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She shook herself. It didn’t matter now. Janine had robbed her of the ability to ever find out. And whatever Aaron had felt for her, her feelings for him had been real. She’d loved him, and he was gone. Now she had his family to think of, his friends and loved ones to explain to about what had happened.
And a legacy to protect.
‘Do you have a laptop I can use?’ she asked.
‘Absolutely,’ replied Pierre. He gestured to one of the sideboards, where a slim MacBook was plugged in and secured with clamps, so it wouldn’t slide off.
Olivia turned it on, opening a browser, amazed at how fast the connection speed was.
‘We have excellent satellite Wi-Fi on board. One of my requirements. In the meantime, I will go check on our other guests.’ He paused. ‘What happened to Mr Hughes, by the way? His wounds did not look … natural.’
Olivia grimaced. ‘They weren’t.’ Then she looked over at Melissa. ‘It was Patty. But please find her. She … she was blindsided.’
‘We will look for her,’ said Pierre. ‘Please, can you stay and look after Olivia?’ he asked Melissa, who nodded.
Olivia returned her gaze to the computer. She logged into her email, where there was still no sign of any emails from Pierre. Had he been lying to her?
She checked her trash folder. Nothing. Then her spam. Also nothing. But there was a second folder labelledSpam. Or – not ‘spam’ but ‘sparn’. At a glance they looked the same.
She opened it to see a string of emails from Pierre – but also from Tricia. Someone had set up a filter on her account to send all non-marketing emails to a place she never would have known to check.
Janine. She must have accessed her email while they’d been on board. Another ploy to make Olivia feel even more isolated and alone.
Pierre, true to his word, had replied to every emailshe’d sent since they’d left port. He’d told her he was coming, to save her from Aaron’s attacker.
And Tricia. She didn’t hate her. She had been worried about her. Her emails had become more confused and frantic in their tone, hoping that nothing bad had happened.
She opened a window to reply, but had no idea what to say, or how to explain.
She started with:I’m alive.
Then it hit her. But Aaron wasn’t. She would never see him again.
‘Everything OK?’ Melissa asked.
Olivia reached up and touched her cheeks. She’d been crying and hadn’t even realized it.
‘Hello?’
Olivia looked up sharply, startled by the voice. It was Annalise, her eyes red-rimmed and raw. Melissa stood up and gestured for Annalise to come in. ‘Sit. Make yourself warm by the stove.’
To her surprise, Annalise rushed over and hugged her. ‘I’m glad you’re OK. We heard you went overboard.’
‘I think she’s had enough polar plunges to last a lifetime,’ said Melissa with a wry grin.
‘Me too,’ said Olivia.
Annalise dropped her head in her hands.
‘Patty?’ Olivia asked. She knew by Melissa’s grave expression, and Annalise’s sob, that she was right. ‘She could still survive, right? She could be out there still.’
‘Maybe. But I saw it in her eyes. She didn’t want to survive. Not after what she did,’ Annalise said. ‘It didn’t have to come to this. I hadn’t known the extent of my father’s plan until this cruise. We’d talked about meleading up the digital side of the business. I was ready for that. But I didn’t know he meant to close the rest of it, make everyone else redundant.’
‘Pierre has gone to talk with him now.’
Annalise shook her head. ‘I’ve just been to see him. My arrogant, headstrong dad. He’s in no condition to make any decisions. We need to get him to a hospital.’
‘I’m so sorry, Annalise.’