Chapter 1 - Sixty Seconds
“You were always a mistake.”
The words had barely left Victoria’s mouth when she shoved my six-year-old daughter into the pool.
Lily disappeared beneath the blue water.
For half a second, I stopped breathing.
Then instinct took over.
I ran.
My charcoal tuxedo hit the water with me.
The pool was nearly twelve feet deep.
City lights shimmered above my head as I pushed downward.
I saw Lily sinking.
Her silver-grey dress floated around her tiny body.
Her hazel eyes were wide with panic.
I grabbed her beneath the arms and kicked toward the surface.
We broke through together.
Lily coughed against my shoulder.
“Daddy…”
“I’ve got you.”
I carried her toward the edge.
Two guests helped pull us onto the marble deck.
I barely noticed them.
All I could see was Victoria.
Thirty-two.
Beautiful.
Long dark hair.
Shimmering slate-grey gown.
She stood beside the pool without moving.
No panic.
No apology.
Nothing.
I held Lily against my chest and looked directly at her.
“You have sixty seconds to leave my property.”
Victoria blinked.
“Adrian, she slipped.”
Lily started shaking.
“No, Daddy.”
“She pushed me.”
Victoria’s eyes hardened.
“Children say strange things when they’re frightened.”
“Fifty-five seconds.”
A murmur passed through the guests.
Victoria took a step toward me.
“You’re embarrassing me.”
I almost laughed.
“You shoved my daughter into twelve feet of water.”
“She should never have been standing there.”
“What does that mean?”
Victoria stopped.
Just for a second.
Then she said something I would remember for the rest of my life.
“You have no idea what that girl really is.”
Lily buried her face against me.
I felt something inside me go cold.
“What is she?”
Victoria looked toward the penthouse doors.
Then back at Lily.
“The reason her mother died.”
The entire pool deck went silent.
My wife Claire had been dead for four years.
May you like
And until that moment, I had believed Victoria had barely known her.
I was wrong about almost everything.
