Chapter 3
In the darkness, memories came flooding back.
Harrison and I used to be happy. Really happy.
Every time the cruise docked, no matter the time difference, he’d video call me first thing.
He used to bring me seashells from ports all over the world, every one a different shape.
He’d pull me into his arms and kiss my forehead.
He always said no matter how wild the storm outside was, I was his only safe harbor.
That was, until our wedding anniversary.
Emma called him that day, crying.
I had just brought out the anniversary cake I baked for him with my own hands.
He didn’t even give me an explanation. He just left me there and rushed straight to the airport.
I followed him in secret and found them in the terminal.
And there he was—Harrison, the same gentle, refined man I thought I knew—standing in front of Emma, shielding her with his whole body while she trembled behind him.
Then he looked at me with a kind of coldness I had never seen before.
“Emma has nowhere to go right now. I’m all she has!”
“You’re really going to pick a fight over this at a time like this? You’re being completely unreasonable!”
That was the first time he ever lost his temper at me over another woman.
After that, the way he protected Emma became almost obsessive.
To help clear her blacklist status, he secretly transferred the money from our joint savings—the money we had set aside to welcome our baby.
When I confronted him, shattered, with the bank statements in my hands, he showed no guilt at all.
Instead, he shouted at me like he was the one in the right.
“You’re only suffering a little for now, but if Emma doesn’t pay back the debt, she’ll go to jail!”
“I’m not just going to stand there and watch her life be ruined!”
In his heart, the security of me and our child meant less than one tear from Emma.
To protect her, he would sacrifice our whole family without hesitation.
A deafening crack tore me back to reality.
The cruise ship split apart completely, and freezing seawater swallowed me whole.
Everything from the captain’s lounge was dragged into the ocean by the current.
A heavy waterproof navigation log box slammed down beside me.
The lid burst open on impact, and sheet after sheet of hand-drawn world maps floated out.
Every route they had traveled together was marked in dense red lines across the pages.
And on the title page, there it was—Harrison’s blood oath to Emma.
“We’ll travel to every corner of the world together.”
“Not even death will tear us apart. You will always be my one and only soulmate.”
As the oxygen drained from my lungs, the truth hit me with brutal clarity.
So that was it.
For five years, my marriage had been nothing more than a cover.
Using his identity as captain, he had been carrying out a promise to another woman—to see the world with her, to live and die with her.
I was actually a strong swimmer.
But in that freezing, bone-deep cold water, I burned through all my strength trying to protect the baby inside me.
Every discomfort from the pregnancy came crashing down on me at once, worse and worse.
I could see the lights of the rescue boats flashing on the surface.
But in the end, I still couldn’t make it.
My body kept sinking, out of my control.
Icy seawater flooded down my throat in great choking gulps.
God had given me a second chance.
But even after fighting with everything I had, I still couldn’t hold on to anything.
Was this really it?
Was my child and I doomed to die on this day all over again?
With all my unwillingness and hatred burning inside me, I sank into endless darkness.
“Thank God—you’re finally awake!”
A nurse’s relieved voice came from beside me.
“Do you have any idea how close you came to miscarrying? If those fishermen hadn’t found you in time—”
I stared at the pale white ceiling without saying a word.
When the nurse saw me lying there like a lifeless doll, she sighed sympathetically and picked up the remote.
“Don’t look so hopeless. Watch some TV.”
She turned on the television mounted on the wall.
On the screen, nearly every channel was broadcasting the same press conference from an official spokesperson.
“Captain Harrison has confirmed that all passengers were rescued after the cruise ship struck the reef.”
“There were no passenger fatalities in this accident.”
I froze as if struck by lightning.
No fatalities?
So in the official records, I was already a dead person—someone whose name didn’t even deserve to exist.
The doctor pushed open the door and asked if I remembered a family member’s number.
Numbly, I parted my lips and gave him Harrison’s.
Not because of love.
Because legally, he was still my next of kin.
The doctor dialed the number while giving me a look full of pity, then switched on speakerphone.
Harrison picked up quickly.
His voice was lazy, relaxed.
And in the background, I could hear Emma whining in that sugary little voice of hers.
“Harrison, the ointment’s kind of cold...”
Harrison chuckled, pure indulgence in his tone.
“You baby. Just bear with it.”
The doctor frowned and cut straight through their flirting.
“Mr. Harrison, your wife Sarah is currently at Seaside Hospital.”
There was a sharp crash on the other end, like a glass hitting the floor.
Harrison’s voice instantly turned shrill with panic.
“What did you say? The shipwreck area was already fully searched!”
“The official list says everyone survived. There was no passenger named Sarah!”
