Chapter 1 The surprise

The email came at 3:17 PM, on what should have been the best day of Mia Torres’s life. She stared at her phone screen, at the subject line: ‘Transfer Application Status: Accepted’. She blinked, waiting for the words to change. When they didn’t, a laugh burst out from deep in her chest.

“Oh my God,” she whispered to her empty apartment. Then, louder, “Oh my GOD!”

She’d done it. She was finally going to St. Augustine’s College, Ethan’s college. After two years of saving every penny and working double shifts at the diner, with its bad coffee and rude customers, she had made it.

Her hands shook as she hit his number on speed dial. It rang twice, then went to voicemail. His warm, slightly breathless voice filled her ear: “You’ve reached Ethan. I’m probably buried under biochemistry notes, but leave a message and I’ll dig myself out.”

She almost told him right then, but stopped herself. This was too big for a voicemail. She needed to see his face light up. She needed to feel his arms sweep her off her feet in that spinning hug he always gave her. He was probably in the library anyway, his dark hair falling into his eyes while he studied.

“A surprise it is,” she murmured, grabbing her jacket and bus fare.

The forty-minute ride felt like forever. Mia bounced her leg against the worn seat, running through scenarios. Would he be shocked? Happy? Would he lift her up and spin her around, making the other students shush them? The thought made her smile.

She had dreamed of this since he left their small town with the scholarship....the one she had given up for him. She was so proud, watching him chase the future she had always pictured for him. He promised to visit often, but those visits became rare. His studies and her work made it hard to find time together. Video calls became their lifeline, connecting his ivy-covered world with her simple one.

But now she was here. Finally here.

The campus looked like something from a movie. Gothic spires pierced a painted-blue sky, ancient oaks casting shadows on perfect green lawns where students lounged with casual confidence. The air seemed different....cleaner, and full of a kind of privilege she’d only seen in magazines.

She followed the main pathway toward Harson Hall where Ethan lived. He had mentioned that junior year meant a single room, wiggling his eyebrows through the laptop screen. “Finally, some privacy for when my gorgeous girlfriend visits.”

The memory warmed her cheeks. She walked faster, almost floating past students who looked like they’d stepped out of a catalog. For the first time in two years, she felt like she belonged somewhere other than behind a counter.

She was maybe a hundred yards from the dormitory when she noticed the crowd.

They were gathered by the campus lake, a pretty spot surrounded by willow trees. Students stood at the water’s edge, whispering and their voices creating a buzz that made Mia uneasy. Something was wrong.

“Excuse me,” she said, touching a girl’s elbow. "What's going on?”

The girl’s face was pale, her eyes wide with shock. “Someone found… they found a body, in the lake.”

The world tilted.

“A body?” Mia’s voice sounded distant.

“Yeah, floating near the shore. Police are here and everything. It’s so awful—nothing like this ever happens here. This is St.Augustine.”

But Mia was already pushing through the crowd, her heart pounding. She had to see for herself. She had to prove this had nothing to do with her, nothing to do with Ethan.

Bright yellow police tape stretched between stakes, against the beautiful backdrop. Two officers maintained order, pushing back curious onlookers. Through a gap between shoulders, she caught her first glimpse.

A body. Face-down in the murky water, swollen and still. Dark hair floated around it like seaweed. A wave of sickness hit her, and she pressed her hand to her mouth.

Look away, her brain screamed. Find Ethan. Tell him about this terrible thing.

But her traitorous eyes flicked back to the water. And that’s when she saw it.

The shirt.

Faded grey cotton, worn soft. And on the back, visible even from where she stood, was a clumsily painted design that made her knees buckle. Saturn, a little lopsided, with a tiny rocket ship bumping into its rings. Beneath it, their private joke: “I Crashed Into You.”

They’d painted those shirts together last summer in her tiny kitchen, getting more paint on themselves than fabric. Ethan wore his proudly despite their terrible artistic skills, promising to wear it every week until she arrived.

“It’ll be like a beacon,” he’d said, pulling her close. “A signal that I’m waiting for you.”

The crowd’s noise faded to a high-pitched whine in her ears. She couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be real—it had to be a sick joke, a nightmare she’d wake up from.

Lots of people wore grey shirts. Maybe someone else had the same idea. Maybe it was just a horrible coincidence…

The officer in gloves carefully turned the body over to secure it to the stretcher. And Mia’s world shattered.

The face was swollen, pale, all wrong. But the shape of the nose, the line of the jaw, the small scar on his forehead from a childhood bike crash—she would have known him anywhere, in any condition.

Ethan.

The sound that tore from her throat wasn’t human, a raw cry from a place deeper than her lungs. She stumbled back, her vision narrowing until all she could see was that terrible, impossible sight. Someone bumped into her “Hey, watch it” but their voice felt distant and muffled.

Her legs gave out. She didn’t fall only because she grabbed the rough bark of a nearby oak tree. Other students kept walking, already talking about what happened as if it was a show, not the end of everything that mattered to her.

The Police were zipping up a black bag. The show was over and life was already moving on.

But Mia stayed frozen against the tree, staring at the spot where her future had just vanished into dark water. The acceptance letter in her bag felt like a cruel joke now....a ticket to a life that didn’t exist anymore.

Her phone was still clutched in her hand. She unlocked it with shaking fingers. Ethan’s smiling face looked back from her wallpaper....alive, laughing, and so full of life. The photo was from a video call just two weeks ago, a screenshot she’d saved because he had looked so genuinely happy.

“I can’t wait to show you everything,” he’d said through the screen. “The library where I basically live, the coffee shop with terrible muffins you love, the lake where everyone studies. You’re going to love it here Mia. We’re going to love it here.”

And now he was gone, leaving her alone in a place that had turned from a dream into a nightmare.

But as the initial shock settled into something colder in her chest, one thought burned through the chaos in her mind.

This was no accident.

Ethan had been swimming since he was eight. He’d taught her how to swim, patient with her when she panicked in the deep end. Just last month, he’d talked about doing morning laps in the campus pool, complaining the chlorine was turning his hair green.

He wouldn’t just drown. Not in a calm campus lake. Not when he was always so careful.

Someone had done this to him. Someone had taken her reason for being here, stolen their future, and dumped his body in the dark water like trash.

She looked at the crowd walking away, at students already moving on with their days, and felt something sharp and cold settle in her gut. The police might believe the easy story, but she never would.

She was going to find out who did this.

She was going to make them pay.

This was the cruelest surprise she could have ever imagined.