Chapter2

I walked back to the cabin on unsteady legs.

Everything I'd seen in the wheelhouse was playing on a loop in my head.

Lillian draped across Mark, effortless and proprietary.

The champagne I'd prepared in her hand.

Mark soothing her like she was a lover in need of comforting.

And then it came to me, with the slow, cold clarity of something finally surfacing.

Maybe I had never really known this man at all.

I took a long breath and pushed the door open.

The light inside was still on.

The table held everything I'd set out for tonight.

A cake. The champagne tower. Two place settings I'd chosen carefully.

A dinner meant for two, for an anniversary.

Now it looked like a punchline.

I walked to the table and touched the edge of the frosting.

It had already started to sag.

Like this marriage. Like the last ten years.

Ella, you really are a fool.

I sat on the edge of the bed, suddenly exhausted in a way that went straight to the bone.

My phone screen lit up.

The lock screen photo was one we'd taken on this same yacht, three years ago. Mark had his arm around me, grinning like he meant it.

He'd said something that day.

He'd said: Once the company's on solid ground, we're coming out here every year for our anniversary.

I stared at that photo and felt the absurdity settle over me.

Three years ago he had looked, genuinely, like a man in love.

Now I suspected that had only ever been my own interpretation.

I put the phone face-down and lay back on the bed.

But no matter how hard I closed my eyes, the images wouldn't stop. The pressure in my chest felt like something solid.

Just one night, I told myself. Get through one night.

When the yacht docks, it's over.

I wasn't going to argue with him anymore. I wasn't going to explain anything. The moment we hit land, I was calling a lawyer.

This marriage was done.

At some point I finally drifted off.

Then a violent lurch of weightlessness ripped me out of the dark.

I didn't even have time to open my eyes.

Hands were already dragging me.

I woke with a jolt.

I knew those hands. Mark's hands.

Before I'd fully come to, he was hauling me across the deck.

The night was deep. The water below was solid black.

I'd barely found my footing—barely understood what was happening—

When Mark shoved me hard.

The deck dropped out from under me.

I hit the water.

The cold swallowed me whole.

For a moment I couldn't breathe at all.

I clawed my way back toward the surface, seawater flooding my mouth, coughing hard enough to tear something. The sound of the waves filled my ears.

I got my head up.

Above me, the deck of the yacht. Light pouring down from it.

Mark at the railing with Lillian tucked against him.

I couldn't process it.

My mind went completely blank.

"Mark—" I screamed. "Have you lost your mind?"

Mark looked down at me. His face was empty.

"You had a lot to say earlier," he said.

I stared at him.

Lillian laughed softly.

"Mark, she was so cruel to me today," she said. Her voice had a wounded lilt to it. "I only mentioned the yacht was a little old and she completely lost it. Told me to get off the boat." She paused. "I really didn't think she hated me that much."

Mark's expression darkened.

He looked down at me in the water.

"Ella, you need to learn to control yourself."

The sea slapped my face again and again.

I was shaking so hard I could barely keep my head up.

"So you threw me overboard?" I screamed.

"Consider it a cold shower," he said flatly.

Lillian stood beside him, barely concealing her smile.

"Ella, there's no need to be so upset."

"Mark just thinks you get too emotional."

"Sometimes people need a little correction before they learn how to speak to others."

I looked up at her and felt the cold tighten around my chest.

The water was getting colder.

My hands and feet were going numb.

I was fighting to stay on the surface, but my body was getting heavier by the second.

I looked up at the man on the deck.

Memories came in flashes, unbidden.

Resigning from a job with a salary I'd worked years to earn.

Staying beside Mark while he built the company from scratch.

Draining my savings to keep the business afloat when things were at their worst.

Spending nearly every day at the hospital when his mother was ill, barely sleeping.

He had taken my hand back then and said something to me.

He had said: Ella, I never could have made it this far without you.

I had believed that was what real love looked like.

Now I could see I'd only ever been a chapter he was ready to close.

Lillian was still at the railing.

She looked down at me, and her smile was widening.

"Mark," she said, her voice soft. "Should we pull her up?"

Mark didn't turn around.

"Let her stay there a while," he said.