Page 64 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

"Did you tell anyone else that?"

"Andrew. He didn't want to believe me. Especially because I said I smelled perfume—Allison's perfume. He told me there was no way Allison would do that."

Ethan gazed back at me, and I finally saw belief and acceptance of my story. Maybe that was because he didn't like Andrew or his friends. But at least he was listening.

"Is there anything else you remember?" he asked.

"No." I paused. "Wait. I did overhear a conversation in one of the staterooms, but I couldn't tell who was talking or exactly what was said. I think the voices were male. I'm pretty sure one of them said something about the risk being too great, and the other one dismissed that concern. It's a blur in my mind. I didn't want to get caught eavesdropping, so I moved down the hall to a side door that led to the lower deck. I thought the air might clear my head. A few minutes later, I was in the water, and I didn't know what had happened." I took a breath. "The cold ocean did shock my brain back into focus, though. It woke me up enough to swim to the surface, to try to survive."

"Why didn't you tell Martin this? I asked him what happened, and he said you insisted it was an accident, the result of a reaction to medication."

"Because no one wants this to be anything but an accident. The grand opening is in two days. Victor doesn't want negative press about this. He doesn't want people to think that a guest on his yacht might have been thrown overboard."

"Who cares about negative press?"

"The Carringtons do, and I do, too. I've worked hard on this campaign, and I don't want the resort's opening to be ruined, especially since I don't know what happened. Maybe I did imagine the shove at my back."

"You're backtracking pretty quickly, Lauren. Is it the resort you're trying to protect or your husband and his friends?"

I gave him a troubled look, reminded that sometimes he was more of an enemy than a friend. "I can't make an accusation without proof. It's not going to be good for anyone."

"Probably not," he said, surprising me with his agreement. "At this point, if someone did push you in, it's best they think you don't know that. Ignorance could be your protective shield. I'm just sorry you told Andrew."

I was a little sorry I had, too, but I wasn't going to admit that.

"I'm going to look into what happened, Lauren, but I will be careful in how I do that."

"Okay." I paused, suddenly remembering something. "One of the men in the stateroom…he said something about you."

A question flared in his eyes. "What?"

"I think he said, what are you going to do about the investigator? And the other person said not to worry, he had it under control. What could they have been talking about?"

"Probably something to do with the security of Victor's collection." He paused. "Are you sure the voices you heard didn't belong to Andrew and Colin?"

"They were muffled, and all this happened when I was feeling my worst. I was trying not to throw up again and to stay on my feet."

He frowned again. "I heard Andrew gave you his prescription medication."

"He thought I needed something stronger. I didn't want to take it, but the pain got so bad, I didn't think I could get through the day without some relief."

"Going forward, you need to be very aware of anything your husband is giving you."

"He didn't push me in the water."

Ethan gave me a hard look. "Are you absolutely one-hundred-percent certain of that?"

"He jumped into the sea to rescue me," I murmured.

"And I'm sure that daring gesture was captured on video, but you didn't answer my question."

"I don't want to answer it," I said.

"You just did."

"My husband is not trying to kill me." The words came out of my mouth with a rush of emotion, and before I could stop them, the tears quickly followed. Suddenly, my entire body was racked with sobs.

Ethan sat down beside me and put his arms around me, pulling me into a hug, as a waterfall of tears streamed down my face. Ethan held me until I was spent. Then he handed me the box of tissues on the nightstand, and I blew my nose a dozen times, probably looking even worse than I had before.

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