Chapter 1 - THE GIRL ABOVE THE GARDEN
The first balloon escaped at four seventeen, just as the brass quartet began playing a birthday song beneath the windows of Mercer House. It floated above the courtyard like a small, defiant moon.
Five-year-old Lily Mercer followed it with her eyes. Her pastel-pink dress brushed her knees, and the white ribbon in her dark hair kept slipping toward one ear.
Below her, nearly a hundred guests filled the gardens of the three-story villa. Cream-colored tables curved around a fountain, and sunlight shimmered across towers of champagne glasses.
A cake shaped like a miniature castle waited beneath the largest balloon arch. Five golden candles had been placed beside it, still unlit, because Lily wanted her father to light them himself.
She searched the crowd for him. Daniel Mercer stood near the fountain in a white shirt with his sleeves rolled above his wrists, speaking to a man in a navy suit.
Her father smiled at something the man said, but Lily knew his real smile. That one reached his eyes. The smile he wore now stopped at his mouth.
Since her mother died, Daniel had learned to wear that smile at meetings, parties, and even breakfast. Lily had learned to notice when it disappeared.
She lifted one hand toward the courtyard. Daniel looked up, saw her, and pressed his fingers over his heart. Their secret signal: I see you, even from here.
Lily pressed her hand over her own heart. The little gold star pinned to her dress glinted beneath her palm. Her mother had given it to her before her final birthday together.
The man in navy touched Daniel's elbow and redirected his attention. Victor Hale was Daniel's oldest business partner, and lately he seemed to be wherever Daniel was trying to go.
Lily disliked Victor's shiny silver watch. Whenever he leaned close, it made a hard little clicking sound, like a door being locked from the outside.
A woman in a sea-green jacket appeared behind Lily. Serena Vale, the party coordinator, carried a folded seating chart and spoke into an earpiece.
"Stay where you can see the balloons, sweetheart," Serena said distractedly. "Your father will be up after the speeches."
Lily nodded. She stood on the broad upper landing beside the balcony's white railing. The curved outdoor staircase descended from that landing toward the courtyard below.
Wrapped presents filled a rolling gold gift cart near the landing door. The cart had been parked earlier against the wall, its wheels facing away from the steps.
Lily remembered that because one package wore a glittering butterfly, and she had almost touched it before deciding she wanted all her presents to stay mysterious.
A gust of wind stirred the ribbon garlands. Somewhere behind the landing door, a metal latch clicked. Lily turned, expecting to see the caterers coming through.
Instead, the gift cart moved. At first it rolled so slowly that she thought someone must be pushing it from behind the tall pile of boxes.
"Hello?" she asked. Nobody answered. The cart picked up speed as it crossed the slightly sloping stone, its front wheels rattling against the decorative seams.
Lily stepped sideways toward the railing. The cart changed direction when one wheel caught a groove. Its heavy lower shelf struck her legs with a sickening thud.
Her knees buckled. She grabbed at the rail, but her fingers closed around a loose section of white lattice just as the cart pressed hard against it.
The section shifted outward. A fastener tore free with a metallic crack. For a terrible instant, Lily could see the courtyard between the balusters where solid railing should have been.
Her shoes lost the floor. Her pink skirt flared in the wind, and the golden star at her chest flashed against the afternoon sunlight.
"Daddy, help me!" she screamed. The words tore out of her before she understood that she was falling.
Below, Daniel heard his daughter say the one word that had always brought him running. He looked up as the white panel swung away from the balcony.
For half a heartbeat, the world lost its sound. He saw Lily suspended above the garden, her arms wide, her face emptied of every trace of birthday joy.
Then sound crashed back. Somebody screamed. A glass shattered. Victor's hand fell away from Daniel's sleeve, and Daniel was already moving.
He ran across the grass, clipped a chair with his hip, and sent it tumbling. A waiter leaped back as Daniel struck the corner of a long dessert table.
He did not feel the silver serving tray cut against his forearm. He did not see the cake plates leap or hear anyone shout his name.
All he saw was Lily. Her dark hair streamed upward as gravity pulled her toward the pale stone, and the distance between them closed faster than reason allowed.
Daniel thrust himself beneath the falling child with both arms raised. He had once caught her jumping from the third stair, laughing because she trusted him completely.
Now the stakes were every breath she might ever take. He stretched until his shoulders burned and caught her against his chest just above the courtyard floor.
The force drove him down. One knee struck the stone, then his shoulder, and he rolled sideways to keep Lily between his arms instead of beneath him.
The impact knocked the air from his lungs. For one unbearable moment he could not tell whether Lily was breathing, because his own body refused to move.
"Lily," he gasped. "Baby, look at me." Her small fingers tightened around the fabric of his shirt. A frightened sob broke against his collar.
He held her harder, though pain flashed through his left wrist. Her face was pale, and she trembled so violently that he felt every shiver.
High above them, the runaway cart ricocheted away from the damaged rail. Its back wheels struck the top stair, and a tower of presents tipped as the cart lurched downward.
The first impact echoed like thunder. Then the cart bounced down the curved staircase, step after step, gathering noise and shedding bright boxes behind it.
"Move back!" Daniel shouted. He twisted his body around Lily as the cart slammed into the balloon tower near the dessert table.
The metal stand bowed. Pastel balloons burst in a furious chain. A cascade of ribbons, cake plates, and glasses fell across the table where guests had stood seconds earlier.
Daniel felt a shower of harmless ribbon settle across his back, followed by the crash of the table collapsing. His daughter buried her face in his neck.
For several seconds, nobody moved. A woman had her hand pressed over her mouth. The quartet stood frozen, bows trembling above silent strings.
Then Daniel's mother, Rose, pushed through the crowd. Her silver hair had escaped its careful twist, and she looked suddenly older than she had that morning.
"Don't lift her," Rose warned, dropping beside them. "We need the paramedics. Daniel, can she speak?" Daniel nodded, though his throat had almost closed.
"Lily, tell Grandma your name," Rose said softly. Lily turned her face just enough to whisper, "Lily. I want Daddy."
"You have him," Daniel said. "You have me." He brushed one fingertip over her uninjured cheek, trying to steady his hand for her sake.
Victor arrived last among the nearest guests. His silver watch gleamed as he glanced from the broken balcony to the cart lying amid shattered decorations.
"A terrible accident," Victor murmured, almost to himself. "We should make certain nobody says anything careless before the police arrive."
Daniel looked at him. It was an ordinary sentence dressed in the wrong clothes, a concern for appearances in the middle of his daughter's suffering.
Something cold moved beneath Daniel's fear. He looked up at the torn railing, then at the cart, then down at Lily's little shoes.
One white shoe had come loose and lay beneath the dessert table. Daniel stared at it as if it contained the answer to a question he was afraid to ask.
May you like
The sirens reached the gate. Lily's voice, barely stronger than a breath, came from against his shirt: "Daddy, the cart wasn't supposed to move."
Daniel tightened his arms. Above them, one blue balloon slipped free of the wreckage and rose past the broken landing, carrying its thin ribbon into the sun.
