That broke her. Her eyes went wild. “Why wouldn’t I dare? Your father, your brother—they’re ruined because of me already. One more won’t matter. Wilbert has always been mine. Always protecting me, always choosing me. How could I lose to you, a stranger who walked into his life?”

Then she shoved me.

I fell hard, my body twisting, the sound swallowed by the party music. The cold sea wrapped around me, and I let it. I pressed the tiny signal in my palm, the one I had kept hidden. My lungs burned, but I didn’t fight it.

This was it. My escape. From him. From her. From all the darkness.

And as the water dragged me down, I thought—finally, I am free.