Chapter 4
Victor’s real target was not Owen.
It was my restraint.
He admitted that much after Raymond refused to stay quiet.
The plan was simple enough to sound almost clever.
Celeste would frighten Owen.
Victor would stop me.
A designated guard would retrieve the boy after several seconds.
If I obeyed Victor and waited, he would tell the donors I could separate motherhood from command.
If I fought him, he would tell them I had become impulsive and emotionally uncontrollable.
Either way, he got a story.
I stared at him.
“You designed a test where you decided what my response meant before I made it.”
He smiled faintly.
“That’s leadership evaluation.”
“No.”
I sat opposite him.
“That’s rigging a conclusion.”
Then I asked the only question left.
“Who was the designated guard?”
Silence.
One man near the rear shifted.
Bodyguard Daniel Cross.
Eight years with my family.
He looked sick.
I stood.
“You?”
He nodded.
“What were your instructions?”
His eyes went toward Victor.
I waited.
“Ten seconds.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“Wait ten seconds after the boy went under.”
The room went cold.
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“Then go in.”
I stared at Victor.
Ten seconds to adults is counting.
Ten seconds to a drowning child is forever.
“Why didn’t you move?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because you got there first.”
That was true.
Then he added something else.
“And because I was going to ignore the ten seconds.”
Good.
Late courage.
Still courage.
Victor laughed.
“You’re all being sentimental.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“No.”
His voice hardened.
“I saw the kid’s face.”
That mattered.
The difference between theory and reality.
Victor had reduced Owen to a demonstration because he never had to feel the child claw for air.
Daniel had.
Almost.
I looked at Celeste.
“Did you know about the ten seconds?”
She looked away.
There.
Yes.
“And you still pushed him.”
Her mouth tightened.
“He needed to learn.”
“What?”
“That panic makes you weak.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
I looked toward the lounge where Owen was recovering.
“Being terrified means something terrifying happened.”
That sentence made Raymond nod.
Victor hated it.
Good.
Then I turned toward Daniel.
“Who told you this was authorized?”
He answered immediately.
“Celeste.”
Interesting.
Victor gave the order.
Celeste made it legitimate.
Which meant she had been promised authority.
I looked at her.
“What did he offer you?”
May you like
Her face changed.
And finally the cruelty around my son began revealing the ambition underneath it.
