Chapter 6 - THE CHOICE
I did not think. I vaulted over the railing and dropped the twenty feet to the rocks and shallow water below. Hale’s shout faded behind me. Cold water closed around me instantly, biting through my clothes, dragging at me.
The car was sinking fast, nose-down, already half-submerged. Vivian was slumped unconscious behind the wheel. Rose was nowhere to be seen. And Lily—Lily was pressed against the back window, fighting to hold her breath as water crept higher.
I swam hard against the current. Reached the car. Tried the back door. Locked. Smashed the window with my elbow, cutting my arm, reached through and fumbled with the latch until it gave.
Lily gasped as I pulled her free, coughing, shivering, clinging to my neck. “Rose! She has Rose!”
My blood turned to ice. Vivian held Rose tight in her arms, belted in beside her, eyes closed, water already reaching her chest.
“Stay here!” I pushed Lily toward the shallows. “Hale will get you! I have to get Rose!”
I dove back. The water rose rapidly, filling the cabin. Vivian stirred as I reached her. Her eyes fluttered open—dazed, terrified, but still clutching Rose tight.
“Let her go!” I shouted over the rushing water.
Vivian stared at me. At the water. At Rose. “She’s mine,” she gasped, though her voice was weakening. “Everything I did… was for her.”
“You nearly killed her!” I grabbed Rose. “Let her go, Vivian! Or we all drown!”
The car lurched, slipping deeper. Vivian’s grip slackened—just enough. I pulled Rose free. She was limp, unresponsive, but warm. I turned to swim out.
Then Vivian grabbed my ankle.
I looked back. She was terrified now, no arrogance left. “Save me too, Adrian. Please. Don’t leave me here to die.”
The water swirled around us, rising fast. I had Rose in one arm. Vivian clung to my leg. If I dragged her out… Rose could drown. Lily was waiting. Vivian had killed Clara. Tried to steal my daughters. Threatened us again and again.
But she was human. And she was drowning.
I hesitated. And in that hesitation, the car shifted sharply, sliding deeper. Vivian screamed as the water closed over her head.
I could not save both.
I kicked free. Rose was heavy in my arms, barely breathing. I fought my way up and out, broke the surface, and swam with every ounce of strength I possessed toward the shore where Hale and police stood rushing into the water.
They pulled Rose from my arms first. Then Lily ran to me, sobbing, wrapping herself around my dripping legs. “You got her! You got her!”
I looked back. The car was gone. Only ripples marked where it had been. Vivian was beneath the dark water. Gone.
Hale knelt beside me, water streaming from his coat. “Adrian… you made the only choice you could.”
But as I held Lily and watched the river, one terrible thought settled over me. Vivian had said something strange before the end. Everything I did… was for her.
Not for Celeste. Not for the family. For her.
For Rose? For Lily?
It made no sense. Unless… unless there was something I still did not understand. Something Vivian had taken to the bottom of the river with her.
Rose cried out then—a weak, healthy sound. Paramedics wrapped her in warm blankets. Lily pressed her face to Rose’s chest, listening to her sister’s heartbeat, and finally let herself weep.
I sat in the wet grass, shivering, staring at the dark water. Vivian was dead. The threat was gone. Or was it? Because she had not acted alone. Hale had said someone inside had helped her. And that someone was still free.
I looked up at the trees lining the bank. And for one impossible second, I saw someone standing there. Watching. Still. Silent. Gone the moment I blinked.
May you like
My heart hammered again.
Vivian was dead. But the danger was not over.
