The California mom who was stabbed 20 times by a crazed attacker said she knew she had to lure him away from her teen daughters. 

Speaking to Inside Edition, Marylou Palos said she was convinced she was going to die cops say when the man broke into her Lake Forest home last week. The man then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began terrorizing Palos and her teen daughters, she said.

Fearful for her children, Palos ran from the house, tearing down the street, desperately screaming for help as the man chased after her, wielding the knife. The moment was caught on surveillance footage. 

"I was thinking of my girls and my first thought was, 'Get him out of the house,'" she said.

But the man caught up to her and began stabbing her repeatedly. 

"He was going like this at me," she said, gesturing up and down.  

Fortunately, her neighbors heard her pleas and stepped to confront the man, who then took off. 

As the mom lay bleeding, her only thoughts were of her children, she said. 

"I kept telling [them], 'Somebody please go and see how my kids are doing, somebody please go. Tell them I'm going to be OK.'"

And she is. Though Palos is covered in deep cuts, held together with staples, she is doing much better. 

The suspect was arrested on attempted murder charges. He's being held on $2 million bail. 

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