Chapter 9 - Not Again
Maya did not think about the gunshot downstairs.
She thought only about Lily's hand reaching toward her.
"Maya!"
Vivian dragged the child through the open deck doors.
"Stay back!"
"Let her go."
"You ruined everything!"
Maya stopped six feet away.
Below the deck, gray lake water slapped against the pilings. The drop was more than twenty feet.
Lily was shaking so hard her teeth clicked.
"Vivian," Maya said, keeping her voice low, "you do not want another witness saying you tried this twice."
"There won't be another witness."
Vivian reached for the railing latch.
Maya saw the plan in her face.
She also saw something Vivian did not.
Lily's shoelace was caught around a deck chair leg.
If Vivian pulled hard, Lily would fall backward, not over the rail.
Maya took one step forward.
"You think Julian will choose you after this?"
Vivian's attention snapped to her.
"He was supposed to choose me from the beginning. Ava was dead. The child was all that was left between us."
"A child is not competition."
"She had the shares. She had the name. She had every room in his heart."
Lily began to sob.
Vivian yanked her arm.
The shoelace tightened.
Lily fell sideways.
Maya launched herself forward and wrapped both arms around the child.
Vivian swung at her, but Maya ducked and drove her shoulder into Vivian's chest.
They hit the deck boards together.
Police poured through the doorway.
Vivian screamed as Cole pulled her hands behind her back.
"She attacked me! She attacked me!"
Lily clung to Maya's neck.
"She said she killed Mommy too."
Everything stopped.
Julian had just reached the top of the stairs.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow, but he seemed not to feel it.
"What did you say?" he asked.
Lily looked at him.
"Vivian said Mommy didn't get sick by herself."
Julian went pale.
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Ava had died after a sudden infection during cancer treatment.
And Vivian had been Ava's private nurse for three months.
