Go Save Your Precious, I'll Save Myself

Because he couldn't save his childhood sweetheart when he chose to save me, my husband spent five years making me pay for it. When I finally held a knife to my throat and forced him to sign the divorce papers, he drove us both off a cliff into the sea.

When I opened my eyes again, I was Back.

I didn't expect us both to get a second chance. But here we are — same island, same burning fuselage, same speedboat half-buried in the sand at the edge of the tree line. The pilot hadn't made it. That left the three of us: Callum, me, and Vesper Crane, the flight attendant he'd arranged to bring along without telling me.

The boat fit two. Callum Ashford was the only one who could drive it.

He crossed the sand and reached for my hand.

"Maren. Get in." His voice came out careful, measured. "You're my fiancée. I was—"

"I know what you were going to do." I kept my voice even and took a step back.

"Take Vesper."

He went still. I watched something move across his face — a shift, fast and unguarded, like a muscle finally unclenching after years of tension. His jaw loosened. His shoulders came down.

I already knew how last time ended. He'd chosen me — the correct choice, the defensible one — and left Vesper alone on the island. A bear had been through the island by the time he came back. What it left wasn't worth a funeral.

He came home and never said a word about it directly. He didn't need to.

"You breathe the same air she should have been breathing," he told me once, his voice completely flat. "Every day you wake up is a day she doesn't."

Five years of that. Five years of watching my father's company transfer into his name, account by account, access by access, until I needed his signature to buy groceries. Until I stopped getting invited to my own family's dinners. Until every person who still called me was someone reporting back to him.

I held a knife to my own throat to get out. Even that almost wasn't enough.

"Maren—"

"I said take her." I didn't raise my voice. "Go."

He looked at me for one more second. Then he turned and took Vesper's arm.

"I'll come back for you," he said as they walked away. "I promise. Stay where I can see you."

I watched him pull her toward the boat. He didn't look back once.

I'll come back.

Last time, he actually did. Because last time, the person he'd left behind was Vesper. He'd broken every speed record getting back to her. This time, she was right next to him in the boat. This time, I was the one on the island.

I gave that promise about thirty seconds of consideration.

I knew I had to save myself. Lucky for me, my family owned a private plane — and I knew it well.

I'd already started moving toward the fuselage when the sound stopped me.

Low. Slow. Something heavy pushing through the undergrowth at the edge of the tree line.

I went still.

Last time, it had found Vesper.

The trees shifted, and the bear stepped out.