Ophelia nods. “He starts work every day at four a.m. He would sleep on the Nautilus if I let him.” She studies me with concern. I imagine I look pretty shell-shocked. “We do not have to board the ship today, Ana. Seeing it from a distance may be enough for your first visit.”

Nelinha faces me like, Yeah, that would be totally fine. Also, please, please, please can we go aboard?

I don’t want to get any closer to the submarine that killed my parents. How can Luca tolerate being inside it, alone, at four in the morning? I’d rather sleep in a haunted house with an ax murderer.

But at the same time, knowing Luca is on board gives me courage. It makes me feel a little ridiculous. If he can do it, why can’t I?

“How did it kill my parents?” I ask. My mouth feels full of sand. “What happened, exactly?”

Ophelia exhales through her nostrils. “We successfully raised the ship. We moored it just where you see it now, though at the time it looked more like an island of mud. Your father wanted to open the main hatch immediately. He was…perhaps incautious. The door began to open for him. He pushed his way inside. He was just over the threshold when…”

Ophelia’s voice falters. I realize I am asking her to relive one of her most traumatic moments. But I need to know.

“When what?” I ask.

“There was an electrical charge,” she says. “He died instantly, Ana. I doubt he even knew what hit him. Your mother, however…” Ophelia’s gaze matches her steely eyewear. “She rushed in to try to help him. She grabbed him while…”

Oh, god. My poor mother. Despite all her training, of course her instinct would have been to grab my father and pull him out of danger. The electricity would have coursed through her body, too…maybe not killing her instantly, but causing massive internal damage.

“We could not save her,” Ophelia says. The weariness in her voice tells me that she tried everything, with all of her Orca training, and that my mother’s death was neither instant nor peaceful.

“I am so sorry, dear,” Ophelia says. “Her last wish…”

“Cremation,” I guess. The black pearl at my neck feels warm. I remember a comment Luca made the night before. “The underwater gardens of Nemo…You scattered their ashes there?”

Ophelia lowers her head. “I wish we could have given you and Dev more closure. The circumstances…were complicated.” She points to the black-pearl necklace. “Sita left that on board our research boat. She never dived with it. That’s why it survived, why we could send it to you.”

I expect my anger to become a tsunami. I imagine myself raging across this pier, throwing things at Ophelia and the submarine, screaming at the entire world.