My son-in-law’s family thought it’d be funny to push my daughter into the icy lake.

The air was still frigid, biting against my skin, as I stood on the edge of the pier. I watched the ambulance disappear down the winding road, taillights blinking into the distance. The echo of laughter still clung to the atmosphere, a haunting reminder of the cruel jest that had spiraled into something far more sinister. The chilling image of Milina submerged beneath the ice lingered in my mind—a vision of fragility and peril.

The fisherman, whose name I would never know, offered a nod before steering his boat back into the mist-laden expanse of the lake. He left without a word, his silent empathy the sole comfort in the aftermath of chaos. I wished I could thank him, express my gratitude for his timely intervention, but the words caught in my throat, tangled in the dense web of emotions.

Alone again, I paced along the shoreline, each step crunching against the frost-hardened ground. My thoughts orbited around Milina. Her laughter, her vivacity, her spark—everything that defined her seemed perilously close to being extinguished. An icy resolve had replaced panic, coursing through my veins with each heartbeat. My brother’s name glowed from the screen, a lifeline to a past I had long tried to leave behind.

Our family hadn’t spoken in years, a chasm of silence stretching between us ever since life’s divergent paths pulled us apart. Yet in this moment, our shared blood felt like a connection to something unbreakable, and I knew he would understand the gravity of my call.

I could picture him: standing in his office, the walls adorned with accolades that belied the world we came from. His life had always been about the edges, the shadows of morality where justice sometimes required its own brand of reckoning. It was a world I had left behind for the sake of my daughter, but desperation had brought me back to its doorstep.

As I waited, the quiet around me was absolute, a stark contrast to the turmoil within. I imagined the first domino tipping, setting off a chain reaction that would reach Preston and his father, who were now blissfully unaware of the storm gathering on their horizon. There were no second thoughts, no regrets. Just the unwavering certainty that what had happened could not go unanswered.