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I don’t have the nerve to tell him that I don’t want to leave, but part of me also wonders if I could. If I have him, and Bower and Kingsley, maybe leaving this island would be possible.

As we walk hand in hand back to camp, I consider everything Weston said to me. He called us a family. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those. Which makes me wonder about his parents, and Bower and Kingsley’s, too.

“Weston? Do you have any family? Back on the mainland? Parents, siblings? ”

“My parents are still alive, but we don’t speak. And I have an older brother, Brian, but he wants nothing to do with me either.” My heart clenches in sadness for him. Unlike me, his parents are alive, and yet, they don’t talk to him?

“Why don’t you talk? If you don’t mind me asking.” He glances at me, his eyes dropping to the seashell around my neck before he lets out a deep breath.

“I suppose, as my girlfriend , you should know the truth. But you might think less of me.”

Butterflies take flight in my stomach when he calls me that, but I think he’s going to finally open up about his past, so I hide my reaction as I tell him, “I won’t judge you, Weston. You can tell me anything.”

“We won’t judge you, either,” Bower’s loud voice catches our attention, making me jerk in surprise. I hadn’t realized they were sitting on the beach.

“Fine, why don’t we take a seat?” Weston directs me to sit beside him and we sit facing the other two in a sort of circle. “You all know I was a pilot in the Marines.” The three of us nod and he continues.

“On my last mission, I picked up a group of soldiers out of a restricted zone, where they’d just completed their assignment.

We were maybe a quarter of the way home when the plane’s electronics just stopped working, like an EMP had gone off and fried everything.

The plane spun out of control and hit the ground, tail first. Which is the only reason I survived. None of the soldiers made it.”

I gasp, my hands flying to my mouth in shock. “You’ve survived two plane crashes?!”

“Technically, I wasn’t in the second plane when it crashed, but yeah, you could say that.” He narrows his eyes at the other two as he speaks .

“Why are you looking at them like that?” I ask as my hands lower to grasp my new necklace, its presence bringing me comfort.

“Because those idiots pushed me out of the plane.”

“What!?” I gasp, turning to the other two in surprise. Their sheepish expressions show their guilt. “You didn’t, did you?”

“The plane was going down and there was only one parachute. So we forced it on him and pushed him from the plane. We thought we were saving his life.”

My eyes widen in surprise. They’d never explained the details of their crash before, and I’d always wondered why they didn’t come to shore together. “You two sacrificed yourselves for him?”

They nod slowly, their eyes moving from me to Weston and back again.

A million emotions go through me at once.

I’m angry they would sacrifice themselves, but proud that they would even consider doing it, and for a man who wasn’t their family.

Unable to contain myself any longer, I lurch forward, wrapping an arm around both of their necks and pulling them into a three-way hug.

“You two are so brave, I can’t believe you did that.” Their bodies relax against me as they hug me back. The sound of Weston clearing his throat has me releasing them to sit back beside him.

“Why are you mad at them for trying to save your life?” I ask him in confusion.

“It’s a pilot's duty to go down with his plane.”

“Well, I think that’s dumb. If you ever have to make the decision to go down with a plane again, please make the choice that’ll have you survive to come home to me, okay?” I ask in frustration, not wanting to lose him over his perceived duty .

His eyes soften, and he hugs me, stroking my back as he whispers, “I promise to always do my best to come back to you. Besides, when we get out of here, I might have to take a break from flying for a while.”

“That’s right, you didn’t finish your story,” I say, pulling back from him. “You were explaining about the first crash and why your parents don’t talk to you.”

“Right.” He takes a deep breath, grabbing my hand and holding it in his lap.

“I crashed into the wilderness and it took me a few hours to reach civilization. By the time I got in contact with my superiors, local news channels had already played footage of me emerging from the jungle, looking like a complete wreck. Some locals took the footage on their phones and sold it to the media.”

He takes a second to gather his thoughts before he continues. “My superiors were furious with me for crashing and I was dishonorably discharged.”

“What the fuck? The EMP wasn’t your fault,” Bower says angrily. “They can’t do that.”

“They can, and they did. I didn’t even get to make a statement.

The entire thing was suspicious and strange.

I had a feeling someone in our own government wanted that plane to go down, and I was just a loose end.

I decided not to fight it and be thankful that they didn't seem to be sending anyone to finish off the job.” He glances at me before looking at the other two again. “Well, until now.”

“What do you mean?” Kingsley asks in confusion.

“The way our plane went down, that was no accident.” My eyes widen in shock, but from the looks on Bower and Kingsley’s faces, this isn’t news to them .

But I can’t help the way my heart starts beating rapidly in my chest. That can’t be a coincidence, can it? What are the chances that two planes go down in the exact same spot, both having departed from Perth?

