Chapter 1 - The Scarf on the Rocks
Claire Bennett woke to the taste of river water and blood.
For a few seconds, she had no idea where she was. Everything came in pieces: cold stone under her cheek, white water hammering past her boots, branches clawing at the gray sky.
Then memory hit her all at once.
Vanessa's hand on her arm.
Vanessa's terrified face.
The shove.
Claire tried to move and pain tore through her ribs.
"Don't," a tiny voice whispered.
Claire forced her eyes open.
A little girl crouched beside her in the reeds. Seven, maybe eight. Pale face. Dark hair. Mud on her knees. She wore an oversized blue sweater and no coat, even though the afternoon air cut like ice.
The child touched Claire's wrist with two fingers.
"Claire," she whispered.
Claire's heart stumbled.
"How do you know my name?"
The girl looked toward the trees.
"You have to go before she comes back."
"Who? Vanessa?"
The girl's eyes widened.
A man's voice echoed faintly from upstream.
"CLAIRE!"
Ethan.
Relief nearly broke her.
"That's my husband," Claire said. "Stay with me. He'll help you too."
The child stood so quickly she almost slipped.
"No."
"Wait. What's your name?"
The girl backed away.
"She said he can never see me."
Then she turned and ran into the trees.
Claire tried to call after her, but her chest seized.
Minutes later, Ethan came crashing through the brush with two estate workers and a rescue medic behind him. His face went white when he saw her.
"Oh my God. Claire."
He dropped to his knees and grabbed her hand.
"Don't move. I called rescue. You're okay. You're okay."
Claire looked past him, searching the tree line.
"There was a girl."
"What girl?"
"A child. She found me first. She knew my name."
Ethan stared at her.
Behind him, Vanessa appeared between the trees.
Her cream coat was spotless.
Too spotless.
Claire's eyes locked on her.
"She pushed me."
Ethan turned slowly.
Vanessa froze.
Then she gave a tiny, stunned laugh.
"Claire, you fell. I wasn't even near you."
"You grabbed my arm."
"You hit your head."
"I heard your phone call."
That did it.
For half a second, Vanessa's face emptied.
Then the expression vanished.
"What phone call?"
Claire tried to sit up.
"The one about the child."
Ethan looked from Claire to Vanessa.
"What child?"
Vanessa's lips parted.
Before she could answer, one of the estate workers shouted from higher up the bank.
"Mr. Bennett!"
He held something snagged on a thorn bush.
A small silver bracelet.
Ethan took it.
His entire body went still.
Claire saw the inscription before he closed his fist around it.
E.B.
Ethan Benjamin Bennett.
And when he finally looked at Vanessa, his voice had changed.
"Where did you get this?"
Vanessa didn't answer.
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She just stared at the bracelet as if a dead person had reached out of the river.
