YOUR NEXT READ-FOUND!

Known for her deeply emotional, riveting-and often heart-wrenching-novels, bestselling author Colleen Hoover has sold more than 35 million books, including It Ends With Us and Regretting You, both of which were adapted into major motion pictures. Hoover's upcoming book, Woman Down, out January 13, follows frustrated writer Petra Rose. With a looming deadline, Petra flees to a remote hideaway where she meets the handsome Detective Nathaniel Saint-but what she soon finds defies all expectations and reality. Here, an exclusive excerpt just for Woman's World readers!

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No.

Something isn’t right.

I sit up straight in bed, my heart hammering loud and wild in my chest as I slip the face mask off my eyes. The air in the room feels thick, the kind of suffocating quiet that follows an unexpected jolt from sleep. My mind races, trying to figure out what woke me. Was it a noise? A dream?

Whatever it was, it was loud enough to yank me out of a deep, blissful sleep, and now I’m wide awake, my senses heightened, my body tense with a rush of adrenaline.

It’s probably Mari, here for more wine after two days of silence since her visit.

I'm still trying to regain my bearings when I notice the lights. Red and blue flashes are cutting through the darkness of the room, splashing across the walls like some kind of warning.

They're disorienting, casting long shadows that dance with each pulse of light, and for a moment, I can’t tell if I'm dreaming or if this is real. My bedroom is on the west side of the cabin, so I can’t see much from where I’m sitting, but the lights keep coming—urgent, rhythmic, and impossible to ignore.

There’s a window directly behind my headboard, so I twist around, pulling the curtain aside to get a look at what's happening outside. But all I can see are those flashing lights, radiating from the front yard. I can't see any vehicles from my vantage point, just the constant pulse of red and blue illuminating the trees.

My mind immediately races to worst-case scenarios—was there an accident? A break-in? Why would the police be here, in the middle of nowhere? Is it Louie?