Chapter 2

"Edna, this is the prize Dean and I won together. It's for you."

Amanda held out a swimsuit set, right up to my face.

I didn't take it.

Her eyes reddened on the spot.

"That was thoughtless of me. I forgot you don't like joining group activities, Edna."

Before she finished, her team members were already leaping in to defend her.

"If she doesn't swim, why come to a team outing? Who's she trying to seduce?"

"Somebody has good intentions and gets treated like dirt."

Dean's voice dropped a notch.

"Show some team spirit. Don't make a special case of yourself."

I stared at him in disbelief.

Five years ago I'd fallen into the water by accident, on the edge of drowning,

and he had thrown himself in to save me, nearly losing his own life doing it.

Ever since, I'd had a phobia of water.

He swore he'd be my personal lifeguard for the rest of my life.

Only last night he'd held me and coaxed me.

"Think of the outing as a fall date. With me there, no one would dare let you near the water."

Now he lowered his voice and pressed me.

"Don't give everyone something to laugh about. Swimming isn't scary. I've got you, whatever happens."

"Besides, you've got the anti-drowning bracelet."

He fastened the bracelet on my wrist without asking.

It was the first time in five years he hadn't kept his careful distance,

and he did it to save face for his precious first love.

I looked down at the bracelet.

"It hasn't been tested yet. You want me as your live data sample?"

His fingers paused. He explained,

"You're the lead designer on the product. It needed a real wearer for testing anyway."

"Today just happened to line up. Don't read so much into it."

The weight on my wrist was slight,

but it pressed the breath out of me.

I pushed him away, my face cold.

"Dean Gilbert, we're done."

Then I turned and walked off.

Amanda stuck out her foot on the sly, and I pitched into the pool.

Panicking, I grabbed at the bracelet's pull cord,

but it wouldn't open.

On instinct I cried out to Dean for help.

At last he forgot his careful distance and swam toward me in a panic.

Halfway there, Amanda called to him, crying.

"Dean, my leg's cramping."

He hesitated for half a second, then turned around.

Despair came down over me like a dome, sealing me in.

Three minutes passed,

and the bracelet valve that was supposed to release didn't respond.

Everything in front of me went black by degrees.

The water closed over my head, and a voice cut through the surface and reached my ears.

I couldn't make it out clearly.

"Ten minutes. The valve's open. Pull her up."

Soon a lifeguard jumped in and dragged me onto the deck.

I dimly saw someone kill the timer.

When I woke again, I was in a hospital.

The moment I opened my eyes, the terror of drowning was still lodged in my throat.

I gulped for air.

Dean threw his arms around me, his face full of dread over what had almost happened.

"Edna, don't be scared. It's all right now."

The thought of him abandoning me surged up, and the hurt with it.

I put everything I had into slapping him hard across the face.

He held his cheek, a flicker of shock in his eyes.

"I saved her because I was closer to her."

"You had the bracelet. It would release and get you help."

"So it was a few minutes late and you swallowed some water. What's there to sulk about?"

A few minutes.

For someone drowning, one second late can mean death.

I had struggled underwater for a full ten minutes.

I'd barely survived, and he thought I was making a fuss.

I shut my eyes and forced the words out.

"Get out. I don't want to see you again."

He froze, then clamped a hand around my wrist.

His palm landed right on the red welt the bracelet had cut into my skin.

He heard me suck in a sharp breath, and softly blew on the sore spot.

For that instant, I drifted back to before.

Even a single hangnail on my finger,

and he'd rub in hand cream dozens of times.

But now, with all that tenderness still in his eyes,

the words that came out were colder than the pool water.

"When you've cooled off, apologize to Amanda."

"She ended up in the hospital because of you, in tears the whole time, sick with guilt."

"Clear it up in the company group chat that it had nothing to do with her."

The absurdity of it swept over me.

They forced me into the water and I nearly died.

And because she shed a few crocodile tears,

he wanted me to swallow it all.

My throat wouldn't stop trembling. I said it one word at a time.

"I'm not apologizing. And another thing, we're breaking up."

His breath hitched.

"You know I can't stand to hear you talk about breaking up, and you're using it to threaten me?"

Being ignored turned his face black as ink.

But he collected himself quickly and tucked the blanket around me.

"It's all in the past. Rest up first. Once the promotion's confirmed, we'll make it official."

After he left, my brother came to the hospital with a legal team to take me home.

I handed the bracelet to the lawyers to lock down the evidence and open an investigation.

The broken pull cord, the tampered auto-release timing—

there was no way it was a simple coincidence.