The woman had already ignored a direct instruction to leave and grabbed her without warning. Alicia was not going to assume that the fall had made her less likely to act impulsively.
Karen pushed her hair away again.
Water dripped from her wrist.
Her expression sharpened.
“You’ll regret that!”
The words echoed across the pool.
Alicia looked directly into her eyes.
The threat did not surprise her.
After everything else, it seemed almost inevitable.
Karen had arrived expecting obedience.
When she didn’t get it, she escalated.
When that failed, she put a hand on Alicia.
Now, gripping the edge of the pool, she was still trying to recover control through fear.
Alicia felt her anger settle.
It did not vanish.
It became quieter.
There was a difference between losing her temper and deciding she would no longer make room for someone else’s.
She had spent the encounter trying to leave Karen a simple way out.
The woman had refused it.
Alicia’s gaze remained steady.
“When you find out who I am, you’ll be the one regretting this.”
She spoke coldly.
Not loudly.
Karen’s eyes narrowed.
For the first time since she entered, the woman seemed to hesitate before choosing her next expression.
The sentence had not given her information she could immediately use.
It had raised a question.
Alicia saw that question arrive and remain.
Karen looked at her again.
More carefully now.
The turquoise bikini.
The loose curls.
The athletic build.
The face she had barely bothered to study when she first pointed.
Alicia could almost feel the effort behind the new attention.
Karen was reconsidering details she had already dismissed.
Nothing about Alicia’s appearance had changed.
Only the woman’s certainty had.
Still, Karen did not release the edge.
She looked toward the house again, perhaps expecting some visible answer there.
The windows reflected the afternoon.
The patio remained ordinary.
A glass of water on a small table.
A towel.
A pair of sunglasses.
There was no convenient sign explaining whom she had chosen to threaten.
Alicia offered none.
She did not reach for a phone to prove a point.
She did not name anyone.
She did not turn the encounter into a speech.
Karen had enough to process already.
The water moved around her as she shifted her grip.
Her blouse dragged heavily through it.
Alicia watched the movement and kept a measured distance.
The pool had become a space between them, but not a comfortable one.
The gate was still open.
That detail continued to trouble her.
Anyone passing close enough might hear Karen shouting or see the aftermath without seeing what came before it. A fall into a pool was easy to turn into a dramatic picture.
A hand gripping Alicia’s arm had happened quickly.
Alicia looked briefly at the side passage.
Nothing appeared yet.
She looked back at Karen.
The woman’s attention followed the glance, and her mouth tightened as though she had noticed an opportunity.
Alicia understood how the next few minutes could become more difficult.
Someone would arrive.
Karen would speak first if she could.
Her wet clothes would be visible.
Her outrage would be loud.
The reason for it might become less visible with every retelling.