Chapter 53
iris
She should never have let Finn go. She should have stopped him; tied him to the stairwell, if necessary. Instead, she’d encouraged him. She’d helped him with the fire hose. She’d told him she was proud of him.
When what she should have said was stay safe.
Better a live coward than a dead hero.
Let someone else risk their life.
Anyone but you.
But Finn had always been the first to step up and the last to leave.
He led from the front; it was why he was captain of both the football and hockey teams, the most popular boy in the school.
Iris didn’t need adversity to reveal the character of her son.
She’d always known who Finn was. And she didn’t need him to risk his life for her to be proud of him, either.
She knew how dangerous it was for him to attempt to swim to the surface. She might not understand the science of diving, like Amy, but she knew what the bends were.
And she knew the danger when the boat started rolling again.
But then Finn was pulling himself hand over hand back along the fire hose and into the cabin, and she hauled her son into her arms as he gasped for air, as toxic and suffocating as it was; and despite everything, despite the fact that Finn’s rescue mission had quite possibly been their last chance, that he was now doomed alongside the rest of them, she felt profoundly thankful because in this moment he was alive, he hadn’t drowned or been crushed by the rolling boat, and she’d thought she’d never see him again.
‘Mom,’ he said. ‘I need to tell you something.’
‘You don’t have to say anything,’ Iris said, cupping her son’s face in her two hands. ‘I love you, too.’
‘Mom, listen,’ Finn said urgently, pulling her hands away. ‘If something happens to me, if you get out of here, I need you to promise me that you’ll fix this. For me. Please.’
But she couldn’t fix what he told her next, whispering his secret into her ear.
She thought she must’ve misheard.
‘What did you just say?’ Iris said.
‘Mom. Promise me you’ll put it right,’ Finn said.
‘Have you told anybody else?’
‘Only Ashley. Mom! Promise!’
‘I promise,’ Iris said, too appalled by what he’d just told her to really take it in.
‘Hold on!’ Amy shouted. ‘Grab something! The boat’s turning over!’
The water inside the cabin was sloshing back and forth against the cabin walls, rebounding with greater and greater momentum as the boat rocked and rolled. In a moment, the Lady would turn turtle completely. The air pocket that’d sustained them all would fill with water.
‘Mom—’
And then the boat began its final roll, and Iris was abruptly wrenched from her son by a huge surge of water.
She tumbled through the cabin, slamming into chairs and walls and bodies and tables, unable to catch hold of anything, not even knowing which way was up.
And just as she thought she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, her head broke the surface.
‘Finn!’ she cried.
She could see his dark red head at the opposite side of the cabin. He was half submerged in the water, and with a clutch of horror, Iris realised he was unconscious.
‘Finn!’
She fought her way towards him, but the water inside the cabin was moving more violently now, tossing her further away from him as it pitched and rolled like an ocean during a storm.
All around her, teenagers were screaming in terror.
This was the end, now, and they all knew it.
Jenna Lincoln slammed into the wall and shrieked in agony.
Little Darcey disappeared beneath the water, resurfacing once, twice, as the world around them spun, and then after that Iris didn’t see her come up again.
There was a moment when Iris abruptly found herself face to face with Ashley, so close she could have kissed her or killed her; and then, just as suddenly, the watery merry-go-round whirled them away from each other and the girl was gone.
Nicky was still clinging with both hands to the brass grab rail, his body swinging back and forth like a rag doll in the hand of a small child. He coughed and spluttered as oily lake water battered him in increasing waves, yelling for his mother, but he didn’t let go.
Iris saw Amy turn towards Nicky and shout his name.
But her sister had seen Finn, too.
Suddenly Iris was grateful Amy had always been so possessive of her nephew; thankful she’d been so quick to take credit and responsibility for Finn, pushing Iris into second place in her own son’s life.
Because now, when it mattered most, her sister chose Finn over Nicky.
She watched Amy let go of the table to which she was clinging and half fall, half swim towards Finn as the boat lurched.
And then she lost sight of them both as the Lady began her last, terminal swing, her hull grinding with the sound of a thousand clashing gears as the metal fatigued and began tearing apart.
Nicky screamed as he rose above their heads with the motion of the boat, still gripping the rail, the water suddenly ten, then twenty, thirty, feet below him.
Iris watched helplessly from below. She realised if he let go now, he’d smack the surface of the water with such brutal force it’d be like hitting concrete.
But he couldn’t hold on to the rail much longer.
Iris knew what his last, anguished thoughts would be in his final seconds of life.
His own mother had betrayed him.
Amy had chosen to save Finn and let him die.