PART 1
The breeze off San Diego should have marked the start of my happily-ever-after. By the third day of our honeymoon, though, the sea air felt as if it were closing around my throat. The multimillion-dollar yacht my billionaire father had given us as a wedding present no longer seemed like a romantic escape. It felt like a prison adrift at sea.
For three days, I had felt an exhaustion that didn’t seem natural. Lucas, my apparently perfect new husband, would smooth back my hair and assure me it was only seasickness. Each night, he gave me two little white pills, insisting they would help me sleep. I believed him completely.
Until that afternoon.
An instinct I couldn’t explain made me open my eyes. The room spun, and my limbs felt impossibly heavy. Holding onto the polished mahogany walls, I slowly made my way out of the suite. I was losing what little strength remained by the time I reached the stairs to the middle deck. I stopped against the cool brass railing and tried to catch my breath.
Below me, champagne glasses clinked faintly.
Then I heard laughter.
“How are you handling the dosage, Lucas?” The voice was brisk and matter-of-fact. I knew it at once: Roderick, my father-in-law.
“Relax, Dad. Two pills every night, and I slipped a little more into her soup earlier. By midnight, she won’t even be able to keep her eyes open.” Lucas spoke casually, as if they were discussing the weather.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
Cold spread through me.
“So we’re doing it tonight?” whispered Gertrude, my mother-in-law. She was the woman who hugged me often and called me her “sweet daughter.”
“Tonight,” Lucas answered. “There’s supposed to be a squall after midnight. The crew will be inside. I’ll take her up to the aft deck and tell her she needs some fresh air. Then… one little push. The ocean will handle everything else.”
“And the trust fund?” Roderick asked. “When will we actually have access to the money?”
Lucas chuckled under his breath.
“I already got her to sign the power of attorney before the wedding. Once the authorities declare her lost at sea, the $300m will be transferred into my Swiss accounts.”
Gertrude gave a sharp laugh.
“Brilliant. That pathetic heiress actually thinks she married Prince Charming. What about her parents?”
“They’re traveling to Salt Lake City next week. My people are already waiting. One brake failure on an icy mountain pass, and the entire family will be together in heaven.”
My stomach lurched.
I pressed both hands over my mouth so they wouldn’t hear me. My nails dug into my palms while I struggled not to sob.
They were drinking my father’s champagne aboard his yacht, calmly toasting a plan to destroy my entire family.
The drugs began pulling me under again. The fog returned to my mind, and staying conscious grew harder by the second.
Outside, the sea crashed against the hull.
Midnight was just hours away.
I was in international waters, surrounded by people who pretended to love me while planning to kill me.
I had only a few hours to find a way to survive.
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