. CHAPTER 4 — Before the Sirens
Vanessa had always been good at exits.
At fundraisers, she could leave a conversation seconds before it became boring. At business dinners, she vanished before bills arrived. At family arguments, she cried first, apologized last, and somehow made everyone else feel guilty.
But this time there was nowhere elegant to go.
The sirens were closer now. The security guards stood near the front doors. Mrs. Alvarez had gone for the recording. Ethan was beside Khloe like a wall built from rage and fear.
Vanessa’s gaze flicked toward the glass doors that opened to the indoor pool wing.
Khloe noticed.
So did Ethan.
“Don’t,” he said.
Vanessa raised both hands, suddenly soft and wounded. “Ethan, please. You know me.”
“I do,” he replied. “That’s the problem.”
Her eyes shone. “I loved you before she did.”
Khloe closed her eyes. There it was: the truth Vanessa had dressed in charity work and designer perfume for years. Not concern for the family. Not loyalty. Ownership.
Ethan did not soften. “Love doesn’t kick a pregnant woman.”
Vanessa’s face twisted. “She stole my life!”
“No,” Ethan said. “She exposed it.”
Mrs. Alvarez returned with the tablet clutched in both hands. The screen was already awake. A paused video showed Vanessa standing over Khloe, red dress bright against white marble.
Vanessa lunged.
Not at Khloe this time, but at the tablet.
Ethan stepped between them. Vanessa collided with his shoulder and stumbled backward. Her heel slipped on the polished floor. She grabbed for the pool-wing door handle and yanked it open, half-running, half-falling into the bright glass corridor.
“Stop her!” one guard shouted.
Vanessa, panicked, turned to scream something back. Her heel caught on the threshold. Her arms windmilled once, ridiculous and tragic.
Then she crashed through the lightweight decorative panel beside the pool entrance and splashed into the shallow edge of the indoor pool.
No one laughed.
Even karma, Khloe thought dimly, had bad timing.
Ethan turned away from Vanessa’s furious coughing and bent over Khloe. “Stay with me.”
Khloe tried to smile. “That was… dramatic.”
A broken laugh escaped him, almost a sob. “You’re making jokes now?”
“If I don’t,” she whispered, “I’ll start screaming.”
May you like
The ambulance crew rushed through the front doors seconds later.
And for the first time that day, Khloe let go.
