The Villa After the Rainstorm

When the wedding team started pounding on the door, the second, heavier slam was what jolted me awake.

My head felt stuffed with cotton. My throat tasted bitter. I was on the edge of the living-room rug, my cheek pressed to the cold hardwood. Outside, the sky was a dull gray. The downpour had just let up, but the surf was still hammering the rocks below the villa. Someone outside shouted, frantic: “Ms. Sterling? Vivian? We have to start hair and makeup!”

No one answered.

Then the butler, Luis: “Step back. I’ll use the spare.”

The moment the door opened, cold air rushed in, carrying the smell of seawater and wet wood. Someone spotted me first. The scream nearly split my temples.

“Oh my God—someone’s in here!”

I pushed myself upright against the sofa, my vision doubling and smearing. The bar was wrecked—champagne bottles on their sides, an ice bucket half-melted, wine glasses shattered on the floor. Like last night’s party had been paused and then smashed to pieces. My skirt was stained with spilled alcohol. My hands were tacky with something dried.

“Clara?” A makeup artist recognized me, and her voice changed instantly. “Why is it you?”

Before I could answer, a sharper scream exploded from the stairs. Everyone surged that way. Two people half-dragged me to my feet.

At the bottom of the staircase, Audrey lay on her side near the steps. Her neck was bent at an angle a neck shouldn’t bend. Blonde hair stuck to her drained face. Her eyes were open, frozen in the same expression she’d used to sneer at me last night.

My stomach clenched hard. I grabbed the wall and started retching.

“Nina’s over here—”

On the far side of the living room, on the rug by the floor-to-ceiling windows, Nina was facedown, fingers hooked into the curtain, her nails packed with threads. Belle was crumpled at the corner of the hall, lips bluish, the strap of her dress slipped off her shoulder like it had been torn loose in a struggle.

Three of them. Three bodies.

I could barely stand. The only thing in my ears was a steady, high buzz. Last night’s memories broke into scraps—music, shouting, old photos projected on the wall. Audrey raising a glass: “To our most forgiving ex.” Laughter. Vivian reaching over, taking the hard liquor away from me, pressing a cold bottle of soda into my hand.

After that…?

“Upstairs. The master bedroom,” Luis said, already pale. “Ms. Sterling never came down.”

I didn’t want to go up. But the crowd was already pushing toward the stairs. Someone gripped my arm like they were afraid I’d run. I was brought to the master bedroom door, half closed. Inside, the floral scent was so sweet it turned my stomach. The wedding planner shoved the door open, took one look, and let out a strangled scream before collapsing to the floor.

By the bed, Vivian was wearing last night’s satin robe. She’d slid down against the bed frame onto the floor, hair loose, one arm hanging limp. A drawer in front of her was yanked open. On the floor, there was ash from burned paper.

Her eyes were closed, like she’d finally finished a performance.

“Call the police!” someone sobbed. “Call them now!”

I stared at her, and there was only one thought left in my head: last night she’d been smiling. When she blocked the drink Audrey tried to hand me, she’d even leaned in and said, low, “Don’t drink that.”

When the first two patrol officers arrived, the whole house changed in an instant. People were shoved back. I was separated and pressed into a chair in the dining room. A female officer looked at my shaking hands and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Clara Hayes.”

Her pen stopped. She looked up at me. Behind her, the groom’s relatives and friends—who’d been crying a second ago—lit up like someone had struck a match, all heads turning at once.

“Clara Hayes?”

“Is that Clara?”

“Vivian’s friend from college?”

“Friend?” someone scoffed. “You mean the ex.”

The air shifted. Something slid into place beneath the fear, like the last piece of a puzzle being pressed down.

Hoarse, I said, “I don’t know what happened. Last night, I only remember—I drank a lot, and then Vivian gave me a soda, and I—”

“Shut up.” An older woman stepped forward, her pearl earrings trembling. “You still have the nerve to say her name.”

More police lights washed through the wet glass. A tall female detective walked into the villa. Her badge read Detective Quinn. She took in the scene—the bodies, the trashed bar—then stopped on me.

Luis murmured something to her. Quinn glanced at the access-control screen and the security monitor, her brow tightening by the second.

“No one came or went overnight,” she said. “During the storm, the pier was cut off by the tide. The cameras didn’t catch a single stranger.”

The moment she said it, every eye in the room nailed itself back onto my face.

I understood, all at once, why I was still sitting here alive.

Because in this sealed-up villa, four people were dead—and I was the only one awake.

And I just happened to be the person with the best reason to hate the bride.

Quinn snapped her notebook shut and walked up to me. Her voice was as cold as the sea pulling back outside.

“Ms. Hayes,” she said. “Tell me one thing first—what exactly did you do to Vivian last night?”