She called throwing me into a pool with an injured shoulder “just a joke”—until her fiancé heard her admit that she knew exactly what would happen when I fell.

The silence that followed Lena's words was absolute. It wasn't polite silence; it was the heavy, suffocating stillness that comes right before a structural collapse.

Mom broke it first, rushing forward with a thick white hotel towel, her face pale with panic. "Oh, sweetie, don't move. Let's not panic—"

"I'm not panicking," I managed through frozen lips, hot tears finally cutting tracks through the chlorine on my cheeks. "I can't move my shoulder, Mom. Something is wrong."

Dad appeared behind her, his face dark with a terrifying shade of crimson. "Somebody get ice! Right now!"

Lena scoffed, rolling her eyes as she stepped back to avoid getting water on her designer shoes. "She landed in water, not concrete, Dad. She's being completely overdramatic, as usual."

I wasn't even furious yet. I was too cold, too concussed by pain, and too desperately clinging to the hope that someone—anyone—would look at me and acknowledge that what just happened crossed every boundary of human decency. I waited for Mom to snap at her. I waited for Dad to scold her.

Instead, Mom just whispered, "Hush now, Lena, let's help your sister."

That was when I noticed Caleb.

He hadn't rushed forward with a towel. He hadn't joined the chorus of people fussing over me. Instead, he had frozen halfway between the terrace and the doorway leading into the reception hall.

A few feet away from Lena, her maid of honor, Sophia, was leaning in to whisper something into Lena’s ear. I couldn't hear the exact words over the ring of guests asking if an ambulance needed to be called, but Caleb’s ears caught them.

His broad shoulders went completely rigid.

Sophia said something else, giggling softly behind her hand.

Lena answered, her voice dropping just enough for Caleb to hear: "I knew she wouldn’t be able to catch herself on that side. That was the whole point of doing it now."

Caleb stopped dead in his tracks.

The color drained from his face so fast he looked like a ghost. He turned around slowly, his eyes locked onto my sister with an expression so terrifyingly blank that Lena’s mocking smile faltered completely.

"Lena," Caleb said. His voice was barely above a whisper, but it cut through the courtyard like a razor.

Lena blinked, her irritation flaring back up. "What?"

"What did you just say to Sophia?"