‘This is really important, guys,’ Vanessa says through clenched teeth. ‘I cannot lose you. I am responsible for your safety.’

‘I know.’ I hang my head. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Vanessa huffs air out sharply through her teeth. ‘If everyone can’t keep up, we’ll have to separate.’ She shakes her head, staring out at sea. ‘Miguel will take the slow group,’ she finishes quietly, almost to herself, ‘as punishment for whatever he’s doing right now.’

‘That’s not necessary,’ I rush to say, ‘it won’t happen aga—’

‘We ran into a shark,’ Hugh says, talking over me. ‘Millie got a little flustered, I had to turn back to help her. It won’t happen again for me. I can keep up with the fast group.’

Hugh speaks louder than I do, and Vanessa nods at him in something that looks like belief, before turning the brunt of her gaze on me. She doesn’t say anything but she doesn’t have to for me to know what she’s thinking – I can’t handle a shark, and she’ll put me in the slow group because of it. Before I can plead my case further, she swims away from us, shouting for Aaron to lower the bucket for fins.

My mouth gapes open as I watch her go and I choke back a surprised gasp. It took Hugh less than sixty seconds to blame the whole thing on me. Although he isn’t technically lying, he did tactfully omit that we were already falling behind Vanessa before the whole shark incident. And he did it so that he could get ahead. So much for nice.

‘You’re gonna blame everything on me?’ I hiss at Hugh, narrowing my eyes. ‘We were losing them before we even saw the shark!’

‘I don’t see how you can be upset with me for telling the truth. You didn’t expect me to go in the slower group because you couldn’t handle a shark, did you?’

‘It wasn’t my fault we fell behind Vanessa! I need more time to look for the wrasse!’

‘Well . . .’ Hugh trails off. ‘It kind of was your fault.’

‘We were already losing her before we saw the shark.’

‘I guess.’ Hugh shrugs. He starts to make his way towards the ladder. We’ve been making our way back to the boat, kicking back from the point where we ascended. Vanessa has already clambered up.

‘Bloody hell!’ Andrew pipes in. ‘You saw a shark?’

I huff. From the deck, Vanessa is shouting at Aaron to look for Miguel, Natalie and Derek. She’s furious that Miguel let them get so far behind. Pippa has already wrapped herself in a towel.

‘That wasn’t cool,’ I say to Hugh.