Chapter 1 - THE HAND UNDER THE WATER
The first thing Christopher Pierce saw was his daughter's hand disappear under the water.
"Emma!"
He ran from the house so fast he slipped on the stone terrace.
Juliette stood at the deep end screaming, "Help! Somebody help her!"
Emma was seven.
She could not swim.
Christopher did not stop to take off his shoes. He jumped in fully dressed.
Emma's dress.
He dove.
His fingers caught her arm.
He dragged her to the surface and lifted her onto the stone.
"Come on, baby. Breathe."
Nothing.
"Emma!"
Then she coughed.
Water spilled from her mouth.
Christopher pulled her against him.
"Daddy."
"I'm here."
Only then did he look at Juliette.
Her face was pale.
"You pushed my daughter."
"She slipped."
"I saw your hand."
"You saw me reaching for her."
Emma clung tighter.
The pool alarm had never sounded.
That morning Emma's swim lesson had been canceled.
The lifeguard had been sent home early.
All three decisions came through Juliette's authorization.
"Who turned off the alarm?"
"I don't know."
"She said today had to work."
"What?"
"She told Grandma, 'Today has to work or the vote is ruined.'"
Paramedics arrived.
While they checked Emma, security chief Aaron Vale rushed in holding a tablet.
"Sir, the pool speaker recorded something."
He pressed play.
Juliette's voice filled the room.
"Once Emma is gone, Christopher's voting block collapses."
"Not gone. Unavailable."
His mother.
Eleanor Pierce.
The recording continued.
"And after the trust hearing," Eleanor said, "nobody will be able to put the girl back in our way."
His daughter was not simply a child living in the Pierce mansion.
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She was the heir to thirty-four percent of Pierce Holdings.
And someone had just tried to erase her.
