Chapter 1 - “You Should’ve Stayed Quiet”
Claire Morgan was halfway through the second paragraph when Margaret hit her.
Not with a hand.
With both palms against her upper body.
Claire stumbled backward across the sun-warmed stone of the mansion’s upper balcony, the single sheet of paper still trapped between the fingers of her right hand.
For one impossible second she saw Margaret’s face.
Cold.
Decided.
Then the railing disappeared behind her.
Claire screamed as she went over.
“AAAH!”
Her body dropped past the white stone edge of the balcony toward the blue swimming pool below.
Instinct took over before thought.
A thick maintenance rope was hanging down the side of the balcony from repair work completed earlier that afternoon. Claire caught it with both hands.
The impact nearly tore her grip loose.
She swung hard over the pool.
The paper slipped from her fingers, fluttered once, then caught against the balcony stone above.
“HELP ME! PLEASE!”
Her arms burned.
She looked up.
Margaret stepped to the railing.
The older woman gazed down as though Claire were an inconvenience hanging beneath her property rather than her daughter-in-law fighting not to fall.
Then Daniel appeared.
Claire’s heart lurched.
Her husband.
“Daniel!”
He came to his mother’s side and looked down.
He saw Claire clinging to the rope.
Saw the pool below.
Saw the terror in her face.
He did not reach for her.
Claire stared.
“Daniel, help me!”
His expression barely changed.
“You should’ve stayed quiet.”
Something inside Claire went colder than the air around her.
This was not Margaret losing control.
Daniel knew.
Margaret reached into the pocket of her dark dress and removed silver scissors.
Claire’s eyes widened.
“No—please!”
Margaret leaned over the railing.
The scissors closed against the rope.
Claire screamed.
The fibers gave way.
As the rope snapped, Claire released one hand from it and reached beneath the side of her royal-blue dress.
Her fingers closed around the small black device she had been carrying since Tuesday.
She threw it upward.
The device struck the stone ledge, bounced, and landed on the balcony near Daniel’s shoes.
A red indicator flashed.
BEEP-BEEP.
Margaret froze.
Daniel stared down.
The color drained from his face.
Claire fell.
She saw the pool rushing toward her.
May you like
Then nothing but blue.
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