Prologue
CARA
The Past… 18 Years old. South Africa.
“Cara,” Dad calls out to me, “do you have the blanket?”
“Yes, Dad.” I pull the blanket out of the car, and shutting the door, I set off after my parents. Unlike most teens, I love spending time with mine. We have a great relationship, and I can talk to them about anything.
Dad starts the boat’s engine and steers us down the river. It’s a sunny day with a light breeze to cool the worst of the heat. We always come out here after lunch on a Sunday. This is our family time together.
Once we get to the wide-open space of the dam, Dad starts to slow the boat down.
I spread the blanket open and laugh happily as Mom and I lie down, trying to get comfy. Once Dad’s satisfied with the spot we’re in, he turns off the engine and comes to lie down on my other side.
“Look at that one,” Dad says, pointing to a cloud. “It looks like a car.”
I laugh. “Everything looks like a car to you.”
“No, seriously,” he chuckles. “Look, those are the wheels, and there’s the frame.”
We talk about the silliest things before we eventually grow quiet, just listening to the birds chirping all around us. I’m going to miss doing this with my parents once I’m away at college. I only have a few precious weeks left with them.
Feeling lazy, I drift off to sleep like I always do.
A sudden loud crash yanks me out of my peaceful sleep. My parents' screams fill the air, and my body instantly turns cold with shock.
The boat tilts sharply, tossing my body to the side and ripping a panicked cry from me. I try to claw at the floor, searching for something to grab onto. My left side slams hard into one of the chairs, and it jars my body, making a sharp pain shoot through my hip and chest.
Horror fills me as the boat breaks apart with a thundering crack, and water swallows the pieces with greedy gulps.
“Dad! Mom!” I cry desperately. My eyes dart wildly over the chaos, searching for any sign of them, but there’s nothing but the boat breaking apart and the awful noise.
What’s left of the boat rises sharply into the air, like a beast gasping its last breath. I start to slide down and grab for the chair, but I’m too late. Something knocks hard into my shoulder, only speeding up my descent into the water.
“Dad,” I scream as I claw for anything to stop my fall. Splinters of wood stab at my palms and fingers, and then the water swallows me.
Desperately, I struggle against the water to reach the air while an ice-cold fear spreads through my body.
I don’t want to die!
I hear a louder sound, nothing like the boat splintering to pieces. This time it hits at the water, hammering its way closer to me.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The water won’t let me go, its bloody fingers dragging me further away from the precious air my lungs need.
White-hot pain slices through my back, and I begin to swallow the water as agonizing cries are torn from me.
I keep swallowing blood until it drowns the life from my body.
Waking up to a blinding light, I have to blink a couple of times before the light stops stinging my watering eyes, then confusion crashes through me.
Where am I?
I try to say the words, but they come out sounding like a garbled groan.
My eyes dart around the room, and then a sharp pain starts to pulse in my back.
Where are my parents?
What happened?
Dazed and confused, shuddering sobs begin to ripple from my chest, making the pain so much worse. Hot tears spill from my eyes, slipping into my hair.
“Cara.” My eyes jump to the voice, and I see it’s Uncle Tom, Mom’s brother. “I’m sorry,” he says while getting up from a chair in the corner of the room.
I frown, not sure what he’s sorry for.
He rubs tiredly over his face and then sighs heavily. “There was an accident. Your parents… they didn’t make it.”
My parents … they’re dead?
No.
No.
A crippling emotion fills my chest until it feels like I’m being torn open from the inside out. My heart squeezes painfully, a sharp ache impaling it.
I suck in an agonizing breath, but the feeling keeps growing until I’m hollowed out and only filled with the loss of my parents.
On my next breath, sobs start to build in my throat, thick and suffocating.
They can’t be gone.
No, it’s too soon.
I didn’t get to say goodbye.
This isn’t happening.
It’s a nightmare.
My thoughts start to race, and panic sets into my bones.
They can’t be dead … not my parents.
The reality of never seeing my parents again hits hard, an ache so deep it shatters me. An empty feeling overwhelms me, something I’ve never felt before. It’s like a wave that washes all my happy memories away, leaving only a harrowing heartbreak behind.