The Water Between Us

Simone had not entered the nursery since before the lake.

Even thinking about the room made her chest close.

Rebecca’s words forced it open.

Inside the nursery.

Marcus arranged for a deputy to meet them at the Carter house in Raleigh. The judge’s temporary order allowed Simone access to retrieve personal property, but Marcus refused to let her go alone.

Evelyn came too.

“You don’t have to,” Simone told her.

“I know.”

The house looked exactly as Simone had left it. Hydrangeas bloomed beside the front walk. A package sat on the porch. Through the window she could see the cream sofa where she and David had argued over baby names.

The normality felt obscene.

The deputy unlocked the door after documenting the entry.

Simone stepped inside.

Her wedding photograph still hung in the foyer.

David’s hand rested at her waist. Her face was turned toward him, trusting.

Evelyn quietly removed the frame from the wall and set it facedown on the console.

“Thank you,” Simone said.

They climbed the stairs.

The nursery door was partly open.

Simone stopped in the hallway.

Marcus waited.

“You don’t have to go in,” he said.

“Yes, I do.”

She pushed the door.

Pale green walls. White crib. A mobile of tiny clouds. A folded blanket embroidered with AVA lay over the rocking chair.

Simone made a sound that was almost a gasp.

Evelyn moved beside her.

“Take your time.”

“No.” Simone wiped her face. “If I take time, I won’t do it.”

Rebecca had said the drive was hidden “inside the nursery,” but not where.

Marcus called her from the room.

She answered on speaker.

“Where?” Simone asked.

Rebecca sounded exhausted. “Behind the moon.”

“What moon?”

“The wooden one over the crib.”

Simone looked up.

A decorative crescent moon hung above the crib, part of a set David had installed himself.

Marcus used a screwdriver from the hall closet.

Behind the moon was a square cut into the drywall.

Inside sat a plastic bag.

Marcus pulled it out.

A black flash drive lay inside.

Simone stared at it.

“How did you put this here?”

Rebecca answered, “David gave me a key months ago.”

Evelyn’s eyes flashed.

Rebecca continued quickly. “I came when you were at work. I knew he’d never search Ava’s room. He hated coming in there unless you were home.”

Simone’s voice went cold. “Don’t say her name.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t get to say her name like you knew her.”

Rebecca fell silent.

Marcus sealed the drive in an evidence bag.

“We’re not opening this here.”

As they turned to leave, Simone noticed a second hole in the drywall.

Smaller.

Fresh.

“Marcus.”

He followed her gaze.

Someone else had searched behind the moon.

The plaster dust on the baseboard looked recent.

The deputy photographed it.

“Who has been in this house?” Simone asked.

Marcus called David’s attorney from the hallway.

Thomas Vane denied that David had entered since the court order.

The security system showed no normal access.

Then Lena Ortiz called.

“I found something you need to hear,” she said.

Marcus put her on speaker.

“The back-door camera was disabled for nineteen minutes at two thirteen this morning.”

Simone looked toward the staircase.

“Someone broke in.”

“Likely.”

“Looking for the drive.”

“Likely.”

“Calder?”

“Could be. Could be David. Could be Rebecca lying to all of us.”

Simone looked at the sealed evidence bag.

“What’s on it?”

“I’ll know once I image it.”

They drove directly to Lena’s office.

She made a forensic copy while everyone watched.

The directory contained invoices, emails, photographs of ledger pages, shipping manifests, and audio recordings.

One folder was labeled CROWN.

Another was labeled INSURANCE.

Marcus pointed to the second.

“Open that.”

Inside were three PDF files.

The first was Simone’s life insurance policy.

The second was an amendment dated six weeks earlier.

The beneficiary had been changed.

Not to David personally.

To Carter Holdings LLC.

Simone’s throat tightened.

“I never signed this.”

Lena checked the metadata.

“Created on Rebecca’s computer.”

The third document was an email from David to an insurance broker.

If Simone dies in an accident, how quickly can the business claim be processed?

No one spoke.

Evelyn reached for Simone’s hand.

Marcus read the email twice.

Then he looked at her.

“This changes everything.”

Simone stared at the date.

Six days before the lake.

For the first time, a possibility entered the room that none of them wanted to say aloud.

Maybe the dock had not simply broken.

Before leaving the house, Simone walked back into the nursery alone.

Marcus waited in the hallway.

She touched the edge of the crib and noticed tiny scratches where David had struggled with the screws. She remembered teasing him because he refused to read the instructions.

For a moment, the memory was so ordinary that it hurt more than the evidence bag.

She folded the AVA blanket carefully and placed it in her tote.

Then she removed the ultrasound photograph from the dresser.

She left everything else.

“You ready?” Marcus asked.

“No,” she said. “But we can go.”