The Shaking

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>The tremors began at dawn-violent betraying shudders that stole her consciousness. This time the seizure left blood on the garage floor a bemused realization that alcohol was not her friend and an ultimatum from fiancée Sergeant Hunter Faraday: </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>Rehab or we call off the engagement.</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> His voice steady as a sniper's breath named the facility-</span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>Woodlawn Acres Wellness Center. Safe. Discreet.</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> But deep down private investigator Olivia Callahan suspected the slick brochure he'd given her masked the stench of corruption. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>She wondered at the cautious steps in the night. Forced over-medicating. Mysterious meetings with the small-town mayor and his meek wife. Then her best friend Callie hit her with the news of her husband's parole and his ultimatums regarding their daughter: </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>I'll be Daddy again</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> he'd texted. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>Even if I have to bury you to do it.</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(38 38 38 1)>Desperate to leave the rehab facility to help Callie and return to her firm Watchdog Investigations she checks the daily onslaught of pills spitting them into a worn hollowed-out paperback nodding through daily therapy sessions mapping the facility at night and unearthing clues in locked closets with a stolen keycard. Then one afternoon the glint of a syringe. The orderlies with dead eyes called it stabilization. Now she's positive the forces arrayed against her are unwavering in their resolve to preserve their secrets. In a chilling moment of clarity she realizes that this time her indomitable will and the ever-valiant Hunter Faraday might not be enough to save her.</span></p><p></p><p></p>