Where is she?
I’m afraid to leave her, but Connor is waiting, so I remind myself that Mom is stable. Nothing has changed for the past seven hours.
I walk out of the room, leave the ICU, and find Connor in the outer hall, texting. “What’s going on?” I ask.
He holds up his screen. “You haven’t seen this?”
I move close, and he restarts a video. It’s a spot from the local evening news, a piece about Mom’s accident and an interview with the two guys who saved her. They’re standing on the viewing platform at Peggy’s Cove, and the ocean is raging in the background. One guy is tall with a buzz cut, and the other is short and stocky and wears glasses with a gray wool beanie.
“We saw her in the water,” the tall one says. “Then she went under, and we just kept watching, hoping to see her surface. Then a huge wave crashed on the rocks, and she came flying out!” He gestures wildly with his hands and points toward the lighthouse. “She landed right over there. When the wave receded, we had time to jump down and drag her to the dry rocks. We checked her pulse, but she wasn’t breathing, so we started CPR.”
“Where did you learn how to do that?”
“We’re both in training to be firefighters.”
“That’s fortunate for the woman today,” the reporter replies.
“For sure. And the man from the Sou’Wester was a retired marine, so I guess her lucky star was shining.”
Another wave explodes behind them. “What about her husband?” the reporter asks. “He must’ve been incredibly grateful to you.”
The shorter guy in the hat shrugs. “He was in shock, I think. He wasn’t there when we pulled her out. I’m not sure where he went, but he stood back and let us do our thing.”
The reporter nods. “I appreciate you talking to me. You’re a couple of heroes. I hope you know that.”
“We just did what anyone else would’ve done,” the tall one replies.
Connor swipes at his phone to clear the video and gives me a look. “Except for our dad. Allhedid was stand back and watch.”
I’m starting to feel sick to my stomach, so I move to a chair and sit down. “They made him sound like a coward, but he went for help.”
Connor sits in the chair beside me. “Yeah.Weknow that, but TikTok has been blowing up.” He starts scrolling. “Look at this. People know him as a celebrity chef, so they’re all over it, saying he might have pushed her.”
I wrench back in shock. “What?”
Connor keeps reading. “One person posted about the electrical fire at the restaurant, and now everyone’s talking about how he must have done it for the publicity, and that he wants Mom’s life insurance.”
I pull a face in disbelief and lean close to look at his phone. “You’re joking.”
“No, look, it’s everywhere.”
He hands me his phone, and I scroll through a long thread on X with the hashtag PeggysCoveMurder.
“This isn’t happening.” I rake my fingers through my hair.
“It is,” Connor replies. “And Dad has no idea.”
I slide him a look. “Don’t be so sure about that. He’s been on his phone constantly for the past hour. He’s barely looked up.”
Connor’s eyes are bloodshot, his expression fraught with apprehension. “But there’s no way he did that, right? You don’t believe it. Do you?”
“Of course not! He hasn’t been the best dad lately, but that doesn’t mean he tried to murder Mom. That’s insane!”
“But what happened?” Connor asks. “Why did she get swept off the rocks? She was always so careful. And why would he take her there after a storm, when the waves are so dangerous? He never takes time off work. Not even for my games!”
Connor is angry, and so am I. Mom is bruised and bloodied and in a coma. We almost lost her today. We might still lose her.
My emotions spiral, and I burst into tears. Connor wraps his arm around me, and I cling fast to him.
