Page 76 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

He left without giving me a kiss. Apparently, he was tired of pretending, too.

Where did that leave us?

I had the feeling our marriage wouldn't last longer than our honeymoon. Not unless something changed, but so far, the only changes had been bad.

Instead of heading back to the hotel, I walked down the path to the harbor. I needed to clear my head, to get away from my own thoughts. I was surprised by the new cluster of small and large boats that had appeared since yesterday. Apparently, Victor's high-rolling friends had arrived.

The path along the oceanfront was flat and easy, and there were plenty of tourists about, especially as I neared the town of Avalon. Maybe I'd stop at a café and get a drink and a snack. It would be nice to sit outside and actually feel like I was on vacation for a few moments. When I arrived at the nearest waterfront café, I was surprised to see Harper sitting alone, staring at her coffee with a pensive expression.

I pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.

"Lauren," she said, clearly startled by my appearance. "What are you doing here? I thought you were shooting your honeymoon visit to the spa."

"All done. Do you not see my glowing facial-treated face and my perfect nails?" I asked, waving my manicure in front of her.

"Nice," she said. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

"That might have been the worst I ever looked," I admitted.

"When they first pulled you onto the boat, your skin was so white, you looked like a ghost," Harper said. "It's good to see the pink back in your cheeks. How's the pain from your hip?"

"It's still there but a thousand times better than it was yesterday, and my plunge into the ocean has had no lasting physical effects, just psychological ones."

"I'll bet." Harper gave me a questioning look. "Did you really just fall in, Lauren?"

"What else do you think could have happened?" I asked, curious to hear what she would say.

"I don't know, but when I went downstairs, Allison was very close to the swim platform. She said she was looking for you because you weren't feeling well. I believed her. I didn't have any reason not to—until today."

"Today?"

"Colin told me Allison is dead, that she fell off some balcony at the villa she was looking to decorate. He said it was a terrible accident. And I couldn't help thinking how manyaccidentsseem to be happening."

"Most of them to me."

"You could have died, just like Allison." Harper drew in a shaky breath. "I don't like the feeling I'm getting, Lauren, like something bad is going on at our resort. Every accident has a plausible explanation, but there have been a lot of accidents in the last two days. And we have a ton of people arriving today and tomorrow. I have to say, I'm not sure the resort is all that safe."

"I don't think our guests are in any danger," I said. "But I agree that there's something going on, and I'm a little scared for myself. I have to tell you that yesterday I thought Allison might have pushed me into the water. She'd been angry since she'd arrived, and I thought she was jealous of me and Andrew and maybe wanted to get me out of the way. But now she's dead, and I have a hard time believing it was an accident. So where does that leave me?"

Harper met my gaze, looking more serious than I had ever seen her. She hesitated, swallowing hard.

"What?" I asked.

"I was thinking the same thing, that Allison might have pushed you in the water. Colin told me that Andrew didn't like her the way she liked him, and he didn't think she'd ever gotten over him, even though she pretended she had." Harper took a sip of her coffee, then set the mug down. "But as you said, now she's dead. Did Andrew kill her because she tried to hurt you?"

"I can't believe Andrew is capable of that."

"It seems impossible," she agreed. "Maybe her death was an accident."

"Has Colin said anything to you about any of it? Did you tell him you thought Allison might have pushed me in?"

"I mentioned my theory to him last night, and he shut me down fast. It was the first time he was sharp with me. The anger in his eyes disturbed me. It felt too intense. We were supposed to go out on a kayak today, and he blew that off, saying he had work to do with Andrew. I thought Andrew was supposed to be honeymooning, not working, but I guess there's some deal that's time sensitive."

"I don't know. To be honest, Andrew and I aren't getting along that well. I've been feeling like shit, and I keep hearing little things about him that he's neglected to mention to me, and I wonder what else he isn't telling me."

"I tried to warn you that Andrew might have secrets."

"You did," I admitted. "I probably should have listened. But I'm hoping once we get through this week, we'll be able to sit down and talk about everything."

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