Chapter 18 - What the River Takes
“Tobias!” Rosalind's scream vanished beneath the siren.
She ran for the river, but Halden caught her. “You jump, you'll both die.”
“Let me go!”
Upstream, Tobias fought to keep his head above water. His injured leg dragged behind him. He caught a cable, lost it, and vanished beneath a wave.
Rosalind tore free and raced along the spillway toward a lower maintenance ladder. She remembered Tobias's instructions from the SUV: wait for the pressure to equalize, look for the opening nobody else sees.
She spotted a rescue ring hanging by the ladder. She tied its rope to a railing and threw the ring into the current. Once. Twice. On the third try, Tobias's hand closed over it.
“Hold on!” she screamed.
She hauled with both arms. Halden joined her, then Sam. Together they pulled Tobias onto the walkway. He rolled onto his side, coughed up river water, and laughed weakly.
“Still hate swimming,” he said.
Rosalind fell against him. “You don't get to make jokes.”
“Then stop saving me in dramatic places.”
Above them, state police swarmed the control room. Vance was arrested with blood on his knuckles. Daniel tried to flee along the spillway but found the exit blocked. Garrett dropped to his knees and began bargaining before anyone asked a question.
Penelope did not move. She stood under the broken umbrella, staring at Daniel as officers led him away.
Evelyn approached Rosalind slowly. “Can I hug you?”
Rosalind wanted that embrace more than she wanted air. She also wanted fifteen years of answers. For one aching moment, she could not choose.
Then her mother collapsed.
May you like
As paramedics rushed to help, Penelope stepped close to Rosalind and spoke so softly only she could hear.
“Ask her what really happened to your father.”
