Chapter Twenty-Seven

The sun slowly lifted her radiant head out of the dark ocean, sending light to cast out the shadows of night. I knew it would be warmer soon, but I was still cold with dread. I hugged my arms around me tighter, watching the rays of light bounce off the water and shimmer with hope. Maybe with the dawn they would find him.

I stared out at the water, watching the waves and trying really hard not to think of sharks.

The coast guard will find him, I told myself, repeating like a mantra. If I said it enough times, it had to be true. They would find him, sitting there grinning in his boat, totally fine- just with a dead battery. Not scattered across the ocean with the debris of his shattered boat.

He wouldn't leave me alone. He wouldn't. Leo loved me. He wouldn't do the thing I feared most in the world. He wouldn't leave me, especially not after telling me what he had done.

I needed to talk to him. I needed to tell him that I forgave him. This empty, hollow, sick feeling in the pit of my sto