Chapter 8 - The Deal Ryan Offered His Pregnant Wife
Leonard kept the gun trained on me.
The unlocked door stood open behind him.
Beyond it, the passage glowed with emergency lights.
“Move,” he said.
Daniel tried to rise.
Leonard aimed at him without looking.
“You already took one bullet for her.”
“It barely touched me.”
“The next one will not.”
I placed myself between them.
“Where is Emily?”
Leonard’s expression did not change.
“Upper deck.”
“Alive?”
“For the moment.”
Vanessa moved toward the doorway.
Leonard blocked her.
“Ryan asked for Clara.”
“I’m not staying in a fuel-filled engine room.”
“He may have another plan for you.”
“That is exactly why I am leaving.”
She shoved past him.
Leonard caught her arm.
Vanessa swung the champagne bottle she had carried below without my noticing. The glass struck his wrist.
The pistol fired into the ceiling.
Daniel lunged.
He drove his shoulder into Leonard’s side, and the two men crashed against the workbench. The computer fell, cables snapping free.
I grabbed Vanessa’s wrist.
“Run.”
We reached the passage together.
She pulled away from me.
“Do not pretend we’re allies.”
“You watched Ryan push me.”
“You married him.”
The cruelty of the answer stunned me.
Then fear twisted her face.
“He said you would never give him control. He said you were ruining everything.”
“So he promised you my life.”
“He promised me freedom.”
“From what?”
She looked toward the deck above.
“From Leonard.”
A shout came from the engine room.
Daniel cried out.
I turned back.
Vanessa caught my arm.
“If you go back, Leonard kills you.”
“If I leave Daniel, Leonard kills him.”
“You do not even trust him.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I still know the difference between suspicion and murder.”
I broke free and returned.
Daniel lay beside the workbench with Leonard’s knee against his chest. The pistol had slid beneath the engine housing.
I grabbed the brass fire extinguisher from the wall and discharged it into Leonard’s face.
White powder exploded across his glasses.
He recoiled.
Daniel rolled free.
Vanessa stared from the doorway, shocked.
“Move!” I shouted.
We escaped into the passage.
Leonard stumbled after us, coughing.
The engine room door closed automatically behind him.
Then locked.
Ryan’s voice came through the intercom.
“One problem contained.”
Leonard slammed both fists against the glass.
“You need me!”
Ryan answered, “I needed your accounts.”
The hallway tilted as the yacht turned toward shore.
Daniel leaned against the wall.
“We have to reach the bridge.”
“Why?”
“Ryan’s remote system can be overridden manually.”
“Can you do it?”
“If he has not changed the access codes.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“He changed every code after Clara announced the baby.”
I looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“I watched him.”
The statement landed between us.
“How long have you been sleeping with my husband?”
Her eyes shifted.
“Eight months.”
My pregnancy was seven months along.
“You were with him before we knew about the baby.”
“Yes.”
“And when I found out?”
“He told me the baby accelerated the schedule.”
A cold stillness settled over me.
This was not a desperate decision after an affair.
Ryan had courted me, married me, and planned my death while building another life beside mine.
We climbed the stairs.
At the upper deck entrance, Ryan stood alone.
His sunglasses were gone. Wind tore through his dark hair. He held his smartphone in one hand and a black remote in the other.
Emily knelt near the railing with her wrists bound.
A red mark crossed her cheek.
Ryan looked at my wet clothes, scraped hands, and swollen belly.
For one second, something flickered in his face.
Not remorse.
Amazement.
“You always survive,” he said.
I stepped in front of Daniel and Vanessa.
“What do you want?”
Ryan lifted the remote.
“To renegotiate.”
“You pushed me into the ocean.”
“And you recorded it.”
“Yes.”
“So send a correction.”
I almost laughed.
“A correction?”
“Tell whoever is listening that you slipped. Tell them Vanessa tried to catch you. Tell them Leonard threatened us all.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You’re blaming me?”
“I’m saving you.”
“No,” she said. “You’re saving yourself.”
Ryan ignored her.
“If you make the statement, I return control of the yacht and let everyone leave.”
“And if I refuse?”
He pressed a button.
A hatch beside Emily opened.
Inside was an orange life raft canister wired to a timed release.
Ryan said, “Then the yacht burns before we reach shore, and the only life raft launches without you.”
My necklace vibrated.
Helen whispered, “Keep him talking.”
I stared at Ryan.
“What did my mother confess?”
His confident expression changed.
He had not expected that question.
Daniel saw it.
Vanessa saw it.
Ryan lowered the remote slightly.
“Who told you about the confession?”
“Answer me.”
He smiled, but the smile trembled.
“Your mother admitted she chose your father for his name.”
“That is not a confession.”
“No,” Ryan said. “The confession is that Leonard Price is your biological father.”
Behind me, Daniel stopped breathing.
Leonard’s voice erupted through the engine-room intercom.
“He is lying!”
Ryan looked toward the speaker.
Then back at me.
“If you want proof, it is waiting inside Locker Three.”
The black phone in his pocket began ringing.
He removed it.
The caller ID made his entire face go blank.
He turned the screen toward me.
The name displayed was:
MARGARET MERCER.
May you like
My mother had been dead for nine years.
📖 Read why Clara’s dead mother appears to call Ryan—and what the voice on the line reveals about Leonard’s paternity claim in CHAPTER 9. 👇
