My father is the one who drove drunk. He’s the one who brought all this to bear on me, and now I’m going to die because of him. After everything he’s already put me through.
I was thrown out of the family because I told them what they were doing was wrong. I wasn’t a part of the cover up. I hated it, despised my father for refusing to accept responsibility. Two dead. Leo and his sister badly burned, their lives irreparably damaged.
My father got away with it, said this is what families do, they protect each other. Family is more important than anything. Years of the lies, of him refusing to accept he did a thing wrong.
My eyes start to close and I know that this time they’re not going to open again. I’m not here anymore. I’m listening to my father telling me family is all that matters. Me replying that if he doesn’t confess the truth and take responsibility, I’m going to tell all.
The fear of that moment never left me. The way he looked at me with that anger in his eyes as he spoke. “Say that again and I’ll kill you,” he said, his voice perfectly calm.
I didn’t last another day in the house. I went to school and came back to find my bags packed. Mom managed to persuade him to let me keep my college tuition but that was it. Cut off. Not another cent going to me. I was on my own, aged sixteen.
I clawed my way out of that situation. Moved in with Fleur. Went to college together when we finished school. Got my degree. Got my Masters. Got my own business started. And for what?
To freeze to death in the middle of the ocean? That’s my legacy. That’s my epitaph. Died at sea. Achieved nothing. Paid for my father’s crimes with my life.
My eyes are shut when I hear a distant sound that can’t be real.
I know it can’t be real because it’s insane. I use every last ounce of willpower to force my eyes open but the spray hitting them makes it impossible to see.
There it is again. Leo’s voice, coming from a great distance away as something hits my side. What is he saying? Function, brain, damn it. Function.
“Grab.”
“My.”
“Hand.”
The words are separated by hours of time. They work their way into my head like jigsaw puzzle pieces. I have to slot them together in hundreds of ways before I can make sense of them.
“Grab my hand, Anna.”
Louder this time.
Something cuts through the fog in my brain. Grab his hand. Reach out and grab it.
I shake my head even as my hand gropes toward him. “No, not going with you. Going home.” My brain is far away, drifting even further with every second that passes.
“Don’t be so stubborn. You’ll die out here. Grab my hand. That’s an order.”
That gets through the fog.
I move my fingers toward him again. Or, at least, I think I do. I can’t see anything. I’m shifted by a wave as my hand scrapes loudly on something and then I feel light as a feather. I’m going up to heaven. I’m floating in the air, the sky getting closer, the clouds rushing down to meet me.
I blink and then I see what’s actually happening. I’m being lifted into a boat. That’s impossible. The boat sank.
“Leo,” I try to say but all that comes out is a hoarse croak. “Is that you?”
“Don’t try to speak,” he replies as my teeth start chattering again. Something heavy hits my shoulders. I look down. A blanket. “You’re freezing cold,” he says, the voice penetrating the fog around my head, reaching in and getting through somehow. “We need to get you out of these wet things right now.”
“No,” I snap, tugging the blanket around me. I don’t want to be any more vulnerable than I already am.
I fight his hands, lashing out without control.
He curses under his breath, grabbing my wrists and holding them by my side, getting right down to my face, his voice calm even as his eyes flare with anger. “You stay like that, you’ll be dead before we get back to the island. Your temperature is dangerously low. Stop fighting me.”
“Fuck you. You spanked me, Leo. Get off of me. Leave me alone.”
“I will not let you die.”