The astonishing thing is that she sounds sincere. But Piper went into the water ages ago; Viv has to know there’s no way she’s still alive out there. I peer at Viv’s face in the dark. Something’s wrong—it’s hard to pinpoint, but her expression is almost feverish.
Piper’s phone starts to dim, and I quickly tap on the screen to wake it back up out of habit. As I do, I notice two little pillars tucked away on the upper right-hand corner of the screen next to the battery life symbol.
Piper’s phone has two bars of service.
I have to literally bite my lip to keep from exclaiming, to keep from asking Viv if her phone has a signal too. I know mine doesn’t—it proclaimed “No Service” when I used it as a light to look through Piper’s bedside drawer. But Piper must have a different provider, one that somehow has a weak signal even in this storm.
Which means I have a slight advantage. As long as Viv doesn’t realize it. She’s not making any moves to confiscate the phone yet, but she’s seen the video. There’s no way she’ll let me leave with it.
“What’s going on?” Viv asks, interrupting my vertiginous thoughts. “Your face is doing something weird.” She steps to the side, as if to move around the bed.
I hold my hand up. “I realized something.”
“Oh?” Viv pauses, watching me.
My brain cycles through different options, trying to figure out what will distract her enough to allow me time to figure out what to do with Piper’s phone. “I know why you hired me. You thought I’d be the one girl Trey Bardi would have no interest in. Not on the level of the other girls onEmpress, right?”
“Of course not,” Viv replies, shaking her head. “I hired you because you were exactly what we were looking for. A breath of fresh air. A rebranding. Or so I thought.”
I make sure to keep my eyes on Viv as I slowly reach out and pull Piper’s phone closer to me on the floor. The video is up on the screen, dark and paused. I have limited time and few options. I could try to place a call to 911, pray it goes through, pray whoever hears our garbled voices doesn’t hang up, busy with other calls during the storm. Or I could try something different.
“Well, if you were hoping he wouldn’t hit on me, I have bad news for you,” I say, only half-present in the conversation now. “I’m surprised Carl didn’t try something either since he was messing around with both Fiona and Ashley.”
“Please,” Viv scoffs. “They were distractions after Elena.”
My mouth forms a grim line. I had suspected this. I saw Carl’s text to Elena—not that I’m going to reveal to Viv that I have Elena’s phone too. “So Carl was also with her?” I confirm.
“Elena loved him,” Viv says. “They met when she first moved down here and there was an instant connection, but when shewanted to get serious, he freaked out. Cheated on her with Fiona, and then decided he wanted to date Ashley instead. When Ashley dumped him, Carl went back to Fiona.”
“And then he cheated on Fiona with Ashley,” I outline. “I’m sorry he’s dead, but he was gross.”
“Yeah, great investor though,” Viv says. She smiles. “Elena was the one who finally roped him in. After her, he got veryinvolvedwith this company.”
“For someone who considers their coworkers their family, the level of incest you’ve cultivated on this boat knows no bounds,” I say, resuming my sly tapping on the phone. I’ve hit the share icon at the bottom of the screen. Glancing down, I tap on “Messages.”
“Don’t judge. It works for us.”
“Does it? Elena, Carl, and Piper aredead, Viv. Did it ever occur to you that’s because of how things are run around here?”
“Piper isn’t dead,” Viv hisses.
I pull up a blank message on the screen, tucking the phone slightly under the bed frame so Viv can’t see what I’m doing. My eyes flicker back and forth from her to the screen, and I hope it’s dark enough that she can’t tell what I’m doing.
Carefully, painstakingly slowly, I tap in the ten-digit phone number that is tattooed on my brain, memorized the same way I memorized my Social Security number and zip code.
The video is big. I have no idea if it will go through, but I have to try. I hit the “Send” button.
“I think you need to face the facts about Piper,” I continue.
“You want to know the real reason I hired you?” Viv spits, trying to change the topic.
“Go for it,” I say, glad for her distraction.
“Because you were desperate,” Viv says. “Desperate and pathetic. Like all the others were when they came to me. I can work with desperate. In fact, I prefer it. It makes it easier to mold obedient and prosperous employees. You might not agree with how I run things onEmpress, but I amgoodat my job. I’ve made this company millions, and I’ve made our girls social media stars. All I ask for in return is loyalty.”
“Oh, sure,” I reply, voice heavy with sarcasm, chancing a glance down to see a thin green bar creep across the text message screen, indicating the video is struggling to send. “A deal with the devil. I’m familiar with that trope. I do read a lot, you know. You offer fame in exchange for our souls. No big deal.”
“I take care of my girls,” Viv snaps.
