CHAPTER ONE
SLOANE
A hand breaksthe surface of the water, fingers clawing for something solid that isn’t there before they slip under again.
“Eden! Eden, help me!” my sister, Katherine, calls. “Please, I can’t get her out!”
Katherine thrashes beside the sinking figure, her movements panicked as she reaches forward again. Her palms smack the water hard, hair sticking to her face as she tries one more time to drag the body out.
“Don’t just stand there! Jump in and help me!”
Her desperation should send me running, but the world twists in front of me, bending and doubling. The vodka shots I had earlier churn in my stomach until I can’t tell how many bodies are in the water. Two? Three? Maybe more.
Everything smears together, the night blurred like wet paint, my clothes drenched and clinging to my skin.
“Eden!”
But my feet barely cooperate. The ground tilts beneath me, the patio lights stretching into long streaks across my vision. When I try to move, I slip instead.
“Eden, please! She’s dying! I can’t get her out alone!”
Then she’s beside me, looping her arms around me and holding me upright.
I don’t even remember her climbing out of the water. I rub at my eyes, blinking a few times before I gape at the pool, and I’m almost sure the other body is out now.
What the hell is happening?
“You didn’t mean it,” Katherine says. “It was an accident. You were drunk. You didn’t know what you were doing. Are you listening?”
She grabs my face and shakes me, but I can barely pay attention to her as something drags my vision back to the water.
“Wh-what happened?”
“Don’t you remember?” Her face shifts in and out of focus. “You drowned her. She’s dead.”
What? Drowned who?
No. I-I couldn’t have.
Then pieces of it start flashing through my head. The two of us screaming. Her shoving me. Me pushing her back.
Then nothing. The rest is gone.
“I’ll help you. No one will know. I’ll protect you.” Katherine’s voice turns almost gentle, like she can smooth this over and wipe away whatever I’ve done.
But I’m a killer. And nothing will ever erase that.
Her arms tighten around me, and all I can think is that she never hugs me.
“We’ll make it look like an accident,” she says. “I’ll take care of it. You’re okay, Eden. Just breathe. Let big sis handle it.”
A broken sound rips out of me before the whole scene goes dark.
My body jolts upward before I even register moving. My head snaps out of the bathwater on a gasp that scrapes my throat.
Air rushes in fast and hot, burning all the way down, and my hands clamp around the sides of the tub, clinging to the porcelain while the memory still grips the inside of my skull. Water runs down my face in blurred lines until I can’t tell what’s bathwater and what’s tears. I stare at the ceiling, trying to calm down, but the memory stays lodged just behind my eyes, refusing to let go.
She saved me that night. From what happened. From myself. And I ruined everything anyway.
