“Babe,” Liam said, flashing that boyish grin that used to make my stomach flutter. Now, it just looked like a grimace. “Just grab the ice, okay? Mom’s stressed about the party tonight. Don’t make a scene.”
Don’t make a scene.
The phrase echoed in my head. It was the mantra of the inherited class. You could steal, lie, and cheat, as long as you did it quietly.
I reached into my pocket. Not for a serving towel, but for my phone. I unlocked the screen. I wasn’t checking Instagram or texting a friend to complain. I was logging into the secure admin portal of Vantage Capital, the private equity firm I had founded six years ago from a laptop in a studio apartment.
The screen displayed a series of liquidity ratios. The Sea Sovereign was technically owned by a shell company, which was owned by a holding company, which owed a massive, distressed debt to Sovereign Trust.
And as of Tuesday morning, Vantage Capital had acquired Sovereign Trust.
I tapped the screen, checking the status of the filing. Approved. The lien was active. The breach of contract—due to three months of missed payments and failure to maintain insurance—was flagged in red.
Victoria stood up, swaying slightly. She walked toward me, the ice in her empty glass clinking. She stopped inches from my face. I could smell the expensive gin and the stale scent of desperation.
“You’re staring into space,” she hissed. “It’s rude.”
“I was just checking something,” I said calmly.
“Probably your bank balance,” she scoffed. “Make sure you have enough for the bus ride back to the city.”
She feigned a stumble. It was a clumsy, theatrical movement. Her wrist flicked, and the remnants of her martini—sticky, sweet alcohol—splashed across my sandals and the hem of my dress.
“Oops,” she smirked, stepping back. The malice in her eyes was sharp and bright. “Clean that up, would you? You’re used to mopping floors at that coffee shop you talk about, aren’t you?”
The deck fell silent. Even Richard stopped puffing on his cigar.
I looked down at the puddle spreading on the teak. Teak that cost more per square foot than the house I grew up in. Then I looked at Victoria.
“I’ll handle it,” I said, my voice dropping an octave. I pulled my phone back out.
“Good girl,” Victoria said, turning her back to me.
“I’m making a call,” I continued, my thumb hovering over a contact named Henderson – CLO. “To clean up everything.”
Chapter 2: The Edge of the Boat
The sun seemed to sharpen its focus, turning the white deck into a blinding sheet of glare. The smell of the spilled gin was rising in the heat, sickly sweet and cloying.
I didn’t dial immediately. I held the phone, watching them. I needed to be sure. In business, as in war, you do not fire until the target has fully committed to their mistake.
“Who are you calling?” Liam asked, sounding more annoyed than curious. He adjusted his swim trunks, clearly uncomfortable with the tension but unwilling to diffuse it. “Room service isn’t going to come out here, Elena.”
“No,” I said. “I’m calling the owners of this vessel.”
Richard barked a laugh, a harsh, hacking sound. “I own this vessel, you little waif. I bought it three years ago.”
“Leased,” I corrected gently. “You leased it. Through a predatory arrangement with Sovereign Trust, structured as a balloon loan with a floating interest rate that just adjusted upward by four percent.”
Richard froze. The cigar smoke curled around his head like a storm cloud. “How the hell do you know that?”
“Liam,” Victoria interrupted, her voice shrill. “Why is she still talking? I told her to clean up the mess.”
She stepped toward me again. This time, there was no pretense of a stumble. She reached out and shoved my shoulder.
It wasn’t a playful push. It was a hard, aggressive thrust meant to humiliate. I wasn’t expecting the physical contact. I stumbled back, my heel catching on a raised cleat on the deck.
I flailed, my arms windmilling, and for a terrifying second, I was teetering over the railing. The dark, churning Atlantic water was twenty feet down. I grabbed the cold steel of the rail just in time, wrenching my shoulder, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
I pulled myself upright, breathless.
“Victoria!” Liam shouted, sitting up. But he didn’t move. He didn’t rush to me.
“Service staff should stay below deck,” Victoria sneered, smoothing the front of her kaftan. She didn’t look horrified that she’d almost pushed a guest overboard. She looked annoyed that I hadn’t fallen.
