Chapter 2 - The Woman Beneath the FallsClaire’s body wanted to breathe.
Every instinct screamed at her to inhale, but there was only water.
She kicked upward.
Or what she believed was upward.
The impact had destroyed her sense of direction. Light spun above her, then beside her. Her shoulder burned. Something warm ran along the side of her face, immediately washed away by the freezing current.
Claire stretched out one hand.
Her fingers struck stone.
Panic exploded through her.
She clawed along the rock while the current dragged her sideways.
Then her head broke the surface.
Claire sucked in air.
The breath became a choking cough as another wave crashed over her face.
She tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
Raven Falls was louder from below than she could ever have imagined. The thunder filled everything, turning the world into vibration and white spray.
Claire searched desperately for the shore.
There was no shore.
Only rock.
The pool narrowed downstream into a violent channel between two cliffs.
The current pulled her toward it.
Claire kicked.
Pain shot through her ribs.
She reached for a jagged stone near the surface.
Missed.
Reached again.
This time her fingers caught a root growing between cracks.
Her body snapped sideways.
She screamed.
For several seconds she hung there, half submerged, fighting water that seemed determined to tear her arms from their sockets.
Then the root began coming loose.
“No.”
Claire wrapped both hands around it.
“Please.”
The root ripped free.
She disappeared downstream.
Branches tore at her jacket. Her knee struck something underwater. The current rolled her onto her back, and for a few seconds Claire saw nothing but bright blue sky rushing past above the cliffs.
Then she remembered Ethan’s face.
Cold.
Calm.
Deliberate.
He hadn’t lost his temper.
He hadn’t pushed her accidentally.
He had waited until she closed her eyes.
Complete trust.
That had been part of the plan.
Claire’s grief transformed into fury.
She kicked harder.
The channel widened ahead, and on the right she saw a shelf of gray rock extending into the water.
Claire reached.
Her fingers scraped stone.
The current dragged her past.
“No!”
She twisted around and caught the edge with one hand.
Her shoulder screamed.
Claire held on.
Slowly, painfully, she dragged herself onto the shelf.
She collapsed facedown.
For several minutes she could do nothing except cough water and blood onto the stone.
Her entire body shook.
When Claire finally rolled onto her back, the sky looked impossibly beautiful.
She began crying.
Not because she had almost died.
Because Ethan had tried to kill her.
Memories arrived without permission.
Ethan cooking dinner in her kitchen.
Ethan kissing her forehead while she worked.
Ethan telling her he loved the small line beside her mouth that appeared when she smiled.
Ethan lying beside her afterward, tracing circles across her bare shoulder and whispering that he had never felt safer with anyone.
Had all of it been fake?
Claire pushed herself upright.
Her backpack was gone.
Her phone had been inside.
Wallet.
Car keys.
Medication.
Everything.
Then another memory returned.
Ethan on the phone.
It’s done.
He hadn’t simply decided to murder her.
Someone had been waiting to hear those words.
Claire looked upstream.
From her position she couldn’t see the summit.
She didn’t know about the photographer.
She didn’t know someone had witnessed Ethan shove her.
All Claire knew was that the man she loved thought she was dead.
And for the moment, that might be the only advantage she had.
She tried standing.
Her left leg buckled.
Claire fell against the cliff.
“Damn it.”
She tested it again.
Painful, but not broken.
Probably.
She began following the river downstream.
Every movement hurt.
After twenty minutes she heard something different beneath the roar of the water.
A voice.
Claire stopped.
“Hello?”
She listened.
Nothing.
Then—
“HEY!”
A man.
Claire stumbled forward.
“HELP!”
A figure appeared between the trees on the opposite bank.
He was perhaps sixty, broad-shouldered, gray beard, red hiking shell.
The man stared at Claire.
“Jesus Christ.”
Claire tried to answer.
Her knees gave out.
The man crossed the shallow section downstream and reached her minutes later.
“My name’s Sam,” he said, kneeling beside her. “Don’t move.”
Claire grabbed his sleeve.
“My boyfriend…”
Sam glanced upstream.
“Is he hurt too?”
Claire stared into the stranger’s eyes.
“No.”
Her teeth were chattering so hard she could barely form the words.
“He pushed me.”
Sam went completely still.
“What?”
“He tried to kill me.”
Sam’s expression changed.
Claire expected disbelief.
Instead he looked frightened.
Not for her.
For something behind her.
Claire turned.
High on the ridge across the river stood a dark figure.
Watching them.
Sam whispered, “Is that him?”
Claire’s blood turned cold.
She couldn’t make out the face.
May you like
But she recognized the dark hiking jacket.
And then the figure began moving down the trail toward them.
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