Chapter 1 - The Locket in the Water
Monica Kane did not simply insult Helen Carter.
She ripped the old silver locket from the sixty-two-year-old cleaner’s neck and threw it into the ocean.
The sun was dropping behind the Caribbean horizon, turning the water beneath the Aurora Crown into sheets of copper and black. The newest flagship of Sterling Oceanic Cruises lay at anchor outside St. Thomas, surrounded by sailboats and smaller luxury vessels.
Helen had been cleaning the promenade deck when Monica stepped directly across the freshly washed section.
Her elegant green dress brushed her calves. Diamonds flashed at her ears. Her cream-colored shoes cost more than Helen earned in a month.
Monica looked down at a drop of dirty water near her heel.
“Do you know how much these shoes cost?”
Helen immediately moved the mop aside.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I put the warning sign there.”
Monica glanced at the yellow sign three feet away.
“I wasn’t asking about your sign.”
“I’ll dry the floor.”
“You people always say that after you make a mess.”
Helen lowered her head.
She had cleaned cruise ships for most of her adult life. She knew which passengers wanted apologies and which wanted submission.
Monica wanted submission.
Then Monica noticed the silver chain around Helen’s neck.
The locket was old, worn almost smooth by decades of Helen’s fingers touching it.
Monica’s mouth curled.
“And what is this? Company policy allows jewelry now?”
Helen instinctively covered it.
“It stays under my uniform.”
“Apparently not.”
Before Helen could step back, Monica reached forward and grabbed the chain.
Helen’s entire face changed.
“Please.”
Monica pulled.
The chain snapped.
“Please! That belonged to my daughter!”
Deck officer Lucas Rivera came through a service doorway at the far end of the promenade just as Monica opened her hand.
The oval silver locket rested on her palm.
Helen reached for it.
Monica stepped away.
“Maybe if you worried less about jewelry, you’d pay more attention to your work.”
“Give it back.”
It was the first time Helen had raised her voice.
Monica’s eyes narrowed.
“What did you say?”
Helen’s hands shook.
“Please give it back.”
Monica smiled.
Then she threw it over the glass railing.
“No!”
Helen lunged forward.
The locket caught the final light of sunset.
One bright silver flash.
Then nothing.
Helen grabbed the railing with both hands and stared down at the dark water.
Twenty-eight years disappeared beneath the surface.
The last thing Anna had given her.
Gone.
Behind her Monica said, “Maybe now you’ll remember your place.”
Lucas arrived.
“What happened?”
Helen could barely speak.
“She—”
Monica interrupted.
“She dropped something.”
Helen turned around.
“You threw it!”
Monica folded her arms.
“You’re confused.”
“I saw you.”
“You saw nothing.”
Another voice came from several feet away.
“No. She didn’t drop it.”
Monica froze.
She knew that voice.
So did Lucas.
A tall man in a charcoal jacket stepped from beside one of the observation windows.
Adrian Sterling had been traveling privately for three days.
No public appearances.
No photographs with passengers.
No announcement that the forty-seven-year-old billionaire chief executive and largest shareholder of Sterling Oceanic Cruises was aboard his own flagship.
He had wanted to observe the ship without ceremony.
Now his attention was fixed on Helen.
Monica’s confidence vanished.
“Adrian.”
He ignored her.
“What did the locket look like?”
Helen wiped her face.
“Silver.”
Her voice broke.
“Oval.”
Adrian took one step closer.
“Anything inside?”
Helen hesitated.
Then said, “The initials A.S.”
Every muscle in Adrian’s face seemed to stop.
Lucas looked between them.
Monica went pale.
Adrian’s voice changed.
“Where did you get it?”
Helen looked at the water.
“My daughter gave it to me twenty-eight years ago.”
Adrian swallowed.
“What was your daughter’s name?”
Helen finally looked into his face.
For the first time she noticed how much of his sister remained in him.
The eyes.
The shape of the mouth.
That small crease between his eyebrows when he was frightened but trying not to show it.
“Anna Sterling.”
Adrian stared at her.
The ship seemed to disappear around them.
The music from the upper deck.
The voices.
The wind.
Everything.
“That was my sister’s name.”
Helen nodded.
Monica stepped backward.
Adrian noticed.
“Why are you moving?”
“I’m not.”
He turned back to Helen.
“My sister died twenty-eight years ago.”
Helen’s lips trembled.
“No.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“There was an accident.”
“There was an attempted murder.”
Lucas stopped breathing.
Monica whispered, “This woman is insane.”
Helen looked at her.
“You knew the name before he said it.”
Monica’s eyes flashed.
Adrian slowly turned.
“Did you?”
“She heard us.”
“I didn’t say Anna’s name until after you went pale.”
Monica said nothing.
Adrian faced Helen again.
“If Anna survived, where is she?”
“I can’t tell you here.”
“Why?”
Helen glanced toward the security camera above the promenade.
Then at Monica.
Adrian followed her eyes.
He understood.
“Lucas.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Seal this section. Preserve every camera feed from the last hour. Nobody overwrites anything.”
Monica laughed nervously.
“This is ridiculous.”
Adrian finally looked directly at her.
“You assaulted a crew member.”
“She was disrespectful.”
“You tore jewelry from her body and threw it into the sea.”
“She’s lying about Anna.”
Adrian stepped toward his cousin.
“You seem remarkably frightened by a lie.”
Monica’s expression became hard.
“My father needs to know what she’s saying.”
Helen inhaled sharply.
Adrian caught it.
“Your father?”
Monica immediately regretted the words.
Walter Sterling.
Adrian’s seventy-seven-year-old uncle.
Chairman of Sterling Oceanic Holdings.
Brother of Adrian and Anna’s late father, Charles Sterling.
One of the most powerful men in the cruise industry.
Adrian turned toward Helen.
“Was Anna hiding from Walter?”
Helen’s silence answered before she did.
Then she whispered:
“Walter was only part of it.”
Adrian felt cold despite the tropical air.
“Who else?”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears.
“Your father.”
Adrian stared.
“My father spent twenty-eight years mourning Anna.”
“No.”
Helen shook her head.
“Charles Sterling spent twenty-eight years making sure you believed she was dead.”
Behind them, Monica quietly reached for her phone.
Lucas saw her.
“Ma’am. Put it down.”
Monica ignored him.
She typed one message before Lucas took the device.
Adrian looked at the screen.
She found him. Helen told Adrian.
The recipient was saved as:
DAD
May you like
And Walter Sterling replied almost immediately.
Do not let that woman leave the ship.
