmower’s engine as she started ...

Belleview, North Carolina June 1999 Samantha awoke with a start. School had just ended but it seemed her internal clock had not yet adjusted. It was barely daybreak and Samantha was uncharacteristically full of energy and ready to face the world. She smiled at the thought of summer, looking forward to the two month reprieve from her parents' and their incessant bickering, two months with her beloved grandparents in Belleview where she grew up. In the backseat of her parents' obnoxious SUV, sh...

Samantha woke from a sound sleep to the sound of hammering echoing across the lake. She looked at the alarm clock and cursed. It was barely eight o’clock on the first day of her summer vacation. She rolled out of bed, walked over to the window, and pulled the curtain back, then shook her head at what she saw and got dressed before heading downstairs. “Good morning.” Her grandmother said, reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee. Her grandparents had undoubtedly been up for hours already. Sh...