Part 2Saltwater Sacrifice

On the third day, she took the medicine I had bought by selling one of our boats, and she was gone. In the blur of the funeral, I never even noticed when the charts were stolen.

I had blamed the black-market dealer who sold me the medicine. I had blamed my own bad luck. But I never once suspected that the person closest to me was the one who had destroyed my family.

I wanted to rush in, to tear them apart with my bare hands.

Fabian spotted me. "Gwen," he called out, "your husband is here with the money."

Guinevere quickly tossed her designer jacket to the owner, revealing the coarse fisherman's clothes underneath, still bearing the patches I had sewn for her.

She lowered her head, her voice a soft murmur. "Darling, you’re just in time. I was about to ask for an advance on my salary to buy you some supplements. You need to take care of yourself."

For the first time, I realized how good a powerful CEO could be at playing poor.

The owner tapped his ledger. "Your wife has been taking advances all year. She hasn't even settled the rental fees! She still owes me at least thirty-nine thousand!"

I tossed the pouch of money onto the table. "The boat is paid for. The rest is not my problem."

The owner clicked his tongue and flung a piece of cod at my face. "You think you can just walk away from your wife’s debts? If you can’t pay, you can roll around on the deck like a flounder. A thousand a roll."

Guinevere put her arm around me. The light reflecting off the multi-million-dollar watch on her wrist was blinding. Five days ago, I’d thrown out my back unloading cargo at the docks. She, on the other hand, had been celebrating the gift of this very watch with a passionate night with Fabian.

Her voice was a soft whisper. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault for being so useless and dragging you down. But a thousand dollars… it would take me days at sea to earn that."

A bucket of ice water was dumped over my head. I was humiliated but powerless to resist.

As I completed my third roll, Fabian, looking bored, tossed a coil of fishing wire in front of me. "Roll over this, and I'll give you two thousand."

I couldn't take it anymore. I tried to stand, but Fabian kicked me back down, the heel of his leather shoe grinding into my fingers. "The fish are more obedient than you."

The owner held me down as I was forced to roll back and forth over the sharp wire mesh. My body was a canvas of bleeding cuts. The taste of salt and blood filled my mouth. I limped back to our shabby hut.

Everything of value was already sold. There was nothing left to hold on to.

The wind began to howl, and the flimsy hut swayed precariously. My mother’s portrait fell from the wall, the shattered glass cutting my already mangled finger. To pay the debt, I had once snuck into a fish farm during a storm to collect the dead fish, and a wire fence had torn a chunk of flesh from that same finger. The wound had gotten infected, and I'd had to have the tip amputated.

And at that very moment, Guinevere and Fabian were entwined on the most luxurious cruise ship, the price of a single night's ticket more than I could make in two years of back-breaking, twelve-hour days of hauling cargo.

Even the protective amulet I had prayed for at the temple, the one I had given her for her safety, had been casually tossed to Fabian as a toy for his cat. "Who believes in that Sea Goddess nonsense these days?"

Years of devotion, all for nothing. I didn't need them to drive me away. I was already leaving.

As I finished packing, Guinevere sauntered in, a fresh love bite on her neck. She saw my luggage and her brow furrowed. A gust of wind tore through the hut, sending the thatched roof scattering like a broken kite. She wiped the grit from her face in disgust and placed a tube of cheap herbal ointment in my hand.

"I saw you got hurt on the deck. I bought this for you."

Tears blurred my vision. I slapped the tube from her hand. Normally, I would have chided her for wasting money. But I had seen the news. I knew she had booked out an entire hospital just because Fabian had caught a chill from the sea breeze. As she was gazing at the stars with him from the deck of their luxury yacht, did she ever spare a thought for me, sleepless in the pouring rain?