“Anyway, after that, my parents said I was a disgrace and refused to hear my side of the story. Even my older brother, Brian, who’s a captain in the army, refused to talk to me, and we used to be really close.”

“Well, you don’t need them, you have us now,” I tell him with a squeeze of his hand. He gives me a thankful smile as I turn to the other two.

“Bower, I know you lost your parents, do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah, Kingsley's family took me in. I was twelve at the time. He has a younger sister, Hazel, she’s become a little sister to me, too. And his mom became a second mom to me.” He speaks of Kingsley’s family with such affection, it’s clear to see he cares for them.

“That’s amazing that they took you in like that. Kingsley, your mom must be amazing?” I ask, turning my gaze to him.

He smiles warmly in memory of her. “Yeah, her and Hazel are great.” He sighs, his smile disappearing quickly. “I hate to think about how worried they are right now.”

“Don’t worry, King. Reece will find us soon,” Bower says, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze in comfort.

“So… do you two want to know what our girl here was actually up to when she ran off?” Weston suddenly asks, changing the subject. My head whips to him as my eyes widen in fear.

“You wouldn’t!” He smirks at me and turns back to them, waiting for an answer. “Weston!”

“If you’re going to do reckless things, I think all three of us deserve to know, so we know how to properly handle you.”

“Handle me? I’m not your pet!” I grumble in disapproval.

“No, but you’re our girl, and you’re a little… shall we say… wild? It’s our job to take care of you, and part of that is making sure you don’t get yourself into trouble.”

“I—” He raises an eyebrow at me, as if begging me to try to argue his point. My shoulders slump in defeat.

“Oh, this must be good, what’d she do?” Bower asks, rubbing his hands together like he’s about to hear some juicy gossip.

Weston glances at me before he answers. “She was climbing up that giant 200 foot rock wall. When I told her to get down, she fell from about twenty feet up, luckily I caught her.”

Bower and Kingsley look at me with a mix of surprise, fear and frustration.

“Actually,” I say, glaring at him. “He yelled and startled me, making me lose my grip.”

“Is that any better?” Kingsley asks, making me turn to him in confusion.

“What?”

“Why were you climbing that to begin with? You could have killed yourself!”

“She was trying to get some eggs for us,” Weston tells him.

“Zee…” Kingsley says in disapproval.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’ve climbed that wall a hundred times, I didn’t think of it as being particularly dangerous or unnecessary,” I tell them, my voice rising in frustration as I get to my feet, unable to sit still any longer.

“I’ve been living here for fifteen years on my own. If I played it safe the entire time, I wouldn't have the huts, I wouldn't have anything made from the boar, nor their meat. ”

I start pacing as my anger at the situation boils over. I’m no longer upset at them for questioning me climbing that wall, I’m angry at being stuck on this stupid island for so long that I need to do things they might think are reckless, that I need to talk to trees and rocks just to keep sane.

“Zee, I know it’s been hard, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Kingsley says as they all get to their feet and try to stop my pacing, but I just walk around them, unwilling to stop moving.

My heart is beating wildly as my mind races at all the near-death experiences I’ve had over the past fifteen years.

“You don’t understand. Living here’s been easy for you, it wasn’t like this for me. I had to do things to survive. Dangerous things… things I didn't want to do.”

“Tink, W—”

“No!” I yell, tears slipping from my eyes as I turn my frustration towards Bower. “This place was a nightmare! I had to learn to survive here. On. My. Own.” I punctuate each word with a finger pushing against his firm chest.

“I was thirteen! ” I yell as I start pacing again. “I only had my dad for four months before everything was taken from me by those… those assholes!”

“What did you just say?” Weston asks, stepping in front of me and grabbing my forearms, his eyes filled with concern.

I pull my arms free and continue pacing. “Do you have any idea what it’s like for a thirteen year old girl to be stranded on a deserted island after watching her own father get murdered?!”

“Murdered? Zee, what are you talking about?” Kingsley says, as they try to make sense of my rambling .

But I’m too far gone to try and explain the entire story to them, so I just let my mouth spew whatever it wants, hoping that by getting this out, it will make me feel better, because right now, I can't stop myself from talking even if I wanted to.

Suddenly, I’m yanked into a hard chest as firm arms wrap around me. I inhale Bower’s intoxicating scent as tears roll down my cheeks.

“Tell us what happened, Tink. Let it out.”

And for the first time in fifteen years, I allow myself to relive those horrible memories as I finally share the truth I’ve kept hidden from them since the day we met.

“They made my own father watch as they raped me. Then they slit his throat. So, I killed them.”