THE PARTY BESIDE THE POOL

“You don’t own me anymore,” Ava said.

Thomas did not move. “I never wanted to own you.”

“No,” she snapped. “You just want to ruin everything I build.”

Behind her, the pool glowed too brightly against the darkening sky. The water was calm, reflecting chandeliers from the open patio doors and the white balloons floating above it. The entire party seemed to hold its breath.

Thomas stepped closer, lowering his voice so only she and Preston could hear. “Ava, listen to me. Preston is lying to you.”

Preston made a disgusted sound. “That’s enough.”

Thomas ignored him. “He approached the estate attorney last week asking about premarital access to the trust.”

Ava turned toward Preston.

His face betrayed him for one second.

That single second should have saved her.

Instead it humiliated her.

The guests saw the flicker. Ava saw them seeing it. All the years of polishing herself into someone untouchable cracked under the pressure of one honest look from her father. She needed the crowd to know she was still in control. She needed Preston to see she would defend him. She needed herself to believe she was not the foolish little girl Thomas feared she had become.

So she stepped forward and planted both hands against her father’s chest.

“Get out,” she said.

Thomas caught her wrists gently. “Ava.”

“Don’t touch me.”

He released her immediately.

That tenderness made her angrier.

She shoved him again, harder this time.

Thomas staggered back one step, close to the pool edge. A gasp moved through the guests. Someone whispered her name. Preston did not stop her. No one did.

Thomas lifted one hand, not in threat, but warning. “Ava, stop.”

But she was beyond hearing him.

“You want everyone to know this is your house?” she cried, tears of rage shining in her eyes. “Fine. Then stand there like the lonely old man you are and watch me live without you.”

She pushed him one final time.

His heel slipped over the pool edge.

For one terrible instant, Thomas’s arms lifted as he tried to regain balance. Then his body dropped backward into the glowing water with a violent splash that sent waves crashing over the marble coping.

The party froze.

Ava stood at the edge of the pool, breathing hard, her tiara shining beneath the patio lights.

The water settled slowly around the place where her father disappeared.

Then Thomas rose from the pool.

Soaked.