Chapter 2

Nick turned on his laptop to check the villa's security cameras. "We'll find out soon if Chuck is hiding somewhere."

The footage ended on the day I went out to sea. It showed me with a bandaged leg and a band-aid on my forehead. Since returning from the clinic on the island, all I did was sit at the pier, waiting from morning until night, but none of them returned—not even after the cake on the table was ruined from sitting out too long.

Nick watched me through the footage and burst out laughing. "Chuck believed that we would go back for him. He wouldn't have waited so patiently on the island for his stitches if I hadn't pretended to fall into the water."

Mom glared at him. "Do you have any idea how frightened I was when you were thrashing about in the sea?"

"What could've happened to me when the captain was right there?" Nick replied nonchalantly. "Besides, Chuck would've definitely saved me."

Dad added with indifference, "He's the older brother. It's his responsibility to take care of his younger brother."

It was only after I died that I found out that Nick falling into the sea was just an act. When he was struggling in the water, I jumped in without hesitation to push him to the boat. My calf suffered a cut so deep from the rocks that they could see my bone.

Mom hugged me then and kept pushing me to get to the shore to have my wound treated. I thought she was worried about me, so I comforted her instead. "Don't be afraid, Mom. I'm fine."

It turned out that she was just worried that I would see through their deception if I continued staying on the boat.

Keira checked the camera's timestamp. "Didn't we agree to hide for only three days? Ten days is a little too long."

Mom did not agree. "He wouldn't have learned his lesson after just three days. It would've blown over if he cried and you cajoled him a little. He has to believe that all of us died for him to realize how important this family is."

Nick nodded. "The boat captain Dad hired is pretty reliable. The distress signal was real, and the damaged boat was real too. How could Chuck not have believed what happened when the rescue team found the empty boat?"

Dad's face fell. "Stop talking about the boat captain. This ends once Chuck admits to his mistake."

I stood in front of Dad, watching his calm expression. He was acting as if orchestrating the fake sea accident and lying to the police and rescue team were nothing but an extreme disciplinary act by the family.

Nick took out a backup phone. "Fortunately, Keira thought of everything. All of our numbers were redirected to this phone, and we were able to hear every call Chuck made to us."

Keira said calmly, "The police won't be able to track us down if we turn off our phones. We'll stop the redirected calls once he admits to his mistake."

Mom suddenly laughed. "Do you think he heard the last words I recorded?"

"He did."

Nick played the audio clip on the speakerphone, and Mom's voice was heard speaking, "None of this would've happened to us if you hadn't insisted on celebrating your birthday at sea. You destroyed this family."

Mom felt a little proud of the recording. "I was pretty convincing, wasn't I?"

"You were. Chuck must have believed that you were mad at him before you died."

My soul quivered violently.

Those were not her last words but a script she had written for me so that she could enjoy my breakdown.

I remembered the first time I heard it. I fell to my knees on the cold floor and kept replaying the audio. I did not dare turn it off because I thought that was the last I would hear from my mother.

On the security footage, they watched me receive a call from the search and rescue team at 3:00 am. They informed me that they found a severely damaged boat on the sea, and I slowly fell to my knees while gripping the phone.

"Did you find my parents? My brother must still be alive because he can swim. What about Keira? She's a good swimmer. Please help me find her?"

Although I did not cry, my shoulders were trembling violently.

I floated next to my side and crouched down, trying to hug him, but my hand went through him. I had no idea then that the people I had wished so hard to be alive were surrounding a phone, waiting for me to apologize.