Chapter 1 - The Man Who Died TwiceEvan’s smile vanished the instant he saw me.
For one frozen second, neither of us moved.
The pool water glittered behind him.
Music drifted through the Florida heat.
Judith’s hand stopped halfway to her glass.
Lauren turned toward Evan, confused.
Then Evan stood.
He did not run.
That frightened me more than running would have.
He simply stared at me as if he had been expecting me.
As if I were part of some plan.
“Caroline,” he said.
My knees almost gave out.
He said my name in the same voice he had used every morning for twenty years.
Soft.
Familiar.
Cruel.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I whispered.
His face tightened.
Lauren stood.
“What is she doing here?”
That was when I understood something.
Lauren Mercer was not surprised that Evan was alive.
She was surprised that I had found him.
I looked at her.
“You knew.”
She swallowed.
“I…”
Evan stepped between us.
“Let’s not do this here.”
I laughed.
The sound came out broken.
“Not here?”
I pointed toward the pool.
“You let me bury you.”
People nearby began to glance over.
Evan lowered his voice.
“Caroline, please.”
“Please?”
I slapped him.
The crack echoed across the patio.
Judith gasped.
Evan touched his cheek.
I stared at the man I had mourned.
The scar near his temple was there.
The tiny white line.
The one I had kissed countless times.
The one I had used to identify him in photographs.
“How?”
Evan looked at Megan.
That was the first truly frightened look I saw on his face.
“You brought her here,” he said.
Megan stepped forward.
“I brought her because she deserved the truth.”
Judith’s expression hardened.
“You have no idea what you're doing.”
“Oh, I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Megan pulled out her phone.
“I have the bank transfers. The shell company. The condo lease. The surveillance photos.”
Lauren went pale.
Evan looked at her.
“You said everything was handled.”
Lauren whispered, “It was.”
“No,” Megan said. “It wasn’t.”
Then a man’s voice came from behind me.
“Caroline?”
I turned.
A tall man in a gray blazer was standing near the hotel doors.
Megan stiffened.
I recognized him from Evan’s office.
Daniel Price.
Evan’s business partner.
Except Daniel Price was supposed to have died eight months earlier.
My stomach dropped.
He walked toward us slowly.
Evan backed away.
Daniel smiled without humor.
“You really shouldn't have come here, Caroline.”
“Why?”
He looked at Evan.
Then Judith.
Then Lauren.
“Because now they have to move the timetable forward.”
Megan grabbed my arm.
“We’re leaving.”
Too late.
Evan reached into his pocket.
I expected a weapon.
Instead, he pulled out a photograph.
He handed it to me.
It showed me.
Standing outside our Ohio house.
Taken six days before Evan’s supposed death.
I looked closer.
There was a second person beside me.
A man wearing a dark baseball cap.
Daniel.
My mouth went dry.
“What is this?”
Evan said quietly, “That’s the last day you were safe.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
His eyes met mine.
“Because the plan was never for me to disappear.”
He looked at Megan.
“It was for Caroline to disappear with me.”
May you like
Then every light around the pool went out.
And someone screamed.
