Page 119 of No One Aboard

A brief walk from the shoreline stood a house made almost entirely of glass. It had the sleek style of the most cutting-edge modern architecture with three stories, a slanted roof, and an infinity pool on the second level. Beads of water from the humidity gathered on the massive glass windows, and they caught the sunlight like fine jewels.

Tia dropped anchor and leaped over the side, landing thigh-deep in the water. She couldn’t take her eyes off the glass house. How long ago had her father had this built? How had he kept it so secret? And most importantly, could there be anyone inside?

Tia almost admired her father, in that moment. He had accounted for everything.

Everything but her.

Tia walked, trancelike, through the combing waves to the shore and hesitated at the edge of the water. The island seemed suspended and silent. Her heart sank. She had come to an empty home.

Then she saw it. A glimpse of orange in the sea of soft, white sand. Farther down the island, closer to the glass house, a life raft had been dragged up on the shore and abandoned.

The missing life raft fromThe Old Eileen.

Inside the house, a light turned on, and a boy’s silhouette was made visible through the wide sheet of silver glass.

Tia broke into a sprint, Rylan’s name upon her lips. She tripped in the pillows of sand, laughing and crying as she ran for her brother and left the ocean far behind.

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