son

cruel. A rare, mythical orchid? For

ending me, a neurosurgeon, to find some ancient herb? After everything you've put me t

led out his phone, a grim smirk on his face, and showed me a picture. It was a digital rendering of Anissa's urn, shattered, her

he satisfaction of tears. I just stared at

buy time, to make him see the ridiculousness of it all. "You, a tech mog

u," he said, his voice cold, final. "

ched with a hollow despair. I had no other choic

lights fading into the horizon, I saw Clark and Aurora in the lavish cabin below. They we

be careful, Addison! The sea can be quite dangerous th

iving. So graceful, so strong. Such a shame those hands of yours are no longer capable of suc

utterly forgotten that my hands, the hands he had just mocked, were shattered because o

ith a diving suit and basic equipment. They pointed to a spot in the churning waves. "Down

gs. I plunged into the cold, dark water. The frigi

amaged hand pulsed with an unfamiliar ache, making every movement a str

ly missing me. A shark. My heart leaped into my throat. I pressed myself against a jagged ro

nstrous silhouette against the faint light filtering from

, almost iridescent glow, nestled amongst a cluster of

ferent eyes. They flashed before my eyes, fueling a desperate, burning rag

damaged hand screaming in protest. I ripped it free fr

e. A shark, its jaws agape, a terrifying maw of

e a club, and swung it with all my remaining strength, hitting the sh

my right wrist. It crumpled, the bones grating, a fresh wave

now felt like a suffocating shroud. I was sinking. Down,

r, his eyes wide with a frantic terror, plunging into the

ver bubbles. He looked so desperate. So ridiculous. The man who had co

im. Never loved him. Never