I was sitting in my rocking chair feeding Lilac when Carter came barging into my room with this panicked look on his face.

"We have to go, now!" He frantically said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"They're here."

My eyes widened as I stood from my rocking chair as we quickly left the room. We've had a plan for just this moment for a few months now. If someone was to show up looking for me or the baby, we would leave through the panic room that connected to an underground tunnel. If we followed the tunnel, it would lead to a car that was set up and ready for us if we needed to leave in a hurry.

Carter had just stepped inside the panic room when the door to the cabin was kicked in.

"Phoenix, are you here?" A male voice yelled out.

"Come on," Carter whispered.

I looked down at Lilac as I could hear their footsteps growing closer to where we were at.

"Take care of her, and make sure she knows how much I love her," I signed as I quickly closed the door to the panic room, locking it before breaking the keypad, making sure no one could get in.

I quickly pulled the wall back in place, so they couldn't tell that there was a hidden room here. I had just finished covering the door when I heard the door to the room I was in open. An older man walked in, with a few other men by his side.

He looks to be in his early sixties, standing around five foot nine. One of his eyes was clouded over, and he was missing two fingers in his left hand.

"Phoenix?" The older man asked as he stared at me.

"Who are you?" I asked, hoping one of them knew sign language.

"Ah, so you are Phoenix. I'm Sam. We talked a while back ago," he said.

So this is Sam, I thought as I stared him down. You know, if I was being honest, he looked more like Shaun than Elliott. I kept my guard up as I watched him carefully. After I talked to him on the phone, I can clean with Carter about it even though Shaun asked me not to tell anyone.

Carter flew off the rails when I told him, apparently Sam wasn't the little saint he tried to make himself seem. Carter told me not to contact him anymore, and I didn't, especially after we hadn't heard from Shaun anymore.

"Where's Shaun?" I asked.

"He's been taken care of," Sam said, as my heart skipped a beat.

"I see."

"So where's the baby?" He asked.

"I lost the baby," I signed, feeling guilty for lying about something so serious, but if it kept her safe, then I didn't care.

"You lost the baby?" He asked as he gave me a skeptical look.

"I did. He was stillborn."

God, please forgive me for lying like this, I thought as the lies just kept piling up.

"So it was a boy?"

I nodded my head as I watched him pull out a gun from his the inside of his coat. I released a shaky breath as I watched him point the gun at me.

"Well, that truly is a shame now, isn't it?" he said before pulling the trigger.

In that moment, that single moment, all I could do was just stand there and accept my fate. At least Lilac and Carter managed to get out safely, I thought as the bullet made contact.

I could feel myself falling as the world around me went quiet. My last thought being that I hoped Lilac knew just how much I loved her.