Page 53 of Open Water
Iknew before he said anything.
The text —my father called— had been enough. Three words and my stomach dropped the way it does when you catch a crab at full pressure: the handle jerking, the boat lurching, every system that was working a second ago suddenly wrong.
I crossed the footbridge fast. November cold, six-fifteen, the sky already black. The river underneath running high from days of rain. I could hear it but not see it. Just the sound of water moving in the dark.
Alex's dorm. Second floor. Third door on the right. I took the stairs two at a time. Knocked once.
He opened the door and I knew.
Not the specifics but something had happened on that call and whatever it was had put the mask back on. Kingswell quarter-zip. The Harrington face — smooth, composed. I hadn't seen that face in a week.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey."
I walked in. The room was small and too warm. Desk lamp casting everything in yellow. Bed made, books stacked. Even in crisis, Alex kept a neat room.
My Riverside shirt was draped over the desk chair. He wasn't wearing it now.
I sat on the edge of the bed and he stayed standing. Leaned against the desk. Arms crossed.
"Just tell me," I said.
He told me. Patterson's office. The concerned parent routine. Then Patterson leaving the room and the real conversation — the Caldwell deal.
"What's the price?"
Alex looked at the floor.
"He wants me to end it. With you. Publicly. Tell the team it was a misunderstanding. No more joint training. No Riverside."
"And you said?"
His jaw was tight. The bruise on it yellow-green in the lamp light.
"I said okay."
All of my insides crumpled.
"You said okay?"
"Liam—"
"You were just telling me how you wanted to come out."
"I got freaked out." His hands were gripping his own arms. "It all happened in twenty minutes. I said okay to end the call. To buy time."
"Buy time?"
"You have to understand what he was threatening. Not just the deal. The alternative."
"The alternative was me." My chest heaved at the thought of him leaving me.
"The alternative was James."
"Who's James?"
Something shifted in his face. Real fear.
