Chapter 12
Calvin’s pupils contracted sharply, his mind suddenly blank.#
Hurst’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but not a sound escaped him, Cold sweat seeped from his palms, and his fingers trembled as he reached for the necklace. Yet the instant he touched it, it was as if he’d been shocked–he recalled, hand snatched awayd
The two men met each other’s eyes in slow motion. Terror and confusion flickered between them.
“It’s hers…”
“It’s Nettie’s necklace…”
Unbidden, the memory r
replayed in both their minds.
Nettie was thirteen when Calvin and Hurst together gave her a necklace made from three interlinked rings.
The
rings were pressed closely together: the smallest, in the middle, stood for Nettie. The two larger rings on either side symbolized Calvin and Hurst, the unspoken promise that they would always, always protect her and never leave her side.
Nettle had worn that necklace every day since. Even when they’d hurt her–for Charis’s sake–she’d never once taken it off.
Now the necklace had turned up, but Nettie herself was gone.
The truth–the one they’d ignored, the one they refused to accept–rose again, Inescapable.
Nettle was really dead. Not a trace of her body left behind.
A tidal wave of grief swelled between them, and seemed to sweep over everyone present
Drip.0
No one could say whose tears fell first, mingling with the pounding rain as they vanished into the sea.
Boom &
A crack of thunder split the sky, lightning illuminating the colorless faces of the two men.
Rain blurred Calvin’s vision. The world warped and wavered before him, and in his mind, a single voice echoed, relentless-
Nettie is dead!
His sister, the only family he had left in the world, was gone./
Hurst’s breathing came fast and ragged, his chest heaving as if every breath stabbed him from the inside out.
He should have known. He should have seen this coming.
The explosion had been massive. The fire had been all–consuming.
No one could have survived.8
They’d even tied her up tightly, to be sure Nettie wouldn’t escape.B
How could she have lived? How could anyone survive that?8
But Hurst had refused to believe it. He couldn’t accept that the Nettie he knew–strong as wildflowers clinging to a cliffside, bright and irrepressible, always bursting with life–could ever die. Especially when, for days, they’d found no sign of Nettie’s body T
So he’d lied to himself. Told himself Nettie wasn’t dead, that maybe the waves had swept her elsewhere.
But today, seeing Nattie’s necklace, the fragile lie finally shattered.
Nettie was gone. Gone for good.
Hurst’s shoulders shook violently. A sob, smothered for too long, finally broke free–quiet in the downpour, but so full of pain and despair.
On the seventh day after Nettie’s death, Calvin and Hurst finally confronted the truth.!!
His sister, his fiancée–she had truly left them #
Nettie’s obituary was posted online again.
This time, the public was calm. Most had already accepted her death, now all that remained was regret and sorrow.
People brought white lilies and gathered at the beach where Nettle had disappeared. In silence, they mourned for three minutes !!
Everyone remembered Nettie’s kindness, and grief swept through them all!
Meanwhile, the Beaumonts and the Watsons each issued a statement.”
Nettie’s death had tom the two families apart for good.
Hurst smashed his fist into Calvin’s face, voice raw with rage and grief.)
“You knew she was terrified of deep water! You knew she’d die–why did you lock her on that boat?”
Calvin said nothing, taking every blow without resistance.l
Not until blood covered his face, not until Hurst had beaten him to the floor and he couldn’t get up, did he stop.!!
Tears streamed down Calvin’s face, silent and relentless. His heart was a chasm of regret.}
No one could hate him more than he hated himself.”
Suddenly, memories of the day they’d boarded the ship flashed through his mind. Nettie had told him that she would die, that he’d never see her again, and she’d asked if he still insisted on locking her on the cruise.
And what had he said then?
“It’s just three days. It won’t kill you,”
But Nettie had died–died on the very cruise ship he’d forced her onto, died in that explosion.!!
In the moment after he’d left her behind-
Thud.
Hurst grabbed Calvin by the collar, landing one last punishing blow.
Calvin crashed into the wall, collapsing, unable to rise.!!
“Calvin, I regret it all. I regret listening to you and hurting Nettie again and again. She’s dead, and I’ll spend the rest of my life atoning for
- But from now on, we’re done. I can’t even see you again–if I do, I might not be able to stop myself from killing you.“!!
