Page 37 of No One Aboard

Chapter 18

Lila Logan Cameron

Call sign: Cassiopeia

Day 3 at Sea

Lila and Alejandro rushed across the deck. The prescription bottle rattled in her dress pocket.Too late to put it back now.Nico, who must have been the one to hit the horn, was leaned far over the side of the ship, shouting to someone in the water.

What could have happened?Lila found her sun hat and glasses so she could better squint at the glittering sea.We’re at anchor. Where’s the danger?

Alejandro rushed to his nephew’s side and appeared to comprehend the situation instantly. “Grab your fins and snorkel, sobrino,” he ordered.

Both of them scattered and reappeared with flippers and masks in hand.

“What should I do?” Lila called out.

“Get ready to pull people out of the water,” Alejandro told her. He finished tugging on his fins and dove clean into the water, Nico right on his heels.

Lila was left alone on deck, white hat flapping gently in the breeze. Only then did her knees wobble beneath her.

What if Tia was hurt? Or Francis?

Or, God forbid,Rylan?

Lila caught herself on the railing and mustered the courage to look down.

The water was calm, marred only by Alejandro and Nico who kicked quickly in the direction of the island. They were heading toward a stream of bubbles that puckered the surface. The divers were still underwater.

They’re still breathing.

She simply had no choice but to wait. Lila certainly wasn’t going to do any good down there in the water with them. She paced. She fussed with her hair. She stayed by the swim ladder in case one of her family members resurfaced—bleeding or broken—and she needed to drag them onboard.

Mostly, she watched the sea. The two snorkelers shrank into specks. No...Threesnorkelers.

Lila tilted down her sunglasses, then removed them from her face altogether. Yes, there were definitely three swimmers out there. Two were Nico and Alejandro, identifiable by their respective sets of purple and green flippers. The third was between them as if they’d just appeared from underwater.

Lila abandoned her post at the swim ladder and rushed to the stern. Nico and Alejandro had turned back, toting the third swimmer. Lila’s heart dropped so suddenly that she almost tripped over her peach Lululemon sandals.

The person was not swimming.

They were floating. Facedown in the water, legs akimbo, arms limp.

Lila shrieked. “Oh my God!” she screamed at no one in particular. “Help!”

This couldn’t be real. The sunlight, the sea, and the beautiful boat beneath her feet,thosewere real.

A body didn’t fit.

Please don’t be Tia. Please don’t be Rylan.

Was this what people meant when they said their entirelives flashed before their eyes? Lila saw her twin babies swaddled in white and placed on her bare chest. She held her little boy’s hand while her little girl toddled wildly ahead. She cradled her son in her arms and wondered if her daughter would ever let her hold her like that again.

Lila’s life wasn’t in danger, but if the body in the water was her child, she would already be dead.

Nico and Alejandro reached the ship. Nico flipped the body over in the water, and MJ, slack and dead, turned upward to face the sun.

Lila released a horrible sob. “My babies, where are my babies?” She was clutching at her chest and her hair, anything to find purchase and dig her acrylic nails into.That could have been Tia. That could have been Rylan.