PART 12 – The Family Holiday Was Gone, and All That Remained Was the Question I Had Been Asking Since I Saw Her Fall

I couldn't think about the Fourth of July anymore.

The food didn't matter.

The fireworks didn't matter.

The gathering at my parents' lake house didn't matter.

Everything that had made the afternoon feel ordinary had disappeared.

There was only the water.

There was only the search.

And there was only one question I needed answered.

Where was Cassie?

I remembered the moment I had returned from the house.

I had expected to find her near the dock.

Instead, Trey and his jet ski were gone.

I remembered my mother's casual explanation.

I remembered my father's confidence.

I remembered looking out and seeing the machine moving too fast.

Then I remembered the fall.

I had watched my daughter disappear from the back of that jet ski.

I had watched the machine continue without her.

I had trusted, for a few seconds, that Trey would turn around.

He hadn't.

And when he returned, he brought the life jacket.

I could still picture the orange material in his hand.

I could still hear his explanation.

I could still remember my father's warning.

Those memories were no longer separate events.

They had become one terrible afternoon.

I kept thinking about how easily things might have been different if Trey had never taken her.

If he had waited for me.

If he had kept her life jacket on.

If he had stopped immediately when she fell.

But none of those things had happened.

I couldn't change the past by replaying it.

I could only keep searching.

The lake was still moving around me.

I looked across the surface again.

I searched for pink.

I searched for orange.

I searched for my daughter's face.

I wanted to hear her voice.

I wanted to reach her.

I wanted to bring her back to the shore.

I didn't know what the next few minutes would bring.

I didn't know what the people at the dock were seeing.

I didn't know whether anyone had found anything else.

I knew only that I wasn't ready to stop looking.

I had promised Cassie I would come for her.

And I kept searching because that promise was still the only thing I could hold on to.

Click here to continue reading: PART 13: I Kept Looking Beyond the Strawberry Hair Tie, Because I Refused to Believe That Small Piece of Plastic Was All I Would Find