Chapter 1 - The Man in the Water
A black wheelchair rolled backward toward the lake as Julian shouted: “Claire!” When I reached the terrace, I saw the wheelchair vanish over the stone edge with a violent splash. But beneath the broken leather strap, I noticed something caught around the frame. It had been cut.
The thought came to me before I could stop it.
Someone had done this.
I jumped.
The lake swallowed me whole.
Cold water slammed into my chest, and for several seconds I couldn't tell which way was up. My pale-blue dress wrapped around my legs like ropes. My lungs screamed for air.
Then I saw him.
Julian Vescari was trapped beneath me, still strapped into his wheelchair.
His eyes were open.
He wasn't screaming.
He couldn't.
He simply looked at me.
I kicked downward and reached him.
His hand moved toward mine, but his fingers barely responded. I grabbed his wrist.
The wheelchair shifted.
Something was holding him down.
I looked closer.
His charcoal jacket was tangled beneath the metal crossbar.
I pulled.
Nothing.
Julian pointed toward the jacket.
I understood.
I opened the first button.
Then the second.
The third tore beneath my fingers.
The pressure released suddenly.
Julian's body drifted free.
I wrapped my arm beneath his shoulders and kicked toward the surface.
My lungs burned.
His weight dragged me down.
For one terrifying moment, I thought I had made the wrong choice.
Then sunlight appeared above us.
We broke through the surface together.
I gasped.
Julian coughed violently.
“Hold on,” I whispered.
He couldn't hold on.
So I held him.
The stone steps seemed impossibly far away.
I pulled him toward them while voices finally erupted above us.
“Get him out!”
“Grab his arm!”
“Careful!”
Five men reached down.
None had entered the water.
They lifted Julian first.
Then they reached for me.
I climbed onto the terrace, shaking.
One shoe was gone.
My dress was soaked.
My hair covered half my face.
And nearly two hundred people stared at me.
Nobody applauded.
Nobody thanked me.
They simply watched.
Julian coughed again.
A doctor dropped beside him.
“Julian? Can you hear me?”
Julian ignored him.
His eyes moved across the terrace.
They stopped on Victoria Vescari.
His older sister stood beside a table of white roses.
Her champagne glass was still in her hand.
Her face was perfectly calm.
Too calm.
Julian then looked at Gabriel Knox, his security chief.
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Julian's gaze finally returned to me.
“Who told you not to touch me?”
I stared at him.
“I don't understand.”
He swallowed.
His voice was barely audible.
“Everyone was told to stay back.”
I looked around.
The guests suddenly seemed very interested in their champagne.
Then Julian reached toward my hand.
I gave it to him.
His fingers closed weakly around mine.
“Claire,” he whispered.
I froze.
I had never introduced myself.
“How do you know my name?”
Julian's eyes changed.
Fear replaced suspicion.
He looked toward the water.
Then he whispered one sentence.
“Because you weren't supposed to be here.”
Before I could answer, Gabriel's phone began ringing.
Gabriel looked at the screen.
His face went white.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice came through.
Gabriel slowly looked at Julian.
Then at me.
“She's alive,” he said.
The woman on the phone went silent.
And then she said Julian's name.
Not Vescari.
Not Mr. Vescari.
His childhood name.
A name Claire had never heard before.
Julian's expression collapsed.
“Get everyone inside,” he whispered.
Gabriel stared at him.
“Why?”
Julian looked toward the lake.
“Because whoever pushed me knows she survived.”
Claire felt a coldness deeper than the water she had just escaped.
Then something metallic surfaced beside the stone terrace.
A small black object floated among the ripples.
Gabriel saw it.
May you like
Julian saw it.
And Claire realized it had been attached to the bottom of the wheelchair...
