Page 118 of The One

“Seconds later, I heard the engines. That sound …” His hand went to his chest, and his eyes shut. “I’ll never get over that noise, Lainey. It was a torture that ripped right through me.”

His eyes opened, and a chill covered my body.

“But there was another noise that followed the engines that I’ll never recover from either.” He waited several beats before he said, “And that was her scream.”

I held up a finger, searching for the words, but my throat was so tight that air wasn’t even moving through it. “I need a second.”

Emotion was pouring through me. It poured over me. And it poured out of me.

I bent toward my lap and covered my face, and as soon as I was hidden, I sobbed. I let out everything that was inside me. The years of sorrow, the pain, the unknown that had eaten at me. I cried for what Pen had experienced the second her feet left the boat, how those engines had beaten her to the point of …

Out of nowhere, I felt heat.

An arm.

And then another.

Rhett was hugging me so hard, changing my coldness to warmth, and I didn’t ask him to let me go.

“I’m sorry, Lainey,” he whispered into the back of my neck. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

THIRTY-SIX

Rhett

Fifteen Years Ago

“Rhett?” my father said from the other side of my bedroom door.

I ignored his knock and pulled the blanket up to my neck.

I wanted it all to stop.

The noise.

The memories.

The sound of Penelope hitting the engines and the scream that had escaped her lips.

Fuck!

“Rhett!” he yelled again. “Can I come in?”

I put my hands over my ears, my body swaying over the bed, like I was still in the boat and the waves were causing me to rock.

Seconds later, from the corner of my eye, I saw the door open, my dad moving through my room and taking a seat beside me.

He put his hand on mine, pulling to free my ear. “Are you all right, son?”

“No.” The pain was so severe in my chest; a sob came out of my lips. “I’m not fucking okay.”

He rubbed my hand. “Your sister’s been asleep outside your door for over an hour.” He nodded toward the hallway. “Right out there, on the carpet. She’s afraid to bother you, but she wants to be close to you. And your brother’s been pacing the upstairs, waiting for you to open your door. We’re all very worried about you.”

“I don’t want to see anyone. I just want to be left alone.”

“I know, son.” He paused. “It was a horrible tragedy.”

“A tragedy? It was worse than that! Penelope is fucking dead!”