My daughter showed up at my door at one in the morning, her face covered in bruises.

The house disappeared into darkness.

For one terrifying second, neither woman moved.

Then Teresa's police instincts took over.

"Kitchen. Now."

Mariana followed immediately.

Teresa grabbed a flashlight from a drawer and checked her handgun.

Outside, another metallic crash echoed through the yard.

A window shattered.

Glass scattered across the living room floor.

Mariana gasped.

"He found us."

"No," Teresa replied calmly.

"He thinks he found us."

The distinction mattered.

Teresa picked up her phone.

No signal.

Rodrigo had planned this carefully.

The power outage.

Signal jammers.

The late hour.

He wanted isolation.

He wanted fear.

He wanted control.

But Rodrigo had made one critical mistake.

He believed he was hunting victims.

He had forgotten he was dealing with a homicide detective.

A shadow moved past the backyard window.

Then another.

Teresa counted at least three men.

Security contractors.

Private muscle.

Rodrigo wasn't taking chances.

Suddenly, a loud voice echoed from outside.

"Mariana!"

Rodrigo.

"Give me the USB drive and this all ends tonight."

Mariana's hands shook.

"He'll kill us."

Teresa looked directly at her daughter.

"No."

Her voice was steady.

"He'll try."

Then she opened a hidden compartment beneath a bookshelf.

Inside were old case files, spare ammunition, and a satellite emergency transmitter issued years earlier during organized crime investigations.

Teresa activated it.

A tiny green light blinked.

Silent.

Invisible.

But somewhere, a distress signal had just been sent.

Now they only needed to survive long enough.