I smiled as my gaze skipped over the near-white sand and landed on the pristine blue water glistening in the sun. The view could have been printed on a postcard. It felt like the definition of peaceful and serene, if I pushed what lay behind me to the back of my mind.

In the distance, almost at the horizon, I saw a massive ship that looked as if it held cargo and, much closer to shore, a small island. It looked to have some kind of construction. I squinted, trying to see exactly what it was, but would need a pair of binoculars or a boat to get a better look.

My phone rang from inside and, with one final, lustful glance at the sea, I hurried to answer it. I was fairly certain it would be Hayley and right now I didn’t know whether I wanted to thank or berate her.

14

I was going to kill my best friend and sister-in-law for her crazy scheme to send me to Ragged Point. After working late into the night ridding the shack of rubbish and cleaning the kitchen enough to make a meal, I was exhausted. But thanks to the noises in the roof—which I hoped to only be the possum—the creaking of the walls, the scuttling sounds between them and the violent wind shaking the trees and stirring the ocean outside, I hadn’t managed a wink of sleep. I didn’t believe in ghosts, but awake, alone, and lying in a dead man’s bed with nothing but my own imagination to entertain me, I swore I heard footsteps in the living room.

So much for this break giving me a distraction from my husband woes—all I could think about last night was him. At least I knew that this week he was with the kids so wouldn’t be tearing up the sheets with some random woman.

At eighteen I’d refused to live with either my mother or father anymore and had moved into a share house with Hayley and two of our friends. I’d gone straight from that house to one I shared with Adrian, so I’d never lived alone before, and I didn’t like it. I missed not only the comforting warmth of his body, the knowledge the kids were peacefully sleeping down the hallway and Charlie snoring at my feet, but also the security of knowing that should an intruder break in, I wouldn’t be the one who had to deal with it; Adrian kept a cricket bat under the bed just in case. I should have brought Xiang’s golf club into the bedroom but by the time I thought of this, I’d been paralysed in bed, too terrified to get up.

If I had, I doubt I’d have stopped in the living room. I’d probably be back in Perth by now, safe in Hayley’s spare room, exactly where I planned to be tonight. No way could I subject myself to another night in this hell hole. And how was cleaning up some stranger’s house going to help me get my husband back? So far, I’d made absolutely no inroads towards that goal and, although I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, Adrian wasn’t going to come knocking on my door up here.