Chapters (54)
- Cover
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Epilogue
- A Note from the Author
- Discussion Questions
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Acclaim for David Rawlings
- Also by David Rawlings
Daniel reeled, punch-drunk at the flurry of blows tipping up everything he thought he knew. “That’s impossible.”
“Do you want me to take the film to Simon?”
One blow too many. A giant crack split his resolve down the middle. He snatched the camera from the counter and sprinted, huffing and heaving, to the deck.
Kelly raced after him. “What is going on—”
Daniel stood at the railing as he cradled the camera in his trembling hands. One single letter burned into his retinas. In the tiny plastic window on top of the camera was a red F. The camera was full. All the photographs had been taken.
There was only one thing to do.
With a primal scream born of weeks—months—of frustration and hurt, he ripped open the back of the camera and tore the film from its canister. He flung it from the deck, the ribbon of film trailing behind the tiny canister like a comet’s tail as it fell to the rocks below.
Kelly screamed. “Daniel! What are you doing?”
He took a final look at the camera, the last memory of Gramps, and threw back his arm.
“Daniel! No!”
His guttural scream exploded from the cliff top as the camera arced into the air, rose above the horizon, and kissed the afternoon sun before falling. First into the azure background of a wide ocean, and then tumbling, tumbling to the rocks two hundred feet below.
Daniel rushed to the handrail to see Gramps’s last gift to him explode into a cloud of plastic and dust. A split second later, a tiny crash reached his ears.
Then silence, save for the pulsing sobs of his wife.
Thirty-Four
The stream of water shimmied and shook its way into Kelly’s glass. On the other side of the doors to their deck, Daniel bent over the railing, his back heaving.
She couldn’t keep going like this, carrying their burden on her own. They had to see someone, and if Daniel chose his reputation over their happiness, she would leave. It would devastate Milly, but that was Daniel’s decision. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than tiptoeing through the minefield in which they currently lived.
Kelly downed the water in one long, shaky gulp. Then her heart pounded as she slid back the glass doors and her heels clattered onto the deck. She plunged into a conversation that was long overdue. “What was all that about?”
Daniel threw back his head, and Kelly steeled herself for anger. For explanation. She was unprepared for what she got.
With one almighty groan, Daniel dissolved into sobs. Her tower of strength crumbled before her eyes and mumbled of ruin. His filmed eyes flitted around the deck, searching for the starting point of an answer.