Rafael was still holding the photo of Simon and Gwen. He tapped it on his hand. ‘Maybe he did.’
‘Simon would have told me if…’
But he wouldn’t. He’d sent her a letter telling her he never wanted to see her again. He had sent back the necklace. He had met someone else and he loved her, not Ari. Gwen. It had to be Gwen.
‘You were in another country. And maybe it wasn’t anything serious. Just a photo.’ He didn’t sound any more convinced about it than she was. Rafael was trying to be kind, but Ari knew better. There was something about the picture, the way Simon looked at Gwen.
I’ve let the tide take me and surrendered to her.
Ari shuddered. She didn’t like this. More of that part of Simon she didn’t know. What had he been trying to tell her in the letter? What had he been trying to say? That he had no choice?
‘Ari!’ Jason’s voice rang out downstairs.
‘Shit!’ she exclaimed, looking at Rafael as if they were a pair of teenagers caught sneaking around upstairs. She hurriedly started shoving everything back into the box. He still had the pages from Fabien’s diary and the photo. ‘I don’t want them to see that. Especially the photo.’ She didn’t want them to know what she had discovered about Simon. Even now, she felt the urge to protect his memory.
Rafael nodded and tucked it all into the inside pocket of his jacket. ‘We’ll have to tell them something. You’ve found the site, Fabien’s path to Ys.’
‘Simon found it. Not me,’ she muttered. ‘I’ve done nothing.’
Nothing but find out that the man she had adored and idolised had stolen and lied, and cheated on…
No, she couldn’t think about that. Not now. She had known that anyway. He’d already told her in the letter. She simply hadn’t wanted it to be true.
Rafael reached out his hand to her, but she turned away. If he touched her now, showed her any sympathy or kindness at all, she’d crumble.
‘I’ll show them the map and we’ll arrange a dive tomorrow. Or as soon as possible anyway. We have to confirm this, find the pathway to Ys. Just…just let me…’ Her throat closed and she choked on a sob she hadn’t expected. Rafael’s arms around her were the comfort she needed, but this was not the time. It was going to be bad enough that he was here with her, up in her bedroom. Yes, she was an adult woman, but that was not going to stop her brother.
They made their way downstairs to the living room, where Nico was sitting on the sofa and Jason was busily flitting in and out of the kitchen with tea and cake, and whatever else he could find that might constitute some form of comfort.
He stopped dead when he saw Rafael though. ‘Oh. Hello. What are you—’ And his eyes swung inexorably towards Ari.
She blurted out the words before he could explode. ‘We’ve found something in Simon’s things. A dive site. We think the location…’ She swallowed back a comment about finding altogether too many things. ‘Can I dive tomorrow?’
Jason frowned, still looking from her to Rafael and back. ‘Tomorrow? No one’s diving without a partner, you know that. Not here. It’s too dangerous.’
‘It’s not that dangerous. I know what I’m doing.’
Nico cleared his throat pointedly and she cast a glare at him. Just out of hospital, concussion or not, he was not above throwing her last mistake in her face. ‘I’m not able to dive for at least a week, and Jason’s out for longer. Alix is distraught, as is Madalen. They’re the only two with enough experience to lead a dive.’
‘I have the experience,’ she countered. True, it wasn’t recent and it wasn’t local, but it wasn’t completely unreasonable.
‘You are not going alone,’ said Jason firmly. Like he wouldn’t go in a heartbeat if their situation was reversed.
‘What if she wasn’t alone?’ Rafael asked.
‘You can dive, can you?’ Jason snapped.
Ari flinched back. She’d never heard her brother talk to anyone quite like that, especially not a donor. The dynamics had shifted and she didn’t like it.
‘Off in the Caymans for a week, were you? Or at some five-star resort in Indonesia?’
But Rafael didn’t back down or show the slightest bit of shame. He was what he was, Ari thought, and never thought less of himself for that. ‘Yes. And I’m Sirènois. I know these waters as well as anyone.’
The boat rocked gently on the water. It was early afternoon before everything could be pulled together. Yana wasn’t particularly happy about it, but the extra pay Rafael offered was duly accepted and nothing more was said out loud. At least not in his hearing. There were still ways she could make her displeasure known.
‘Du Lacs have always made the Kerdaniels do what they wanted,’ she muttered darkly when Ari tried to talk to her about it. ‘Do you know about the Pors Sirène deaths? My family were there too. Boatmen for another du Lac. He won’t listen any more than his ancestors did. Just issues his orders and expects them to be obeyed.’
‘This isn’t his idea. It’s mine,’ Ari protested.
