Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 7

Naomi's POVThe pool is the only place my heart ever feels steady.This was the final lap of the eight-hundred freestyle. My lungs burned and my arms had gone numb, but my heartbeat stayed steady, the same as every time I swam.My best friend, Octavia was in the lane beside me, stroke for stroke, exactly like she'd been since we were nine years old.I touched the wall first. I always did. Octavia followed a half second later. I ripped my goggles off excitedly and saw my name at the top of the scoreboard, exactly where it belonged. Everyone was cheering loudly. For one second, everything was exactly how senior year was supposed to end. Then, I climbed out, legs shaking, chest heaving, and let the towel someone handed me settle over my shoulders.My mom was somewhere in the stands. I could hear her voice above the others.Coach Reyes met us at the edge of the pool deck with his clipboard tucked under one arm, the same way he always held it. He was still in the black Maristen singlet h

Naomi's POVThe house was dark except for the kitchen light when I got home.My mom was waiting up anyway, still in the same clothes she wore to the competition. A cup of tea gone cold in front of her.She didn't ask me if it was true or not because she knew there was no truth in it. But she didn't know what to tell me either so she just drew me into a bear hug. Even at 21, I still melted whenever my Mum hugged me."We'll figure it out tomorrow," she said, pulling me tighter. She smelled like home. "Right now you need sleep."I didn't tell her about the call. I didn't know how to explain two thousand dollars to her and have her start worrying on top of everything else.We didn't have that kind of cash sitting anywhere and that reality kept me awake most of the night doing math that never worked out the same way twice.By morning I'd slept maybe two hours, and none of it felt like rest.School that day was its own kind of exhausting.People went quiet when I walked past. Conversations

Naomi's POVCoach Reyes cut the engine in the lot behind the athletic complex and didn't move to get out."Listen to me," he said. "If he sees me with you, he or she'll run, or they get dangerous. I'm going to stay back, out of sight. Let him believe you're alone. I'll be close enough to hear everything.""What if something goes wrong?" I asked. I was panicking terribly."Nothing's going to go wrong," he said. "Just stall if you can. Get him or her talking. I need to hear who this is."I nodded, even though my legs felt like they belonged to someone else.The boathouse sat at the edge of the river, a long wooden building smelling of algae and old rope.Coach Reyes slipped in ahead of me and disappeared into the shadows near a stack of aluminum barricades before I'd even crossed the threshold.I couldn't see him anymore. I had to trust he was still there."Hello?" I called out, my voice bouncing strangely off the water lapping somewhere below the floorboards.A shape shifted near the f

Naomi's POVMarcus was still talking when I stopped hearing him."You had to be, what, fifteen? Sixteen?" he said, watching the swim team run their sets below us. "I remember the whole gym losing it when you touched the wall first. My cousin still brings it up.""Mm-hmm," I said."You don't even remember, do you.""Mm-hmm.""That's criminal. That was the biggest thing to happen to this town in a decade and you're out here mm-hmming me."I wasn't ignoring him on purpose. My mind had gone somewhere else entirely, circling the same three sentences Marcus had said fifteen minutes earlier until they'd worn a groove into me.“He's not staying quiet. He's got proof. He's planning something big.”I stood up so fast the bleacher shook under both of us."I need to make a call," I said, already moving."Wait, seriously?" Marcus said behind me. "We were literally in the middle of something.""I'll catch up with you later," I said, not turning around, already three steps down toward the exit."Yea