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She leaned forward against the polished wooden railing, her eyes straining to spot any pinpricks of light on the horizon. But there was nothing. Even the sky was starless. She picked at a callous on the palm of her hand, newly raised following a few days at sea, pulling at ropes and tying knots.
The hard work showed on her hands. Earlier that day, she’d smiled about it. Now, digging into the callous with the sharp edge of her nail was the only thing keeping her awake.
Keep watch.
That’s what her dad had asked of her. She knew the rules. It was her responsibility to alert him if she noticed a change in the wind, heard something out of the ordinary or spotted any lights at all. But it was almost midnight, and she’d been up for hours. She thought of her bunk downstairs, how she’d grown used to the gentle sway of the ocean rocking her to sleep. It was their last night at sea. Tomorrow they’d be back on land.
Her eyelids felt heavy, so she pinched herself harder.
But even the chill in the air couldn’t keep her awake.She sat back in her perch, tugging a heavy woollen blanket over her lap.
Keep watch.
She closed her eyes for just a moment.
Too close, a light winked into view. And she hadn’t been awake to sound the alarm.
‘In the night, we collided with another boat. A little speedboat but big enough to do some damage. I thought both my parents were asleep, tucked up in their bunks. But it turns out, Dad was up and getting ready to take over from me. He went overboard.
‘It was all my fault.’
She was the reason he’d died. There was no getting away from it. After that, she’d vowed to stay away from boats forever, for the sake of her mum. And now the only reason she could break that vow, was because she’d basically lost her mum as well.
‘Damn,’ said Annalise. ‘Your dad trusted you and …’
‘And I ruined it. Haven’t been on a boat since.’
She jumped as the ship blasted its horn, signalling that they were leaving their anchor at Barrientos Island, to head to the Antarctic Circle.
‘You going to be OK?’
Olivia shook her head. Annalise stood up and headed into the bathroom.
Olivia lay back on the bed. In a way, it felt good to have told the story, if only because it put into perspective how she could change things this time. She’d been given the responsibility to look after the Hunt Advisory’s first major deal.
TheVigilwas not theClarissa.
There were so many details of that time of her lifethat she’d forgotten. Buried deep. But today she’d got in a kayak. She’d told someone the full story of what happened on the yacht that night. She could move forward.
She could keep watch.
Starting with the auction.
23
She made sure the next full day at sea was productive, since there were no kayaking excursions to go on, no land to visit. The internet was back up and running. She was disappointed not to have received anything new from Aaron, but she emailed him anyway, asking for a full list of instructions for what he wanted out of the showcase now he’d changed things with Stefan, and told him about the cryptic message from Pierre. She wrote to Pierre as well, to acknowledge that the captain had relayed his message to her.
She spent extra time going back over some of Aaron’s emails to her from their relationship, scouring them for any clues as to what might be going on. But instead, she found herself drawn back into memories of the early stages of their relationship. How exciting, how lucky she had felt back then.
The first email from him was seven months ago. Seven months – in some ways it felt like they’d been together for years. But the truth was, things had moved fast. Way faster than she’d realized. That was another consequence of burnout. She’d allowed herself to be swept away on a wave of Aaron’s charm and sophistication.
But was that such a bad thing? There was real affection and romance in his emails to her.My darling Livi …
She was allowed to have something go right in her life.
She opened up his final email to her again. There wassomething strange about it. She narrowed her eyes at the screen, biting her bottom lip. When was the last time he’d called her ‘Olivia’?
A message popped up on the screen.TWO MINUTES OF INTERNET CONNECTION REMAINING. PURCHASE MORE?