Chapter 1 - The Girl in the Water.
The first scream was swallowed by the music.
Elena Ward heard it anyway.
She turned from the champagne table just as a small pale shape vanished over the side of the wooden resort pier.
For one frozen second, everyone near the wedding arch kept smiling toward the photographer.
Then Elena saw five-year-old Ruby's tiny hand break the surface of the sunset-colored water.
Elena kicked off her heels and ran.
Her emerald dress snapped around her legs as she reached the edge and dove without thinking.
The ocean was warmer than she expected, but Ruby was already sinking beneath the calm surface.
Elena caught the child under the arms and pulled her upward.
Ruby surfaced coughing so hard that she could barely breathe.
"I've got you."
Elena held her against her chest and kicked toward the ladder.
"You're safe with me."
By the time Elena climbed onto the pier, soaking wet from the waist down, the string quartet had stopped playing.
Guests were finally gathering around.
Ruby clung to Elena's neck, shivering in her drenched light dress.
"She told me not to move," Ruby whispered.
Elena barely heard her.
"Who told you?"
Ruby's lips trembled.
Before she could answer, Celeste Avery stormed through the crowd in a spotless white wedding gown.
The bride's face was not frightened.
It was furious.
"What did you do?"
Elena stared at her.
"She fell into the water."
Celeste looked at Ruby as though the crying child had spilled wine on her dress.
"Do you have any idea what you've done to the ceremony?"
Elena's expression hardened.
"She's five."
"And you always have to make everything about yourself."
Celeste stepped closer.
A bridesmaid behind her muttered, "Get up, stop acting."
Ruby flinched.
Elena pulled the little girl tighter against her chest.
"Back away from her."
Celeste raised her hand.
The slap cracked across the pier so loudly that several guests gasped.
Elena's face turned with the impact.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Marcus Hale stood beneath the flower-covered arch thirty feet away, still wearing the stunned smile of a man whose brain had not caught up with what his eyes had seen.
Celeste pointed at Elena.
"Stop ruining her big day!"
Elena slowly turned her face back.
There was a red mark on her cheek, but her voice remained level.
"You should not have done that."
Celeste laughed once, sharp and breathless.
"What are you going to do, Elena?"
Elena shifted Ruby onto one hip and reached into the small waterproof pocket sewn inside her dress.
She pulled out a gold smartphone.
Marcus's smile disappeared.
He recognized the phone before she even unlocked it.
Three months earlier, after the first anonymous threat against Ruby, Marcus and Elena had agreed on a family emergency phrase.
They had promised never to use it unless one of them believed someone inside their circle had become dangerous.
Elena pressed his name.
Marcus answered without looking away from her.
"Elena?"
She watched Celeste's confident expression begin to change.
"Marcus."
Elena's voice carried across the silent pier.
"Initiate code red."
Marcus went completely still.
Elena looked down at Ruby's shaking hands.
There was something clenched inside one of them.
A torn strip of white satin.
"Cancel the wedding."
The sunset glowed behind Marcus as if nothing in the world had changed.
May you like
But every security officer around the resort immediately touched an earpiece.
And Celeste, for the first time that evening, looked afraid.
