Chương 3
The concern was not.
Aidan glanced at me.
“Seasickness can hit people unexpectedly.”
I looked at him.
“Can it?”
He nodded.
“Of course.”
I wondered how many times he had lied confidently in his life.
Probably enough times that he no longer noticed.
Flynn picked up my phone from a small table near the window.
The screen was dark.
He handed it to me.
“Here.”
I took it.
The battery was almost full.
I looked at him.
“You said it needed charging.”
“It did.”
He shrugged.
“I plugged it in.”
A simple explanation.
A believable one.
That was what made him dangerous.
He did not create impossible lies.
He created small ones.
The kind people accepted because they did not want to believe something worse.
I pressed the power button.
The phone unlocked.
Nothing seemed different.
No missing messages.
No obvious damage.
But then I saw the time.
Three hours had disappeared.
My last memory before waking up was sitting with Flynn after lunch.
I had fallen asleep quickly.
Too quickly.
I looked at him.
“What did you put in the soup?”
Nobody moved.
Not even Fiona.
The question landed harder than shouting would have.
Flynn's face became completely still.
“What?”
“My soup.”
I held the phone in my hand.
“What was in it?”
He laughed once.
Not because something was funny.
Because he needed a second.
“Evelyn, are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Aidan shifted in his chair.
Fiona looked between us.
“You're frightening yourself.”
I turned toward her.
“I asked my husband a question.”
Her lips tightened.
Just slightly.
Flynn stepped closer.
“You're tired.”
“No.”
The word surprised all of us.
I had not expected my own voice to sound that firm.
Flynn stopped.
“I am awake.”
The room became quiet.
Outside, waves hit the side of the yacht.
A crew member walked past the glass doors carrying folded towels.
The normal world continued.
That almost made me angry.
“I need to speak with the captain,” I said.
Flynn's expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because this is my yacht.”
The sentence came naturally.
For years, I hated when people treated me differently because of my family's money.
I avoided mentioning the Sterling name.
I paid for dinners when I could.
I refused special treatment.
But there were moments when pretending my power did not exist became dangerous.
This was one of them.
Fiona looked at Flynn.
A quick glance.
Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
They were communicating without words.
Flynn stepped between me and the hallway.
“The captain is busy.”
“Then he can spare five minutes.”
“Evelyn.”
The way he said my name made my skin crawl.
Not angry.
Not loving.
Warning.
The security officer spoke again through the hidden connection.
“Ms. Sterling, we are accessing internal records.”
I kept my eyes on Flynn.
“Do not confront them yet.”
I swallowed.
“Why?”
“Because we need proof that survives outside this yacht.”
That was the part I had not considered.
My family name opened doors.
Money could hire investigators.
Lawyers could build cases.
But accusations alone were still accusations.
Even against someone like Flynn.
Especially against someone like Flynn.
A wealthy man accused of trying to murder his wealthy wife would become a complicated story.
People would ask questions.
They would search for motives.
They would wonder if I was unstable.
I hated that I understood this.
I hated that being rich did not make me safe.
Sometimes it only made people more interested in explaining why you deserved what happened.
“I need some air,” I said.
Flynn immediately answered.
“No.”
The word came too fast.
Everyone noticed.
He noticed that everyone noticed.
“I mean,” he corrected himself, “you've been sick.”
I looked at him.
“The fresh air might help.”
“No.”
Again.
Aidan cleared his throat.
“Flynn.”
One word.
A warning.
Flynn looked at his father.
Then back at me.
The mask returned.
“Of course.”
He smiled.
“Fresh air.”
I felt the room tighten.
The aft deck.
The place he had chosen.
The place where he planned to end my life.
“Maybe later,” I said.
His shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Sure.”
A small victory.
I had changed his plan by refusing.
I had taken back one piece of control.
The phone vibrated in my hand.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
I looked down.
It contained only three words.
DO NOT TRUST HIM.
My heart stopped.
Because the message was not from Sterling Security.
I looked around the room.
Nobody else had noticed.
Another message appeared.
I know what Flynn did.
I stared at the message until the letters blurred.
My thumb hovered above the screen.
For the first time since opening my eyes on the yacht, I felt something stronger than fear.
I felt anger.
Someone else knew.
Someone else had been watching.
I typed a response.
Who are you?
The three dots appeared almost immediately.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Flynn was speaking to me, but I barely heard him.
“Evelyn?”
I looked up.
His face was close.
Too close.
“Who are you texting?”
The question was casual.
The way he asked it was not.
I locked the phone.
“Nobody.”
A small smile crossed his face.
He knew I was lying.
That realization moved through me slowly.
The old Evelyn would have felt guilty.
The old Evelyn would have wondered if she was being unfair.
The woman standing in front of him now wondered how many times he had used my guilt against me.
“I'm going back to the room,” I said.
Flynn reached for my arm.
I stepped away before he touched me.
Again.
This time he could not pretend not to notice.
His jaw tightened.
Only for a moment.
Then he looked hurt.
“You're scared of me.”
It was not a question.
I said nothing.
That was enough.
Fiona stood up.
“Evelyn, whatever you think is happening, you need to calm down.”
I looked at her.
The woman who had asked how my parents would die.
“You should be careful with that advice.”
May you like
Her face changed.
“What does that mean?”
