Chapter 1 - THE EDGE OF THE WATER
The wheelchair rolled backward before anyone screamed.
Victoria’s hands locked around the rims, but the brakes were already released. The wet stone beneath the rear wheels offered no resistance. One second she was beside the infinity pool, surrounded by champagne glasses and polite laughter. The next, the chair tipped over the edge.
Bradley stood behind her with one foot still lifted from the kick he had delivered into the rigid black brace beneath her white linen cover-up.
“Let’s see how long she can fake paralysis underwater!”
Dozens of guests recoiled.
No one stepped forward.
Richard, silver-haired and perfectly composed in a navy blazer, raised one hand toward the only man already moving.
“Stay out of this.”
Dr. Harrison Sterling did not stop.
He sprinted across the pool deck, stripped off his mirrored sunglasses in one motion, and dove.
Victoria sank fast.
The brace dragged her down.
Her arms moved weakly as bubbles escaped from her mouth. The wheelchair twisted beneath her, one handle catching against the pool wall.
Harrison reached her in seconds.
He freed one shoulder from the chair, supported her neck, and pulled her upward without twisting the spine he had spent fourteen hours rebuilding.
They broke the surface together.
Victoria coughed violently as Harrison carried her toward the edge.
Several guests finally moved.
Too late to be useful.
Harrison laid her carefully on the stone, one hand stabilizing her neck, the other checking her breathing.
Bradley stood over them.
“See?” he said. “She loves putting on a show.”
Victoria shook beneath the afternoon light.
Pool water ran from her hair.
Her face had gone pale.
Harrison looked up.
Slowly.
He removed his sunglasses.
The scar through his eyebrow became visible.
Richard’s expression changed.
Recognition.
Fear.
Bradley noticed neither.
He took one arrogant step closer.
Harrison stood.
The punch landed before Bradley finished speaking.
A brutal right hook crashed across his face and sent him sliding over the wet deck. Champagne glasses shattered. Guests screamed. Richard remained frozen.
Harrison grabbed Bradley by the front of his shirt and lifted him halfway from the ground.
Then he reached beneath the white lifeguard shirt and pulled out a sealed waterproof recorder.
The red light blinked inches from Bradley’s eyes.
“I rebuilt her spine,” Harrison said.
Bradley stopped breathing.
Harrison’s voice dropped lower.
“And I recorded you trying to destroy it.”
No one spoke.
Victoria watched from the stone, tears mixing with pool water.
May you like
The recorder kept blinking.
The truth inside it had been gathering long before the wheelchair moved.
