Chapter 1 - The Splash
The stroller hit the water before Adrian Mercer understood what he was seeing.
One second, his six-month-old son, Caleb, was parked beside the pool beneath a white patio umbrella. The next, the gray stroller rolled hard across the stone, struck the edge, and vanished into the deep end with a violent splash.
"CALEB!"
A young woman in a black housekeeper's dress was already running.
Maya Torres didn't stop to remove her shoes. She jumped straight into the pool, dove beneath the churning water, and grabbed the stroller frame before it sank farther. The straps had twisted. Caleb's tiny arms flailed under the surface.
"Come on, baby. Come on."
Maya ripped one buckle loose, then another, dragged Caleb free, and kicked upward with everything she had.
She broke the surface gasping.
"I have him!"
Adrian shoved through the guests gathered for his mother's charity luncheon and dropped beside the pool as Maya lifted Caleb toward him.
The baby coughed, sputtered, then cried.
It was the best sound Adrian had ever heard.
He pulled Caleb against his chest.
Then Celeste Vaughn, elegant in a blue silk dress, stumbled forward with one hand over her mouth.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
Maya dragged herself from the pool, soaked and shaking.
"She pushed the stroller," Maya said. "I saw her."
Celeste's shock vanished.
She pointed straight at Maya.
"She's lying. She pushed him into the water."
The patio went silent.
Adrian looked from the woman he had been dating for eight months to the employee who had just nearly drowned saving his son.
"What?" he said.
Celeste stepped closer. "I tried to stop her. Ask anyone. She was standing beside the stroller."
"That's not true!" Maya said. "You shoved it!"
A security guard moved toward Maya.
"Don't touch me," she snapped.
Then her eyes lifted beyond the patio.
Between two cypress trees, a tiny red light blinked.
Maya pointed.
"The camera recorded it all."
May you like
Adrian turned toward the trees.
And Celeste went completely pale.
