Page 18 of Secrets in the Deep

Almost there.

She eyed the sixth rock. This one was farther away, the water dark and deep beneath it.

One single breath and she jumped across.

All she did was touch it and her foot slipped beneath her. It wasn’t even her knee’s doing, there was just no grip.

She cried out, her arms shooting up as she swung wide in the harness.

Shouts thundered through the air from the crew, but she only heard them for a second before the harness snapped and she dropped into the water. The world silenced as cold, icy water swallowed her, throwing her back to the worst day of her life.

Tears streamed down Emily’s cheeks as she drove, the rain blinding her. A voice in her head told her to pull over. The storm was fierce and there wasn’t enough visibility. She could barely see the bridge ahead.

But the pain in her chest, the one that came from a heart being torn in two, took away her ability to think and process and make smart decisions.

Her phone rang from the middle console.

For a second she wondered if it was him. Maybe he was calling to say he’d made a mistake. That he still loved her.

One glance at the screen. Hope crashed and burned.

Not Ryan. Her mother.

A frustrated cry cut from her throat. Before she could think better of it, she rolled down the window and threw the phone out.

She’d only looked away from the road for a second. A single, careless second.

That was all it took.

She glanced back at the road.

Headlights.

A truck.

He was too close, over the center line.

She jerked the wheel to avoid the hit. Her car slid, tires losing their grip on the wet road.

Her stomach dropped and she screamed as her car barreled through the guardrail.

The world tilted. She was only airborne for a moment before water exploded over the windshield. Emily lurched forward in her seat, her left knee smashing against the dashboard.

Pain shot through her leg like a bolt of lightning. It was so intense that it darkened her world and made her scream.

Then freezing water poured into the car through the open window.

The car began to sink.

No, no, no!

Water climbed past her ankles.

She fumbled for the seat belt.

Click.

The belt released, but fresh pain burst through her knee at the movement. More water rushed in.