Chapter 2 - What Lila Remembered
Adrian didn't remember carrying Lila inside.
He remembered pieces.
The ship's medic checking her hands.
A crew member bringing blankets.
Brooke crying in the hallway.
Corinne saying his name over and over.
"Adrian."
"Adrian, listen to me."
"Adrian, she's confused."
He remembered wanting everyone to stop talking.
Most of all, he remembered Lila's fingers.
Red.
Swollen.
Tiny crescent cuts where the metal lip had bitten into them.
The medic, a former Coast Guard corpsman named Daniel Price, knelt in front of her.
"Can you wiggle these for me, peanut?"
Lila frowned at him.
"I'm not peanut."
Daniel smiled.
"That's on me. What should I call you?"
"Lila."
"Lila it is."
She moved her fingers.
Daniel checked them gently.
"No obvious fracture. She needs X-rays when we dock, and I'd like a pediatrician to look at her. But circulation's good."
Adrian sat beside his daughter.
"Thank you."
Corinne stood behind them.
"We should get her to bed."
Adrian looked at her.
"No."
Corinne blinked.
"No?"
"We're returning to shore."
"Adrian, the party—"
"The party is over."
Sloane, near the doorway, stiffened.
Tessa looked away.
Brooke hadn't spoken in ten minutes.
Corinne lowered her voice.
"You're upset."
"My three-year-old just hung off the side of a yacht."
"I know."
"Do you?"
That landed.
Corinne's jaw tightened.
Then she softened her face.
The transformation was so quick Adrian almost missed it.
"Of course I do."
Lila pulled on his shirt.
"Daddy."
"Yeah?"
"Pip."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Of course.
He stepped into the corridor.
Pip was no longer where he'd seen him.
Adrian returned to the bow.
A crewman named Malik Foster was standing near the loungers.
"Sir?"
"Did you move a stuffed rabbit?"
Malik pointed.
"It's under that chair."
Pip had slid beneath Corinne's lounger.
Adrian picked him up.
He noticed something else.
A champagne flute lay on its side beside Tessa's chair.
A high heel rested near Sloane's.
Nothing was near the edge except Lila's scuff marks.
He crouched.
One meter.
Maybe a little more.
A faint black streak from her shoe marked the deck.
Adrian had spent fifteen years building a company around navigation systems.
Distances mattered to him.
Angles mattered.
Cause and effect mattered.
A three-year-old didn't teleport backward a meter.
Malik watched him.
"Mr. Cole?"
Adrian looked up.
"You were outside?"
"No, sir. Pantry."
"Did you hear anything?"
Malik hesitated.
"Your daughter screaming."
"Before that?"
Another hesitation.
"Laughter."
Adrian stood.
"Whose?"
Malik's eyes flicked toward the cabin.
"I couldn't say for certain."
"Try."
"Women's voices."
Adrian looked through the glass.
Corinne was talking to Sloane and Tessa.
Brooke stood apart from them.
All three friends had seen it.
Whatever "it" was.
Adrian returned to Lila.
He didn't ask her again until they were alone in a guest cabin with Pip tucked under her arm.
He sat on the floor instead of the bed so he wouldn't tower over her.
"Lila?"
She peeked at him.
"Can Daddy ask one thing?"
"Okay."
"You don't have to make anybody happy when you answer."
She stared at him.
Children knew when grown-ups were using too many words.
Adrian tried again.
"Did you fall?"
She shook her head.
"Did somebody touch you?"
A pause.
Then a nod.
"Who?"
"Corinne."
"What did she do?"
Lila pushed both palms outward.
"She did this."
Adrian stopped breathing.
"What happened before that?"
"I said play."
His throat tightened.
"And then?"
"She said bad."
"What bad?"
Lila's face crumpled.
"I don't wanna say."
Adrian reached for her but stopped halfway.
"Okay."
She crawled into his lap by herself.
"She said I'm gross like you."
He closed his eyes.
The actual word didn't matter.
The meaning did.
Not now.
Lila touched his chin.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah."
"Is you gross?"
He nearly broke right there.
Instead he kissed her hair.
"No, baby."
"Am I?"
"No."
"Then she lied."
"Yeah."
Lila seemed satisfied by that logic.
"Okay."
Twenty minutes later, the yacht changed course for Miami.
Corinne appeared at the cabin door.
"Can I come in?"
"No."
"Adrian—"
"No."
She looked wounded.
"You believe a frightened toddler over your wife?"
He stared at her.
"That's an interesting way to phrase that."
"Because it's insane."
"Is it?"
Corinne crossed her arms.
"Lila was running."
"No, she wasn't."
"You weren't there."
"Neither were you, according to the story you just told Malik."
Corinne froze.
Just for a fraction.
Then recovered.
"I said I didn't see the exact second she slipped."
"You were sitting three feet from her."
"Everything happened fast."
Adrian stood.
"That's the first thing you've said tonight that I believe."
Her face hardened.
"Be careful."
It was almost inaudible.
Adrian stepped closer.
"What did you say?"
Corinne smiled faintly.
"I said you're scared."
"No. You didn't."
A knock came behind her.
Malik stood in the corridor.
"Mr. Cole?"
"Yes?"
"The captain asked me to tell you something."
Corinne looked at him.
Malik looked back.
"The bow camera went offline tonight."
Adrian's stomach dropped.
"When?"
Malik held his gaze.
May you like
"Seven minutes before your daughter went over the side."
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