Chapter 3

Nora rushed toward the edge of the pool. Her eyes were wide with panic as she recognized the man thrashing in the water.

"Oh my god! Mr. Harrison!" Nora shrieked. She dropped the coat and reached her hands out, leaning over the water to pull him up.

Hester's eyes went dead.

She lunged forward. Her hand clamped around Nora's wrist like a steel vice. She squeezed so hard that Nora's manicured fingertips turned instantly white.

Nora gasped in pain. She whipped her head around, staring in shock at her usually meek and soft-spoken employer. She tried to yank her arm back, but Hester's grip was immovable.

"Do not touch him," Hester ordered. Her voice was a low, freezing rasp. "He tried to attack me. He's a monster."

Nora looked back at the water. Domenic's lips were purple. He was barely keeping his head above the surface. The allure of saving the President's son and securing a favor was too strong for the greedy assistant.

"Are you crazy? !" Nora snapped, actually raising her voice at Hester. "He's going to die!"

The disrespect hit Hester's ears. It was the exact same tone Nora had used right before she forced the poison down Hester's throat in her past life.

The murderous rage inside Hester boiled over.

Hester didn't argue. She raised her free hand and swung.

Smack.

The slap was deafening. It echoed louder than the splashing water. Hester's palm connected with Nora's cheek with so much force that Nora's head snapped violently to the side.

Nora's cheek instantly swelled, turning an angry, mottled red. A thin line of blood broke at the corner of her mouth. She stood completely paralyzed, her brain short-circuiting from the shock of the strike.

Hester let go of her wrist. She pulled a silk handkerchief from her pocket with her left hand and wiped her right palm, as if she had just touched raw sewage. She let the wind carry the silk square away.

In the pool, Domenic finally found the submerged stone steps. He dragged himself up until the water was at his chest. He was shaking violently, his teeth chattering so hard they sounded like castanets.

He pointed a shaking, blue finger at the two women on the bank.

"I'll... I'll put you both in federal prison!" Domenic roared, his voice cracking from the cold.

Hester ignored him completely. She looked down at her own chest, her hands suddenly flying to her torn collar. She patted her chest frantically, her eyes widening in perfectly acted panic.

She snapped her head up and glared at Nora.

"My brooch," Hester gasped. "The antique sapphire brooch the First Lady gave me. It's gone."

Nora, still holding her bleeding cheek, took a step back. Her eyes darted around nervously. "M-maybe you dropped it in the sitting room?" she stuttered, desperate for an excuse to run away from this nightmare.

Hester stepped forward. Her heels clicked sharply against the stone.

"No," Hester said, her voice hard and absolute. "It fell off when he was attacking me. It fell in the water."

She pointed a rigid finger at the dark, freezing pool.

"Get in there and find it. Now."

Nora stared at the black water. She looked at Domenic, who looked like he was ready to murder someone. The physical terror of the freezing water outweighed her fear of Hester.

"No!" Nora screamed, backing away. "I won't do it! I'm going to tell the First Lady you tried to kill him! You're insane!"

Hester smiled. It was a cold, terrifying stretching of her lips.

That was the excuse she needed.

Hester closed the distance between them in one explosive step. Her hands shot out, grabbing the thick lapels of Nora's winter coat.

Using Nora's own backward momentum, Hester twisted her hips and hurled the assistant forward with all her strength.

Nora let out a blood-curdling shriek as her feet left the ground.

She flew over the edge of the marble rim and slammed into the deep end of the pool, right next to Domenic.

A massive wave of water splashed directly into Domenic's face. He wiped his eyes just in time to see Nora surface, thrashing wildly.

Nora didn't know how to swim. Her heavy winter coat absorbed the water instantly, turning into a lead weight that dragged her down. Blind with panic, she reached out and grabbed the only solid thing near her.

She locked her arms around Domenic's neck.

Domenic, already exhausted and freezing, was suddenly pulled under by the dead weight of a panicking adult.

The two of them erupted into a violent, desperate struggle. They clawed at each other's faces, kicking and shoving, each trying to push the other down to keep their own head above water. It was a brutal fight for survival.

Hester stood on the edge, looking down at the chaos. Her eyes glittered with dark, vengeful satisfaction.

Then, a faint rustle of fabric caught her attention.

Hester's head snapped to the right. She looked past the bare trees, toward the shadowed alcove of the White House colonnade, thirty meters away.

A tall man in a black trench coat stood perfectly still in the shadows. He was watching her.

Hester couldn't see his face, but the heavy, oppressive weight of his stare made her heart skip a beat.

Her brain calculated the risk in a fraction of a second. She didn't panic. She didn't try to silence him.

She sucked in a sharp breath, forcing a fresh wave of tears to spill over her eyelashes. She grabbed the hem of her ruined skirt, turned on her heel, and ran.

She sprinted toward the First Lady's quarters, leaving the two people drowning in the pool behind her.