Chapter 1 - The Kiss Before the Fall
The last thing Junie Whitmore remembered before going over the side of the yacht was her stepmother's smile.
It was such a pretty smile.
That was what made it frightening.
Twenty minutes earlier, five-year-old Junie had been sitting on the bow of the Second Light, swinging her legs beneath a yellow sundress while her father entertained guests near the stern.
The Atlantic glittered around them. Music floated across the deck, mixed with laughter and the gentle clink of expensive glasses.
Junie had been promised dolphins.
Her father, Adrian Whitmore, had said they might see some if she kept watching the water.
She had been watching very carefully.
“Daddy?”
Adrian turned from his wife.
“Yeah, peanut?”
“If a dolphin sees me first, does that mean it wins?”
He laughed.
“I didn't realize we were competing.”
“We are.”
“Well, you'd better keep your eyes open.”
Junie nodded solemnly.
At forty, Adrian had built a successful luxury marina and hospitality company, and people often described him as a man who never lost control.
Junie knew better.
He lost control of the television remote almost every Saturday. He burned pancakes. He cried when she performed songs at preschool, though he always blamed his allergies.
And lately, he forgot promises.
Not the big ones.
Just little things.
Like helping her build a cardboard castle. Reading the final chapter of her favorite book. Coming home before bedtime.
Since marrying Corinne eight months earlier, he had become very busy.
Corinne Whitmore was twenty-seven, with long chestnut hair, luminous brown eyes, and the kind of beauty that made strangers look twice.
Her wedding photographs had appeared in magazines.
Junie had kept one in her bedroom because everyone looked happy in it.
Especially Daddy.
“Sweetheart,” Adrian said to Corinne, leaning down to kiss her cheek, “I'll be right back.”
Corinne tilted her face toward him.
“Don't disappear on me.”
“Five minutes. Graham needs me to look at something.”
“Your business partner can survive five minutes without you.”
“Apparently not.”
He kissed her again.
Corinne laughed softly.
Adrian walked past the two sun loungers and entered the yacht's interior through the doorway behind them.
Junie watched him disappear.
When she turned back, Corinne was wiping the cheek he had kissed.
“Disgusting,” she muttered.
Junie blinked.
“What is?”
Corinne looked up.
For a moment, she seemed surprised to find the little girl still there.
“Nothing.”
“Did Daddy get something on your face?”
Corinne lowered her hand.
“No, Junie.”
“Because he does that with jelly sometimes.”
Corinne didn't smile.
Junie looked toward the water.
“I think I saw one.”
“One what?”
“A dolphin.”
“How wonderful.”
The words sounded different from the way Daddy said them.
Junie glanced at her stepmother.
“Do you wanna look?”
Corinne rose slowly from the lounger.
The guests were far behind them, enjoying champagne near the stern. Music covered the ordinary sounds of the yacht. No one stood near the exposed section of bow where Junie had been watching the ocean.
Corinne glanced over her shoulder.
Then toward the interior doorway.
“Do you know,” she said quietly, “how tired I am of hearing about your father?”
Junie frowned.
“But he's your husband.”
“Yes. I'm painfully aware.”
“Daddy says you love him.”
Something changed in Corinne's expression.
Her lips tightened.
“You little bastard. You're just as hateful as your father.”
Junie stared.
She knew the word was bad.
She didn't know what she had done to deserve it.
“I'm not hateful.”
“Of course you aren't. You're his perfect little princess.”
“I'm not a princess.”
“Then stop acting like everyone owes you a kingdom.”
Junie stepped backward.
Her heel came close to the exposed edge.
“I want Daddy.”
Corinne moved.
Both hands struck forward against Junie's upper body.
There was no warning.
No dramatic scream before it happened.
Just a sudden pressure, a flash of blue sky, and the terrible sensation of the deck disappearing beneath her feet.
Junie tumbled once over the edge.
Her right hand caught the narrow metal lip beneath the bow.
Pain shot through her fingers.
Her left hand scrambled upward, found purchase, and locked beside the first.
Then her body dropped against the outside of the hull.
Seven meters of empty air separated her dangling shoes from the sea.
She couldn't understand what had happened.
One second, she had been looking for dolphins.
The next, she was hanging above the water.
“Daddy!”
Her scream broke across the bow.
“Daddy! Help me!”
Above her, Corinne stood motionless.
For one extraordinary second, their eyes met.
Junie expected her to reach down.
Instead, her stepmother took one step backward.
Then another.
Inside the yacht, Adrian was listening to Graham Vale explain why a quarterly financial report needed his signature before they returned to shore.
Graham was forty-six, meticulously dressed, and had managed Whitmore Marine Holdings' finances for almost a decade.
“Adrian, it's a routine authorization.”
“Then why does the authorization say eighteen million dollars?”
“Because it's consolidating three separate commitments.”
Adrian opened his mouth to argue.
And heard something.
A faint, high-pitched cry.
He stopped.
Graham continued talking.
“Once you approve it, the transfer—”
“Shut up.”
Graham looked offended.
“Excuse me?”
Adrian turned toward the corridor.
The voice came again.
“Daddy!”
Every muscle in his body tightened.
“Junie!”
He dropped the papers.
His chair struck the wall as he pivoted toward the door.
Graham grabbed the unsigned document.
“Adrian, wait—”
But Adrian was already running.
He charged through the same doorway he had entered minutes earlier.
Outside, the sun struck his eyes.
Corinne stood beside the loungers, one hand pressed over her mouth.
“Adrian!” she cried.
He barely heard her.
He had already seen the yellow fabric disappearing beneath the bow's edge.
His daughter wasn't on the deck.
May you like
She was hanging outside it.
And when he reached the rim, her little fingers were beginning to slip.
