Prologue

                As she turned off of Interstate 65, Ivy reminded herself to breathe.  She stared up at the red light, listening to the steady tick of the turn signal-  a part of her hoping that it wouldn’t change.  She hadn’t stepped foot in this town in years.  She had attempted to drown out her growing anxiety over the last few hundred miles by getting lost in the ebb and flow of traffic and in the latest Foo Fighters song on the radio.  Here she was, though.  As the light flickered to green she could no longer ignore the reality of her new life.  A few short days ago, things made sense.  Now, not so much.  She was in her second year as a resident Registered Nurse at a busy New Orleans hospital, living in a small two bedroom apartment with her best friend.  In her eyes, she had it made.  She worked her ‘day job’ three nights a week and spent the remainder of her time split between different humanitarian efforts and the next big adventure.

                On that now fateful summer afternoon, she had been sipping chai by the pool while discussing a Kundera novel with a cute neighbor boy.  Her iPhone rang, and in a matter of sixty seconds, her world would cease to exist.  In coming months, she would look back on that moment and wish for that simpler, more innocent time.  She would wish with every fiber of her being that she had hit the ignore button for that particular call.  She would see that moment clearly -  while she stared down the barrel of the gun belonging to the judge of this charming little town.