Chapter 1 - The Darkness
“You should have kept your mouth shut!”
Seven-year-old Noah barely had time to scream before Vanessa forced him down beside the recovery bed.
He landed on the padded floor, frightened but unhurt, still clutching his old blue toy airplane against his chest.
The medical monitor erupted into frantic beeping.
Outside the superyacht’s windows, rain hammered the black sea. Lightning flashed against the glass, illuminating Vanessa’s elegant cream blouse and the cold fury on her face.
“Stop!” Noah cried. “Dad said I have to stay in bed!”
Five days earlier, Noah had undergone an emergency appendectomy in Nassau. Daniel Mercer had canceled every meeting on his calendar and turned the medical suite aboard the family’s 240-foot yacht, Aurelia, into a private recovery room.
Daniel had believed his son was safest there.
Until now.
Vanessa bent toward the boy.
“If your father finds out what you saw, everything changes.”
The door slammed open.
Daniel stood there in his dark formal suit.
He froze.
“Noah?”
Then he saw his son on the floor.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”
Daniel crossed the room in three strides and pushed himself between his wife and his child.
He dropped to one knee.
“Noah, look at me. Are you hurt?”
Noah shook his head violently.
“She threw me.”
Daniel lifted him carefully and placed him back onto the bed.
“Daniel,” Vanessa said, “he was trying to climb down.”
“You were standing over him.”
“He panicked.”
“I saw your face.”
Nurse Grace Holloway rushed into the suite as another alarm sounded.
“What happened?”
Vanessa answered instantly.
“He had another outburst. I was preventing a fall.”
Noah stared at her.
“She’s lying.”
Grace’s expression hardened.
Daniel slowly stood.
“My son is terrified of you.”
Vanessa’s confidence cracked for half a second.
Then Daniel noticed something beneath the metal bed rail.
A small black digital recorder.
Vanessa followed his eyes.
Color drained from her face.
“Daniel… don’t.”
His gaze moved back to her.
“Don’t what?”
Grace stepped beside Noah.
Daniel reached toward the recorder.
“What did Noah find?”
Vanessa’s breathing changed.
“You don’t want to hear that.”
“Now I have to.”
Lightning flooded the room white.
Vanessa lunged forward.
The yacht went dark.
Noah screamed.
Daniel felt Vanessa collide with his shoulder.
“Grace!” he shouted.
“I have Noah!”
Emergency lights should have activated immediately.
They didn’t.
For six long seconds there was nothing but darkness, rain and the sound of people moving.
Then dim red backup lights flickered on.
Vanessa stood beside the wall.
The recorder was gone.
Daniel looked under the bed.
Nothing.
“You took it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were reaching for it.”
“I was reaching for Noah.”
Noah’s small hand caught Daniel’s sleeve.
“Dad.”
Daniel turned.
His son still held the battered blue airplane Daniel had bought him at an airport gift shop after Claire died three years earlier.
Noah whispered, “She got the recorder.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
Then Noah added, “But she didn’t get what was inside.”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“What does that mean?” Daniel asked.
Noah pulled the airplane against his chest.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Noah.”
Daniel blocked her.
“Stay where you are.”
Grace touched the call button connected to the bridge.
It was dead.
Daniel stared at it.
The medical suite had redundant electrical systems.
A storm could interrupt the main generator.
It should not have disabled the emergency circuit and internal communications simultaneously.
Someone had planned this.
He looked at Vanessa.
She looked afraid now.
Not angry.
Afraid.
Daniel pulled out his satellite phone.
No signal.
Vanessa whispered, “Daniel, whatever you think is happening, you’re making it worse.”
“For who?”
She said nothing.
A knock sounded at the cabin door.
Three slow knocks.
Then a man’s voice came through.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel recognized it.
Julian Reed.
His company’s chief financial officer.
And Vanessa’s closest ally on the board.
Julian tried the handle.
Locked.
“Daniel,” he called. “Vanessa asked me to come down.”
Daniel turned toward his wife.
“You called Julian?”
Vanessa’s lips parted.
“No.”
Noah began trembling again.
Daniel noticed.
“What is it?”
The boy stared at the door.
“He was with her.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Daniel crouched beside him.
“When?”
Noah whispered, “When they said you were going to lose everything.”
Outside, Julian knocked again.
May you like
And this time he said something that made Daniel’s blood run cold.
“Vanessa, we need the drive before the generators come back.”
