Nothing.
No panic.
No confusion.
Just acceptance.
“Elena,” he said quietly.
“My belt is stuck.”
He looked down.
“I know.”
The water had reached my ankles.
For a moment I thought I had misheard him.
“What?”
Adrian pulled himself farther through the window.
I grabbed at the buckle.
Pressed the release.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
“Adrian!”
Behind me Noah was struggling with the straps holding his chair in place.
The SUV shifted.
More water rushed inside.
I screamed.
“Help me!”
Adrian paused outside the window.
Then he said the last words I ever heard from him as my husband.
“I’m sorry it had to happen like this.”
And disappeared.
I went completely still.
Only for a second.
Then survival took over.
I yanked the belt.
Twisted.
Pulled.
My fingers found something rough near the latch.
Wire.
Someone had threaded wire around the buckle assembly.
Not an accident.
Not damaged by impact.
Secured.
Prepared.
“Noah.”
My voice barely came out.
“He did this.”
Behind me, my brother said:
“I know.”
I turned.
“What?”
Noah was staring through the rear window.
Not at me.
At the riverbank.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Look.”
I followed his gaze.
Adrian had reached shore.
A second vehicle waited near the old maintenance road.
Beside it stood a woman beneath a hooded raincoat.
She ran toward him.
He caught her.
She threw both arms around him.
Then kissed him.
My brain refused to understand what my eyes already had.
The woman pushed back her hood.
Vanessa Hale.
My half-sister.
Eight months pregnant.
She had told me the baby’s father was a man who disappeared after a short relationship.
I understood the lie immediately.
The child was Adrian’s.
Vanessa turned toward the river.
Toward us.
There was no horror on her face.
She knew.
