Chapter 7 - The Yacht Became a WeaponGrant’s voice crackled through the radio as if he were calling from another room instead of fleeing across open water.
The cabin smelled like perfume.
Her perfume.
Suddenly I remembered smelling it the previous morning outside the guest corridor.
Grant had told me I imagined it because I was nauseous.
Another lie.
There were clothes on the chair.
Women’s clothes.
A phone on the nightstand.
Two champagne glasses.
She had not merely boarded the yacht.
She had been comfortable here.
Waiting.
“How long?” I asked.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“Claire—”
“How long have you been sleeping with my husband?”
She lowered her head.
“Eight months.”
I laughed.
A strange, broken sound.
“My wedding was four days ago.”
“I know.”
“You stood beside me.”
“I know.”
“You helped button my dress.”
She covered her face.
“I know.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I became very still.
“Did you know he planned to kill me?”
Her silence answered.
My stomach turned.
“You knew.”
“He told me it was going to be an accident.”
“That sentence doesn’t make you sound better.”
“I didn’t think he meant—”
“You boarded the yacht secretly.”
Vanessa cried harder.
“I was scared.”
“For me?”
“For everything.”
I stepped closer.
“Did you know about the pills?”
She didn’t answer.
I slapped her.
Hard.
Her face snapped sideways.
Evelyn entered behind me.
“Claire.”
Vanessa touched her cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“Yes,” I said. “You did.”
The helicopter was much louder now.
Searchlights appeared over the water.
But I could barely hear them.
All I saw was Vanessa.
My closest friend.
“You knew he was drugging me.”
She started crying.
“Grant said it would just make you sleep.”
“And then he would throw me into the ocean.”
“I begged him not to.”
“You still came.”
“I thought I could stop him.”
“By hiding in a cabin?”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
Then she whispered, “There’s more.”
Of course there was.
There was always more.
“What?”
“He didn’t choose you because of the inheritance.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“He knew about the money before he met you.”
My skin went cold.
Vanessa walked to the nightstand and picked up her phone.
“He researched your family.”
“How?”
“I helped him.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because I introduced you.”
Memories rushed back.
Four years earlier.
A charity gala in Manhattan.
Vanessa insisting I attend.
Vanessa introducing me to Grant.
Vanessa teasing us when we began dating.
It had all been arranged.
“You set us up?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“At first, it was supposed to be business.”
“What business?”
Vanessa looked at Evelyn, then back at me.
“Grant owed people money.”
“How much?”
“Almost nine million.”
I stared.
“He told me his company was successful.”
“It wasn’t. He was borrowing from investors to cover old debts.”
“A Ponzi scheme?”
“Something close.”
“And you?”
“I invested.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course she had.
Vanessa came from money too, though not Callahan money.
She had always loved risk.
“When the losses started,” she said, “Grant needed someone wealthy enough to keep him alive.”
“So you gave him me.”
Her face crumpled.
“I didn’t think he would marry you.”
“You introduced a con man to your best friend because he needed money.”
“I thought he would convince you to invest.”
“And when he fell in love with me?”
Her expression changed.
“He didn’t.”
That sentence hurt more than I expected.
Vanessa saw it.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
“He liked you.”
“Stop.”
“Claire—”
“Did he ever love me?”
Vanessa said nothing.
I turned away.
There are betrayals that make you angry.
Others rearrange your memory.
Every kiss became suspicious.
Every vacation.
Every birthday gift.
Every late-night conversation.
Every time Grant had told me he loved the way I laughed.
Had any of it been real?
Evelyn stepped closer.
“We need to move.”
The Coast Guard helicopter circled overhead.
Lights swept across the yacht.
I looked at Vanessa’s phone.
“Give me that.”
She hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because I want your messages with Grant.”
Her eyes widened.
“I deleted some.”
“Cloud backup?”
“Yes.”
“Password.”
“Claire—”
“Password.”
She gave it to me.
I opened her messages.
Eight months.
Hundreds of texts.
Pictures.
Plans.
Some sexual.
Some financial.
Some horrifying.
Then I found one from three weeks before the wedding.
GRANT: Once we’re married, it’s done.
VANESSA: What exactly does “done” mean?
GRANT: You know.
VANESSA: I need you to say it.
GRANT: Claire dies. I inherit. We leave.
My hands began shaking.
Vanessa whispered, “I tried to talk him out of it.”
I scrolled.
There were messages where she did.
There were also messages where she asked when they could finally be together.
She had resisted murder.
But not enough to warn me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Grant said he’d expose me too.”
“For what?”
Vanessa’s face went pale.
“He used my accounts.”
“What accounts?”
“To move investor money.”
I looked at her.
“You helped him steal.”
“I didn’t know at first.”
“But later you did.”
“Yes.”
I handed the phone to Evelyn.
“Keep this.”
Vanessa grabbed my wrist.
“Claire, please.”
I looked down at her hand until she released me.
“Whatever happens to you now is not my decision.”
A Coast Guard voice boomed outside.
“This is the United States Coast Guard. All persons remain visible on deck.”
Evelyn looked relieved.
“We’re safe.”
But Devon appeared in the doorway.
His face was grim.
“No, we’re not.”
“What happened?” Evelyn asked.
“The bridge is locked.”
“Reed left.”
“No.”
Devon shook his head.
“He left the autopilot programmed.”
“So?”
“So we’re heading directly toward Saint Verena Reef.”
Evelyn went pale.
“How long?”
“Twenty-two minutes.”
My stomach dropped.
“That’s enough time to stop the yacht.”
Devon shook his head again.
“Not if Reed took the manual override key.”
The helicopter circled above us.
A rescue crew was coming.
But the Solstice was racing toward a reef at nineteen knots.
Then Evelyn’s radio crackled.
A man’s voice came through.
Grant.
He was calling from the tender.
“Claire?”
Every person in the room froze.
Grant laughed softly over the radio.
“You didn’t think I’d leave without saying goodbye, did you?”
I took the radio.
“What did you do?”
“I changed the plan.”
“What plan?”
He paused.
May you like
Then said:
“If I can’t inherit your money, nobody does.”
