They gave me morphine from the yacht's emergency kit.
But it didn't stop the pain.
It just made the world feel like it was underwater, muffled and distant.
I was sitting in a deck chair, wrapped tightly in a blanket.
My legs were bandaged.
The burns were second-degree, or so the deckhand had said.
He was the only one who had dared to look at me.
The family was upstairs on the flybridge.
I could hear them above me, toasting the sunset.
My burner phone vibrated against my thigh.
I had hidden it in the lining of my dress before everything went wrong.
With trembling fingers, I pulled it out.
The screen was cracked, but the message was clear.
Sender: Abernathy
Transaction complete. Island secured. Jet is fueling at Teterboro. Waiting for your signal. Good luck, Ms. Hale.
I stared at the words.
Ms. Hale.
That was me now.
Isabella Douglas died the moment Jameson turned his back on the fire.
I heard footsteps.
Jameson came down the stairs.
He stopped abruptly when he saw me.
He looked at my bandaged legs.
A flicker of something crossed his face.
Horror?
Guilt?
It didn't matter.
It was too late.
"The wind was loud," he said.
His voice was tight, strained.
"I didn't hear you scream."
Liar.
I didn't say it.
I just looked at the horizon.
The storm clouds were breaking, revealing a blood-red sunset.
Haleigh called out from the upper deck.
"Jamie! Come make a wish! The sun is setting!"
Jameson hesitated.
He looked at me one last time.
He looked like a man waking up from a dream, but he squeezed his eyes shut against the reality of me.
He turned and walked back up the stairs.
Back to her.
I pushed myself up.
Pain shot up my legs, white-hot and searing, but the morphine dulled the edge just enough.
I limped to the stairs.
I climbed them, one by one.
I reached the top deck.
They were standing at the rail.
A perfect family portrait.
The brothers. The lover. The queen.
They turned when they heard me.
Haleigh smiled.
"Oh, look. She survived."
She held up her wine glass.
"Make a wish, Bella. It's our birthday, remember?"
Jameson wouldn't look at me.
He was staring intently at the water.
I gripped the railing.
\The metal was cold against my burned hands.
I looked at them.
I really looked at them.
I saw the cruelty in Derrick's eyes.
The stupidity in Blake's.
The blind loyalty in Kane's.
And the weakness in Jameson's.
I closed my eyes.
I felt the wind whip against my face.
I made a vow to the ocean.
A vow of silence.
A vow of vengeance.
A vow of self.
I opened my eyes.
I looked straight at Haleigh.
"I wish," I said, my voice cutting through the wind, "that I never have to see any of you again."
As the words left my mouth, a crack of thunder shook the sky.
The storm had arrived.
And so had I.
