And the truth was, she had plenty of time. She was only in her twenties, so it wasn’t like her biological clock was ticking very loudly yet. Of course, when she saw her sister getting to be a mother, she did feel herself longing for that sometimes. But definitely not enough to rush into getting married and starting a family so soon.

She and Tucker had some big business goals before then. The Christmas selling season would be coming again in a few months, and it was going to be a challenge but a possible financial windfall for both of them.

They had also talked about traveling together and seeing different parts of the world before they finally settled down. She was thankful that she had time and didn’t have to worry about being in a hurry for any reason.

“What are you doing?” Tucker asked. She could hear him washing his dishes in the background.

“There’s a new documentary I wanted to see. It’s about this serial rapist.”

“Wow, that sounds like something that is so soothing right before bedtime.”

“You’re a wimp,” she said, laughing.

“I truly don’t know how you watch that stuff right before you go to sleep. It would give me nightmares.”

“Sometimes it does. I still can’t help myself. It’s just so interesting.”

“Well, I don’t want to keep you from your new documentary, so I’m going to hang up and go take a nice hot shower. I’ll see you in the morning?”

“See you then. Sweet dreams,” she said before hanging up.

She snuggled back into her pillows again, pulled the cover up around her neck and pressed play. As the documentary started, she learned facts about the case.

Apparently there was this man who was raping women in this small town. They couldn’t catch him no matter what they did, but he was finally shot and killed by an officer during a standoff.

As she watched about all the different cases, she was so thankful that she didn’t live alone. At least having her Aunt Janine there meant that she wasn’t as worried being at home alone at night. A lot of these girls had been attacked in their apartments where they lived alone.

As the story went on, she started to learn more about the standoff. About how he had taken a hostage and was trying to blackmail the police. It went on for hours and hours until finally one of the officers snuck into the building and was able to shoot him before he could hurt his hostage.

And that’s when Colleen found herself staring at the screen, holding her breath. The officer that shot him was a woman, but that wasn’t the part that was so shocking. She knew who that officer was, and she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing.

She tossed her computer to the side, pausing the documentary as she did, and ran out into the living room. “Aunt Janine!”

Janine came flying out of her bedroom, her curly hair sticking straight up like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket. She had her robe wrapped around her and was holding her chest. “What’s going on? Are you hurt?”