The boat was big enough for all of them. It had a wide deck with railings the children could hold onto, and the water below was so clear that Franz could see straight through to the sandy bottom even when they were far from shore.

Arianne gathered the children before they boarded. Her voice was calm but firm.

"Three rules. No standing near the edge unless someone is holding your hand. No jumping. Listen to the guides. If they say move back, you move back. Okay?"

"Okay," Lily said.

Leo nodded. Kyle nodded too, very fast.

"Good. Let’s go."

The boat pushed away from the dock, and the adventure started.

Lily had her video camera. She’d been carrying it around all week, practicing for the baby videos she’d decided to make. She held it up now and pressed the button, her face very serious.

"We’re on a boat," she said to the camera. "A big boat. We’re gonna see whales. Real whales. That’s the ocean. It’s really big."

She turned the camera toward Julian, who was trying to keep Kyle’s sun hat on his head. "Uncle Julian. Say hi to the baby."

Julian looked up. "Hi, baby. I’m your Uncle Julian. I’m very excited to meet you. Try not to kick too much. Your mom needs sleep."

"That’s not a nice hello," Lily said.

"It’s an honest hello."

Lily made a face and pointed the camera at Kyle. "Kyle, your turn."

Kyle leaned in so close that his nose almost touched the lens. "Hi baby! I’m Kyle! I’m gonna be your friend! We’re gonna see whales today! Big ones!"

Leo was next. Lily pointed the camera at him, and he held up his tablet: HI BABY. I’M LEO. I MADE YOU A DRAWING OF A WHALE.

"He looked at a picture to draw it," Lily added, "so it looks real."

Leo typed: I USED A PICTURE.

Franz was leaning on the railing, watching them. Lily turned the camera toward him.

"Uncle Franz. You have to say something."

He looked into the camera’s recording light. Somewhere, months from now, a baby who wasn’t born yet would see this. His chest tightened, then eased.

"I can’t wait to see you," he said. "We’re going to come back here someday. All of us. You too."

Lily nodded, satisfied, and swung the camera toward Arianne. "Mommy Aria. Your turn."

Arianne was sitting near the cabin with her hand on her belly. She shook her head. "I don’t need to be on camera."

"Everyone else did. It’s for the baby."

"The baby can hear me. I’m right here."

"But the baby won’t remember. When it’s big, it can watch the video and see you."

Arianne looked at the camera, then at Lily’s determined face behind it, then at Leo who was watching her with those dark eyes, then at Franz who was trying not to smile.

"Fine." She looked into the lens. "I’m looking forward to meeting you too. Now put the camera down before you drop it in the ocean."

Lily beamed. "That was good. You did good, Mommy Aria."

The guide called out. They had reached the spot.

Lily ran to the railing with her camera clutched in one hand, and Franz caught her shoulder to keep her back from the edge. "Hold on. Let’s look first."

The water was so clear. Beneath the boat, something massive was moving—a shadow, dark and slow, gliding through the blue. Then it surfaced. A broad back, smooth and gray, broke the water with a soft rush of air and spray.

Lily screamed. "A whale! A real whale! Leo, did you see it? Kyle, did you see?"

Leo pressed against the railing beside her with his eyes wide and his mouth open. Kyle rushed to Lily’s side, and his sun hat finally escaped Julian’s grip and flew overboard. Nobody noticed.

"There’s more," the guide said. "Look."

Three more whales surfaced further out, their backs dark against the light. The children went silent, too awed to make noise. The whales moved in long, graceful arcs, their massive bodies cutting through the water like they weighed nothing at all.

Julian and Franz pulled on their scuba gear. The guides had arranged it—a closer look, just the two of them, while Arianne stayed on the boat with the children. Franz paused before going under and looked at Arianne.

"I’ll be right back."

"I know. Go."

He went over the side with Julian, and the underwater world opened up around him. The whales were even bigger from below. Their bodies blocked out the sun and cast shadows that stretched across the sea floor. One of them turned, and its eye met his for a brief, impossible moment. Then it swam on.

