Chapter 3 - A Price for SilenceThe helicopter lifted over the lagoon while my world narrowed to Mia's face.

Leila stayed beside her, speaking quietly to the flight clinician. Mia had a suspected concussion and an injured wrist. They would need hospital imaging before anyone could say how badly she'd been hurt.

"She'll be evaluated the moment we land," Leila told me. "Right now her breathing is stable."

I pressed my fingers together until they hurt. "She asked me last night whether people can stop loving you because you spill something."

Leila looked up. "What did you tell her?"

"That people who love you don't make you earn it."

She squeezed my shoulder. "Keep telling her."

At the hospital in Malé, an emergency physician took over. I signed forms. Answered questions. Repeated that someone had deliberately pushed my child. I could hear my own voice sounding calm and couldn't understand how.

Marcus called from the island. "Your father is demanding an immediate departure. Your mother says she'll sue for false imprisonment."

"Are they being detained?"

"No. We're preserving the scene and asking witnesses to remain available. Local police are on their way. Anyone who wants to leave can do so after authorities give direction."

"Good. No private revenge, Marcus. I want the truth to stand up in court."

He hesitated. "There's another problem. The manager received a transfer this morning. Fifty thousand dollars from an account connected to your father."

I stared at the hospital floor. "For what?"

"He says it was a consulting fee."

A message lit my screen from an unknown number: YOUR DAUGHTER FELL. ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. DON'T TURN THIS INTO A FAMILY WAR.

A second message followed with a photograph of Mia asleep in our home three weeks earlier. Taken through her bedroom window.

I stopped breathing.

"Marcus," I said, "someone has been watching my daughter."

"Forward it to me. Don't respond."

The emergency-room doors opened. The doctor approached, removing her gloves.

"Mia is awake," she said, "but she's frightened. She asked us not to let a woman wearing a white dress come near her."

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Then she added something that made the corridor tilt beneath my feet.

"She said that woman came into her room before the wedding, too."