Deep Water by Mark Ayre (best big ereader TXT) 📕

“Please, Ariana,” said Alice. “Just do it."

Ariana looked at her mother. Closed her eyes. Ollie was still on the floor, his knees pulled to his chest, but he looked up to Ariana as she snapped her fingers in his face.

"Come. Now."

Without hesitation, Ollie rose. At first, he looked ready to leave without delay. Then his eyes caught on his mother, and for a few seconds, he stared.

"Forget her," said Ariana and left the room.

In a gentler tone, Abbie said, "I know she's your mum. It can't be easy—“

“Whatever you want to do," Ollie cut in. "I support you 100%."

Without looking back, he hurried after his half-sister.

Leaving Alex to care for her brother, Alice rose and came to Abbie, her protector, who had now placed her gun on the table and was watching Angel with crossed arms.

"What now?" Alice asked.

Abbie took a breath. "That's up to you... birthday girl."

Alice shuddered. "Don't."

“Sorry."

"Explain my options."

Abbie had already considered this. "I think you have three."

"Go on."

"Option one: you move Tony upstairs and call an ambulance, call the police. You say you heard a skirmish and a gunshot. When you came down, you found Angel lying amongst the glass. You can't find Gray anywhere, so it stands to reason he tried to shoot her; she pushed him over the edge and then tripped and fell on the glass. Obviously, she's facing the wrong way, but we could fix that. The balcony's quite long, but it's possible, in the horror of what happened, she would back away from the edge and not remember the glass until it was too late. The gun that shot out the glass would go into the ocean to be found by the coast guard or police. The rest we would keep and dispose of at a later date. Don't want to risk them being found. The police would investigate, the ambulance would take Angel away. There's a chance she'd survive, but that chance diminishes with each passing second. There are other issues, of course. Will the police be able to tell how long Angel was lying here before you called them? Possibly. What if they find Gray's body? That grows less likely as time passes but again, it’s possible. If they do, the knife wound’s explainable; Angel could have done that, but what about how long he's been in the water? Will they be able to tell he was pushed over a while before Angel tripped and cut herself up? Possible again. It's a risk, is what I'm saying, but you can afford good lawyers. Chances are, you'd get away with it."

Angel was staring at the sky. She tried to lift a hand, but it dropped. The pool of blood was unmissable now. In a few minutes, this conversation would be moot.

"Option two?" asked Alice.

"Same as one," said Abbie, but you don't call until morning. That has the added complication of explaining how you failed to hear the gunshot, but again, expensive lawyers, you'd probably be fine."

"Leave my daughter to die, in other words," said Alice. Abbie looked at the mother, saw the pain in her eyes.

"If Angel's death is something you can't countenance, we should skip option three and phone the police immediately. Your daughter has no chance of survival if she doesn’t get medical attention very soon. It might already be too late."

Alice was staring at her daughter. There was determination in her eyes.

"Option three," she said, then spoke before Abbie could get into it. "Let me guess: your people collect her when they come for Max, Raphael, and Jacob. Make her disappear."

“I don’t really consider them my people,” said Abbie. “But that’s about the size of it. Angel will never be seen again.”

A tear ran down Alice's cheek as the kitchen door opened and Ollie and Ariana reentered. The duo stopped at the sight of their mother. Alex looked up as well.

Carefully, Alice stepped onto the balcony, picked her way through the glass. Stopping over her daughter, Alice lowered to her haunches.

"Do you think she's in pain?"

Alice hadn’t looked up from the body, but Abbie assumed the question was from her.

"No," said Abbie. "I mean that. If she was in pain, I think you'd see it in her eyes. Do her eyes look pained?”

"They looked confused, sad, afraid. Oh, Angel, why did you do this?"

Alice stroked Angel's cheek, turned her daughter's face towards her. She was crying. Angel opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"Oliver," said Alice. "Come here."

All eyes turned to the teenager who stared at his mother, then shook his head.

"No. Mum brought this on herself. I hate her."

"I don't care what you think you feel. You come here right now and say goodbye."

Ollie had been shaking his head, but the word goodbye had a profound effect. Where his face had been stony, the tears came, and he made his way across the bar and towards his mother.

Still stroking Angel's cheek, Alice leaned forward and kissed her daughter's head.

"I hate what you've done," she said. "But I’ll always love you. And however much I hate your actions, I hate myself even more for what I'm about to do."

Ollie had arrived. After giving her daughter another kiss on the forehead, Alice cupped Ollie's chin and looked him in the eye.

"However you think you feel, for the next few minutes, see Angel only as your mother. Hold her hand. Mourn for her. You can be angry once she's gone but don't waste your last moments."

The fight having left him, Ollie only nodded. When Alice stood, he did as she asked, taking his mother's hand and leaning close to her. Angel looked at her son. He kissed her forehead.

"I love you, mum."

Alice came into the bar. Looked from Ariana to Alex to Tony. "Same advice to the three of you. Get over your hang-ups, just for the next few minutes. Once you're done, bring Tony to the kitchen, and I'll sort his shoulder.

"You can't be serious," said Ariana. "After everything she—“

"Just don't,