Then a gunshot cracked through the storm.
We jumped.
The raft slammed into the waves.
Behind us, Marcus Abernathy appeared on the deck.
He pointed toward us.
“GET BACK HERE!”
A second vessel launched from the yacht.
It came after us.
Valery grabbed the emergency motor.
“Hold on!”
The tiny raft disappeared into the darkness.
For hours, the ocean tried to kill us.
Waves swallowed us.
Rain blinded us.
The motor died twice.
At one point, I thought I was going to disappear beneath the water.
But just before sunrise, the storm finally weakened.
A wave threw our raft onto a beach.
We crawled onto the sand.
Neither of us could stand.
I looked at Valery.
“Are we alive?”
She laughed weakly.
“Unfortunately for them.”
Then we both collapsed.
PART 3 — THE END
I woke up three days later in a hospital in Nassau.
The first thing I saw was my father’s lawyer.
Mr. Vance.
He stood beside my bed holding a thick black folder.
“The family has already announced your death,” he said.
I stared at him.
“What?”
“They held a press conference yesterday.”
He placed his phone in front of me.
There was Lucas.
Standing behind a podium.
Tears running down his face.
“My wife was the love of my life,” he told the cameras.
“We are devastated by her disappearance.”
Behind him stood Roderick and Gertrude.
Perfectly dressed.
Perfectly grieving.
Perfectly lying.
Lucas had even announced the creation of a charity foundation in my name.
A foundation that would supposedly “honor my life.”
I almost laughed.
“He thinks I’m dead.”
Mr. Vance nodded.
“Exactly.”
He opened the black folder.
“Which gives us one advantage.”
Inside were bank transfers, forged documents, passport records, offshore accounts, and photographs recovered from Lucas’s phone.
And there was more.
Valery had recovered evidence from the yacht before authorities seized it.
Mr. Vance looked at me.
“Your inheritance is still protected.”
I slowly sat up.
“Then let’s make sure Lucas finds out I’m alive.”
Three days later, I walked into the ballroom.
Hundreds of journalists were there.
International cameras.
Business reporters.
Television crews.
Lucas stood at the podium.
“My beloved wife will always remain—”
He stopped.
The room went silent.
I walked through the doors.
Lucas stared at me.
His face turned completely white.
Gertrude dropped her champagne glass.
Roderick stepped backward.
Marcus whispered something.
I kept walking.
Then I stood directly in front of the podium.