When they surfaced, Lily was shouting at them from the boat. "I want to see! I want to go under too! Why can’t I go?"

Arianne had her hand on Lily’s shoulder. "Because you’re too small. You’d sink."

"I wouldn’t sink. I can swim."

"You can swim in a pool. The ocean is different. When you’re taller and older, you can come back and see the whales up close."

Lily looked at the water, then at the whales still circling in the distance. "When I’m bigger. I’m going to eat a lot so I grow fast."

"Me too," Kyle said. "I’m going to eat everything."

Leo typed: I WILL GROW TOO. THEN I CAN SEE THE WHALES.

Kyle tugged on the guide’s sleeve. "Is the whale still growing?"

The guide laughed. "No, little one. That whale is already grown."

Kyle thought about this. "It’s already big enough."

The dolphins came a little while later. The guide had said they might—dolphins liked to swim near whales. The children were at the railing again with their earlier disappointment forgotten as a pod of dolphins raced alongside the boat, leaping and spinning in the water.

"Look at them! They’re so fast! They’re smiling!"

"They’re not smiling," Lily said. "That’s just how their faces look. I read it in my whale book."

"They look happy anyway," Kyle said.

The dolphins stayed with them for a while, then peeled away and chased each other toward the horizon. The whales had already disappeared into the deep. The boat turned back toward shore. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

It was late afternoon when they returned to the estate. Dinner was waiting—a spread of fresh seafood, fruit, and rice that the children barely touched because they were too busy talking. Lily and Kyle talked over each other with their voices rising and falling as they described the whales and the dolphins and the whale that was already grown and the dolphins that looked like they were smiling even though they weren’t. Leo joined in with his tablet, typing short sentences that Lily read aloud for everyone.

"And then Uncle Franz went under the water! He saw the whale from underneath! Leo drew a picture of it, look—"

Leo held up his tablet. The drawing was rough: a whale shape, a stick figure with scuba gear, and the boat floating above them all.

"That’s very good, Leo," Amanda said. Vincent nodded, his expression open.

Lily set down her fork. "Can we learn swimming? Me and Leo? Kyle wants to learn too."

"I can teach you," Franz said. "After I’m done with filming."

"But we don’t have a pool at home."

"You can use the pool at our house," Amanda said. "I’ll have the housekeeper make sure it’s clean. You can come over whenever you want."

Lily’s face lit up. "Really? We can swim at your house?"

"Anytime."

"We’re going to learn swimming," Lily told Kyle. "All of us. We’re going to be really good at it."

"So good," Kyle agreed.

Arianne said little through dinner. She ate what Franz put on her plate and leaned against him a little more with each passing minute. By the time the children were finishing their dessert, her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Are you tired?" he asked.

"Exhausted."

Amanda overheard and made a shooing motion with her hands. "Take her to bed. I’ll handle the children. Go."

Franz didn’t argue. He helped Arianne up the stairs to their room with one hand on her back and the other holding her elbow. In the bathroom, he started the tub and tested the water temperature the way she liked it, hot but not too hot.

"What scent do you want?"

"The mild one. The one without the strong smell."

He found it among the bottles on the counter. Her products and his, mixed together now. She watched him from the edge of the tub with her eyes half-closed.

"The skincare endorsement," she said. "The one I gave you and Sam. Have you read it?"

"Yes. I want to talk to Daryll first." He poured the bath oil into the water. "I don’t want to sign a new endorsement while my Bluegate contract hasn’t ended yet. It could cause problems."

"That makes sense."

He helped her into the tub, then stripped off his own clothes and joined her, settling behind her so she could lean back against his chest. The water was hot, and the scent was mild and pleasant. Her body relaxed against him, and steam rose around their faces.

"Did you have a good day?" he asked.

"The whales were beautiful. The children loved it."

"I meant you. Did you have a good day?"

A pause. Then: "Yes. I did."

He kissed the top of her head. The water lapped against the sides of the tub. Outside, the ocean was dark, and the stars were beginning to appear. The children’s voices drifted up from downstairs, talking about whales.