Her head buzzed; her chest exploded with the need to breathe now. Why couldn’t she stay down longer? Feel his pain in the last moments of his life. Pay the price for her wrongdoing.

The water, so crystal clear, painfully reminded her of that terrible day when the man she loved was taken away from her, right before her eyes. Why did it happen? And why did she have to keep punishing herself like this? She had loved David so much . . . and it was only a bracelet that her mother had bought her for Christmas. In a cruel twist of fate, her mother was dead because of it. Just a piece of silver with a few poignant words engraved around the inside. Beautiful, sentimental words, but not worth the lives of all those people she loved.

Was this hateful hex destined to go on? Whose life would be destroyed next – DJ’s? After that terrible year with so much pain and loss, Shelly had found it impossible to forgive herself again. For twenty years, she had feared what might happen to anyone who came close to her heart. Now, with no notion of the danger he might be inviting upon himself, DJ wanted to come back into her life. Her precious DJ. If he knew about her past, he would want to get as far away from her as possible.

At the root of all Shelly’s heartache was that beautiful, silver bracelet.

Her memory returned to the island of Paros, and David. She recalled treading water, pulling the snorkel from her mouth and begging. ‘David, please, if you love me, try and find my bangle.’ Shelly remembered his grin – his last grin – ever. She’d slept with him for the first time, the night before. She was a grown-up now, and loving it. He was showing off too, winking at her, touching her at every opportunity – her hand, her neck, her cheek. Smiling with almost religious sincerity. David and his woman. His fins breaking the surface as his head went down. She, proud that he was doing this for her, feeling her power.

Shelly returned to now, with a flick of her fins she headed up, up . . . She’d left it too late! Her lungs screamed, her head buzzing louder and louder, her vision turning black in the corners. She broke the surface! Hauled in those first, desperate, breaths, her chest heaving painfully. Then, she floated on her back while her pulse returned to normal. Her eyes were closed as she pulled her steamed mask back, enabling hot tears to run straight into the sea – saltwater into saltwater. No matter how often she told herself it wasn’t her fault, she always knew it was. Oh David.

A few months later, she met DJ.

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

GERTIE

Greek island of Kea, 1916.