Chapter 1
Rowan's POV
Beau and I have been together for three years. I paid for the entire yacht charter out of my own pocket, and he shows up with his childhood best friend Sadie in tow, then goes around telling everyone it was his idea, his grand gesture.
Out on the water, Sadie spots a small octopus drifting near the surface and decides she has to have it. The thing pulses with glowing blue rings.
I'm a certified expert diver. I know exactly what it is the second I see it. I try to stop her.
She bursts into tears and tells Beau I'm going after her.
So Beau, ever the hero where Sadie's concerned, jumps in himself and fishes the thing out.
Sadie plays with it. It bites her. She's on the deck before she even knows what hit her.
Beau grabs me, screaming at me to suck out the venom. I refuse. He calls me a cold, heartless bitch, and in the chaos, shoves me overboard into shark-infested water.
I die out there. Nothing left of me.
They use my phone to fake a suicide note. Depression, they say. Jumped on her own. Then they take my company, my assets, everything.
They post online hinting I tried to push Sadie in and slipped.
My parents, worn down by the online harassment and the grief of losing me, both die of heart attacks.
Then I open my eyes. And I'm back. The morning of the trip.
"Rowan, oh my god, look at that little octopus — it has these blue rings and they're literally glowing! Beau, can you grab me a net? I want to catch it!"
That voice cuts straight through me, saccharine and grating all at once. A reminder that this is real. I actually came back.
In the glare of the sun, Sadie hangs over the yacht railing, pointing excitedly at the water. Behind her, Beau hands her a long-handled net, grinning like she just made his whole day.
Exactly the same as last time.
"Rowan? Hello? Sadie wants the octopus. You've got those cut-proof gloves, right? Go help her get it." Beau's already got that impatient edge in his voice.
I stare at his face. The face I spent a whole lifetime hating. I dig my nails into my palm and hold it there until the pain pulls me back to the present.
One second. That's all it takes to go from the girl who swallowed every insult just to keep the peace, to someone who crawled back from hell with nothing left to lose.
"That's a blue-ringed octopus." I take a step back, voice flat. "Tetrodotoxin. Twelve hundred times more toxic than cyanide. One octopus carries enough venom to kill twenty-six adults in minutes. There is no antidote. None."
Sadie's hand tightens around the net. Something flickers behind her eyes for just a second. Then it's gone, back to that same mix of contempt and wounded little girl act she always runs.
"Rowan, if you don't want to help, just say so. Why are you making stuff up to scare me?" She pouts and turns to Beau. "You see what she does? Every single time I want something, she pulls this. It's just a tiny octopus. I've literally seen them at the aquarium back home."
Beau's face pinches. "Rowan, seriously? Sadie's just trying to have a good time. If you don't want to help, fine, but quit trying to freak her out."
That almost makes me laugh.
Let go of the need to save people who won't be saved. If they're this dead set on walking into it, that's on them.
"Fine. Go ahead." I pull out my phone and hit record, pointing the camera straight at both of them. "I've told you what it is. You still want to touch it, that's your choice. I just want this on video so when something goes wrong, the Australian coast guard doesn't point the finger at me."
"What is your problem?" Beau's face goes tight.
Sadie sets her jaw and shoves the net into the water to prove a point.
"Just watch. Beau, when I get it up here, we're cooking it."
I watch her hang halfway over the railing, dragging the net around blindly below.
The octopus inks and disappears into the deep.
"It got away!" Sadie slams the net onto the deck and turns on me, her expression pure fury. "That's your fault. If you hadn't been standing here recording everything like some kind of freak, I would've had it. You literally ruin everything."
I pocket my phone without sparing her a glance and head for the helm.
"You missed it. Go back inside. Water's getting rough and I'm speeding up."
"Rowan, don't you walk away from me." Beau grabs my wrist. When I turn around, his jaw is tight, something ugly simmering just underneath. "What is going on with you today? Sadie is my guest. You owe her an apology. Right now."
I look down at his hand wrapped around my wrist.
That hand. The same one that shoved me into the water without a second thought.
I pull free. When I look up at him, my expression gives him nothing.
"You want me to apologize?"
