Chapter 2 - The Girl in the Trees
Thomas Mercer knew something was wrong before Margaret finished speaking.
Not because of what she said.
Because of what she did not say.
“Where are you?” he demanded.
“North Ridge overlook.”
“Why was Hailey anywhere near North Ridge?”
Margaret hesitated.
Only half a second.
But Thomas heard it.
“She wanted to see the view.”
“With parachute equipment?”
Margaret looked toward the abandoned training building.
“I thought it would make her feel brave.”
Thomas’s voice changed.
“What happened?”
“She slipped.”
“Did you see her land?”
“No.”
“Did the parachute deploy?”
“I don’t know.”
Thomas ended the call.
Margaret stared at the screen.
For the first time that afternoon, her confidence slipped.
Thomas had not comforted her.
He had not said it was an accident.
He had asked questions.
Margaret hurried toward the SUV.
Twenty minutes later, sheriff’s deputies, mountain rescue volunteers and paramedics were moving across North Ridge.
Hailey’s parents arrived together.
Grant Mercer jumped from the vehicle before it fully stopped.
“Where is she?”
His face was white.
Margaret ran toward him.
“Grant—”
“Where is my daughter?”
“They’re searching.”
Grant looked toward the cliff.
His wife, Elise, stood frozen behind him.
She stared at Margaret.
“What was Hailey doing up here?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
Elise stepped closer.
“What mistake?”
“I thought she might enjoy wearing the equipment. We weren’t actually going to jump.”
“Then why was she standing at the edge?”
Margaret reached for her.
“Elise—”
Elise stepped away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Grant turned.
“Elise.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“Our ten-year-old daughter is somewhere below that cliff.”
Thomas arrived seconds later.
At seventy-three, he moved more slowly than his son, but there was nothing weak about him.
He walked straight past Margaret.
“Who has command?”
A deputy pointed toward a rescue coordinator.
Thomas joined him.
Margaret watched her husband.
The years between them suddenly seemed enormous.
For months Thomas had been distant.
Suspicious.
Asking about accounts.
Looking through old corporate files.
She had told herself he would never act against her.
Not after forty-six years of marriage.
But Hailey had seen the documents.
That changed everything.
A radio crackled.
“Possible visual!”
Grant turned.
Everyone stopped.
The rescue coordinator raised his radio.
“Repeat.”
“We have a child in the trees approximately two hundred vertical feet below the eastern shelf.”
Elise collapsed to her knees.
Grant grabbed her.
“Alive?”
The answer took three unbearable seconds.
“Movement confirmed.”
Elise screamed.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Grant began crying openly.
Margaret did not move.
Alive.
The word echoed inside her.
Alive.
A rescuer descended toward Hailey.
When he reached her, she was curled beneath the damaged parachute canopy.
“Hailey?”
She opened her eyes.
“My grandpa…”
“You’re safe.”
“My grandmother…”
The rescuer checked her breathing.
“Don’t move yet.”
Hailey grabbed his sleeve.
“She pushed me.”
The rescuer froze.
“What?”
Hailey started shaking.
“She pushed me.”
He looked up toward the cliff.
Then toward the camera attached to Hailey’s damaged helmet.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to explain anything else right now.”
But Hailey would not release him.
“She said I had to jump.”
“Okay.”
“I said no.”
“I hear you.”
“She pushed me.”
The rescuer keyed his radio.
His voice became careful.
“Command, be advised. Patient is conscious. We may have additional circumstances regarding the fall.”
Thomas heard those words over the radio.
So did Grant.
So did Margaret.
Elise looked at her mother-in-law.
Margaret’s face remained composed.
“What does that mean?” Grant asked.
Nobody answered.
An hour later, Hailey was lifted from the ravine.
Her left ankle was fractured.
Her shoulder was dislocated.
She had cuts along her arms and a mild concussion.
But she was alive.
When the rescue team carried her toward the helicopter, Elise ran beside the stretcher.
“Baby, I’m here.”
Hailey opened her eyes.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Dad?”
“Right here,” Grant said.
Then Hailey saw Margaret standing behind them.
Her entire body stiffened.
The heart monitor accelerated.
“No.”
Elise leaned closer.
“What?”
Hailey began fighting against the straps.
“No! Don’t let her near me!”
Grant looked over his shoulder.
Margaret stared back.
“Hailey,” Grant said, “Grandma’s just—”
“She pushed me!”
Everything stopped.
Even the deputies nearby seemed to freeze.
Grant looked at his mother.
Margaret slowly shook her head.
“She’s confused.”
Hailey screamed.
“I’m not!”
Thomas said nothing.
He simply looked at his wife.
Margaret reached for him.
“Thomas, she hit her head.”
Thomas stepped away.
Then a rescue technician approached.
He held a clear evidence bag.
Inside was Hailey’s cracked helmet camera.
“We found this attached to her gear.”
Margaret’s eyes shifted toward it.
The movement lasted less than a second.
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But Thomas saw it.
And for the first time in forty-six years, he looked at his wife as though she were a stranger.
