The wedding stopped when a five-year-old girl ran between the bride and groom and screamed that the woman in white was not her mother. Ethan Mercer had just lifted the wedding ring above Vivian Shaw's finger. The ceremony was taking place on a wooden platform thirty feet from the swimming pool at the Hawthorne Estate, with white flowers trailing over the railing and a hundred guests seated beneath flowering trees. Lily wore a pale lavender dress and had escaped the children's room without her shoes. Her hair was braided unevenly, and her hands were shaking. Ethan crouched before her. “What did you say, sweetheart?” Lily pointed at Vivian. “That's not Mommy. Mommy is underneath. She's locked in the place by the water.” Vivian laughed too sharply. “She's confused. Claire has been telling her stories about this wedding.” Claire was Ethan's former wife. Their divorce had been painful, but she had never lied to Lily about who she was. Ethan knew that much. Lily pulled his sleeve hard enough to tear a thread. “I heard her knocking. Three little knocks, like when she sings me to sleep.” Vivian grabbed Lily by the shoulder. Ethan immediately took his daughter back. Behind the ceremony, his oldest friend and the property's owner, Adrian Vale, started toward them. “We can handle this discreetly,” Adrian said. Lily's face changed when she saw him. She took a step behind her father. “He said it was just the pipes.” Ethan asked what she meant. Lily pointed across the blue pool to the narrow service walkway behind a low wall. “Mommy's in there. I told them.” Vivian spoke into Ethan's ear. “Please, don't humiliate us because a little girl wants her parents back together.” But Lily was looking at the water, not at the bride. “Daddy, she stopped making the knocking sound.” Ethan dropped the ring. Before anyone could restrain him, he ran down the platform steps, crossed the pool deck, and jumped into the water in his wedding suit. People screamed. Under the surface, he saw a rectangular metal hatch secured inside the pool's tiled floor, just where Lily had pointed. One corner was lifted, and a thin black cable disappeared into the crack. She held it without knowing whom to give it to. The musicians stopped playing, leaving the splash of the pool louder than the guests. No one tried to restart the ceremony. Lily watched her father disappear underwater with both fists pressed against her mouth. For the first time that afternoon, the entire gathering was listening instead of celebrating. He pulled at the handle. The hatch did not move. Then something tapped three times, faint and metallic, against the far side of the underwater wall.
