My mouth hangs open as my mind shuffles moral rules like a casino dealer, frantically sorting them according to rank. Lie to my husband. Refuse to answer. Hitch my dress a little lower and hope he gets distracted. It hardly matters—I don’t have the technical know-how to tell him anything substantive.

“I’m not sure.”

“You know, I went to the mobile tower,” he interrupts. “Two days ago. I walked up there with my tool belt, like I could fix anything, just hoping, and inside, it was all ripped apart, boxes removed, wires dangling.”

“What?” I shake my head. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this isn’t just the island’s tricks. Someone’s well and truly fucked with us.”

It takes me a second, and then my body goes cold. “Someone sabotaged the cell tower?”

“And the internet. And—”

There’s a quiet click and the hall goes dark, the row of wall sconces extinguished. Hugh laughs softly in the darkness as if vindicated.

I fumble for the switch, like that’s going to do anything. “Power’s out?”

“Somebody wants us dead, darling.”

“Come on, Hugh.”

He starts away.

I grab his arm. “Don’t be ridiculous. How would turning the power off put us in danger? It’s a sunny day, plenty of light. None of us are on life support.”

He grabs my shoulders and shakes so hard that I bite the corner of my tongue. “This is not a joke, Nina.”

“I know.” I try to wriggle loose.

“Someone has done this, and I need to know why.” His fingers dig into my shoulders.

“Let me go.”

“What did you see?”

“Fucking let me go!” I shove him away, shaking.

He stands, panting, watching me.

“I didn’t see anything! I’d just come from John. I was in shock. But if you want my opinion, Matthew is the last person I would suspect of trying to kill us. He doesn’t give a shit about us. He’s just trying to live his life.”

“You’ve said yourself he gives you the creeps.”

Have I said that? Creeps isn’t the right word.

“He makes it fairly obvious how much he resents us.”

“That’s different from…” I huff, then slow it down, calming myself. “Nobody is trying to kill us. Okay? Except the island, if you believe all this bullshit.”

“You still call it bullshit. Three people are dead, Nina.”

“Okay, well, talk to me when it’s seven, no more, no less.”

“I may not be able to. Have you fucking considered that?”

I pass him at a furious clip, out of this dark corridor, up into the light. I cannot take this legend for a second longer, his paranoia, his rage. I need air, and I need to pee.