Chapter 1 - The Push
The push came so hard Rachel never had time to scream.
One second, she was standing beside the Hawthorne estate pool with one hand under her eight-month belly, smiling at a guest who had just asked whether the baby ever slept. The next, the blue water rushed up at her face.
"RACHEL!"
She hit the pool flat on her back. Cold swallowed her. Her white dress ballooned around her legs, heavy and useless. For one terrifying second, she could not tell which way was up.
My baby.
Rachel kicked, but panic stole the air from her lungs.
Then an arm locked around her waist.
Jason.
He dragged her up through the surface. Rachel broke into the air coughing, choking, clawing at his shoulders.
"I've got you," he said. "I've got you. Look at me."
Guests rushed to the edge. Two men helped Jason lift her onto the stone patio. Rachel curled around her belly, shivering so hard her teeth clicked.
"The baby," she gasped.
Jason dropped to his knees. "Rachel, what hurts?"
"I don't know. I don't know."
Then the baby kicked.
Rachel sobbed with relief.
Jason pressed his forehead to hers. "Okay. Okay, she's moving. We're going to the hospital anyway."
Rachel looked across the pool.
Vanessa Hawthorne stood beside a tipped champagne glass, perfectly dry. Jason's mother wore silver silk and a calm expression that did not belong on the face of a woman who had just watched her pregnant daughter-in-law fall into a pool.
Rachel pointed at her.
"You pushed me."
The party went silent.
Vanessa blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Both hands. On my back."
Jason stood slowly. "Mom?"
"She slipped," Vanessa said. "She's frightened and confused."
"I saw you," Mia said from near the bar.
Vanessa's head snapped toward her daughter.
Mia stepped forward. "You walked behind Rachel. You looked around. Then you pushed her."
"Mia, stop."
"No."
Vanessa's smile cracked. "You weren't supposed to fall like that!"
Jason froze.
Rachel stared at her. "Supposed to?"
Vanessa seemed to hear her own words too late.
"I misspoke."
"No," Jason said. His voice had gone flat. "You expected something to happen."
Vanessa turned toward the house.
Her purse slid from her shoulder and struck the patio. Lipstick, keys, a wallet, and a folded medical packet spilled out.
Rachel saw her own name printed across the top.
Jason picked it up.
"Why do you have Rachel's prenatal records?"
Vanessa lunged. "Give me that."
An ultrasound picture slipped free.
Rachel recognized it instantly. "That's ours."
Jason turned it over.
Handwriting covered the back.
A date. A time. And six words.
Jason read them twice.
Rachel grabbed his arm. "What does it say?"
He looked at his mother, then at Rachel.
May you like
His face went white.
"It says, 'The pool wasn't Plan A.'"
