The heavy thud of the jazz music from above suddenly faded into the background. The lower deck fell into a deathly, paralyzing silence. Every eye turned to our dark corner.
Preston stared at the empty water, his face contorting into an ugly, theatrical mask of absolute horror. He looked down at my tiny, trembling four-year-old daughter, and I knew instantly that the fragile peace of the evening was about to violently shatter.
“My watch!”
Preston’s shriek tore through the stunned silence of the yacht like a distress siren. He fell to his knees against the railing, staring into the dark ocean as if he could will the diamonds back to the surface. He turned his head, his face a horrifying shade of purple, and pointed a trembling, aggressive finger at Mia.
“You little brat!” Preston wailed, his voice cracking with sheer rage. “You just threw three hundred thousand dollars into the ocean! You ruined my engagement!”
I was out of my chair in a fraction of a second. I frantically pulled Mia behind my legs, shielding her small, terrified body from the towering groom.
“I am so sorry, Preston,” I pleaded, my heart hammering furiously against my ribs. “She didn’t mean to. She was just trying to pick up a spoon, she bumped you—”
“Get her out of my sight!” Vanessa, my sister, shrieked as she rushed down the stairs, her designer dress swishing aggressively. She glared at me with pure hatred. “I told mom we shouldn’t have let you bring that mistake of a child onto this yacht! You ruin everything, Serena! Everything!”
The crowd of wealthy investors and socialites had gathered at the top of the stairs, looking down at us with expressions of supreme, amused disgust. I felt a dozen pairs of eyes burning into my skin, judging the “poor, pathetic sister” who couldn’t even control her child.
Then, heavy, aggressive footsteps pounded down the wooden steps.
Before I could grab Mia’s hand to leave, a massive shadow fell over me. It was my father, Arthur. His face was mottled red, flushed with a mixture of expensive scotch and unadulterated fury. He was performing for Preston and his elite friends, proving that he wouldn’t tolerate this kind of humiliation from his disgraced daughter.
“You are absolutely useless!” my father screamed, his voice booming over the quiet whispers of the crowd. “You can’t even control your fatherless child for one evening on a civilized vessel!”
“Don’t you ever call her that,” I said, my voice shaking with a fierce, protective rage. I stood my ground, staring directly into my father’s eyes. “It was an accident. I will contact the marina divers, I will find a way to pay for it—”
“Pay for it?” my father laughed, a harsh, ugly sound that echoed off the hull. “With what money? You’re a parasite!”
He raised his hands. I saw the movement, but my brain simply couldn’t process that my own father would physically strike me in front of two hundred people. I braced myself for a slap.
Instead, he placed both of his large hands flat against my shoulders and shoved me backward with all of his formidable strength.
