Chapter 3

3: 3

Jonathan always believed I'd tied him to me for life with a debt of gratitude.

What he never imagined was that his own words, "I'll give you a stable home," would become the chain that bound the rest of my life too.

In all those years in the fishing village, every single day I longed for a family.

I'd grown up in that village from the time I was small. My adoptive parents went out to sea one day when I was very young, and the vast ocean swallowed them forever.

It was the villagers who raised me, all of them pitching in, bit by bit.

By sixteen I was going out to sea myself, making my own living.

But the house was too quiet. There was no one in it to talk to.

When the thunder rolled and the typhoons came, I faced them alone.

Make the smallest sound and the whole house echoed it back at me.

Jonathan was the first family I ever had. More than that, he was the man I loved.

In two days, my family would come to the fishing village looking for me.

But in my last life, because of that promise of his, I gave up going home.

I wanted a stable home with Jonathan.

I wanted to be his right hand, to soar beside him like an eagle.

He gave me a stable home.

And carried another woman in his heart the whole time.

Jonathan came back from the sea the next day.

The whole village crowded around him.

He came limping down off the boat, hunched and shamefaced.

From a distance I could already hear Julia's cursing.

"Didn't you say you'd definitely bring back a haul? How is there nothing on that island?"

"And here I lost a whole night's sleep dragging out there with you for nothing."

"You bring back no money, then forget about getting your leg fixed!"

Jonathan panicked at once, reaching carefully for Julia's hand.

"Jules, I'll go back out alone this afternoon. Trust me, I'll bring back something good, I swear."

Julia's face went vicious, and she knocked his hand away.

"Fine. I'll give you one more chance."

Then she stormed off.

The villagers didn't hang around for the rest of the show. They drifted away.

Only Jonathan and I were left.

He seized my shoulders hard, his eyes bloodshot.

"You took all the sea worms yesterday afternoon, didn't you?"

"Fiona, you were reborn too, weren't you?"

He shook me until my shoulders ached, and I couldn't hold back a small groan.

Something shifted in his eyes, and he let go.

"I'm sorry. I hurt you."

In my last life we were polite to each other, courteous as guests, never anything you'd call in love.

But whenever I got hurt by accident, he'd feel awful about it for a long time, out of duty.

Seeing him ache for me again, all I felt was summer sunlight wrapped in snow, cold to the bone.

He looked at me with anger in his eyes, his tone sharp with accusation.

"We were husband and wife in our last life. Those sea worms matter to me. The least you could do is leave me some."

I pulled at my pale lips.

"Didn't you say you'd climb back to where you were last time on your own?"

"I found these. If you really want to do it on your own, then rely on your own ability."

Jonathan's eyes went wide, as if he'd never expected me to speak to him like this.

Then something seemed to click for him.

"Fi, are you angry that I didn't choose you this time?"

"Don't worry. We were husband and wife once. When I've taken that position, I'll find you a good husband."

"By then you can come to the villa and look after Jules, and you'll never want for anything the rest of your life."

He wanted to take me with him, the way I'd taken Julia with me in my last life.

I shook my head.

"I'm not going with you."

I was going back to the Sinclairs, back to my mother and father.

Jonathan just took it as a joke.

"All right, whatever you say."

"For now, split some of the money from the sea worms with me. I need it for my leg."

I refused flat out.

Jonathan flared up on the spot.

"You just want to use those sea worms to force me to choose you again, don't you?"

"I've made it perfectly clear, I don't love you. Just treat it as a loan. Once I've made it, I'll pay you back a hundred times over, a thousand times over."

He actually thought I wanted to use money to force him to choose me again.

But this time, I was the one who didn't want him.

And he would never become the harbor magnate again.