“Thank you, Camila.”Desi reached out and squeezed her arm.“Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you.You’re an excellent diver, a sharp navigator, and unshakable under pressure.”
Camila blinked, surprise lighting her eyes.“You mean it?”
“I do.”Desi managed a tired smile.“And I’m sorry I haven’t said it before.”
She’d always known Camila thrived on praise, but Desi had held back, wary of feeding Camila’s already formidable confidence.Now, after everything Desi had lost—and all she’d seen—such prideful caution felt meaningless.Camila could be exasperating, yes, but she was loyal.She deserved to know it.
Camila’s expression softened, and for a rare moment, she smiled without artifice.“That means a lot, Desi.Thank you.”Then her gaze flicked toward the damp wetsuit clinging to Desi’s frame.“You got it, right?”
Desi nodded.She didn’t trust her voice.She couldn’t bear to pull out the Ring.Not yet.The sight of it would undo her.
“Great.”Camila’s tone brightened.“I’ll call Briar and set up a meeting first thing in the morning.”
“Just let me know when.”Desi reached for a towel and raked it through her dripping hair.“I’m going to check on my sister and then get some sleep.Can you make sure…”—she nodded toward the front room—“that girl stays until closing?”
Camila tilted her head.“Nova?Sure thing.”
Desi managed a weary grin, then turned away before her friend could see the flicker of grief that clouded her eyes.
Daria was worse.
It had only been a single day in real time since Desi last saw her, but the doctor said she was fading faster than anyone expected.What else could possibly go wrong?
Desi gripped her sister’s hand.Her skin felt like cold paper, the pulse beneath it a faint flutter that barely whispered of life.She’d been sitting here for over an hour, watching the steady rhythm of machines, the same sterile stillness, yet Daria hadn’t stirred.
The doctor had warned her she might not wake again.At least, not fully.Not ever.
Her once beautiful sister lay shrunken beneath the white sheets, her body all sharp angles and shadows.Blue veins webbed through translucent skin.Her lips were colorless, her eyelids bruised with purple crescents.The soft hiss of oxygen and the rhythmic beep…beep…beep of the monitor filled the room, each sound marking time’s slow cruelty.The air reeked of antiseptic and fear.
Desi swallowed hard, fighting the rising sting in her throat.
When the first tear slipped free, it startled her.She so rarely cried, the wetness felt foreign on her cheeks.Yet they came anyway—silent, relentless—until her vision blurred and her chest ached.So much loss.Caleb… and now Daria.
But she couldn’t break.Not now.
She had the Ring.
Tomorrow, she would sell it to Briar.She’d make sure the money hit her account immediately, then call Dr.Drummond to confirm she could pay for the transplant and every medication her sister would need to stay alive.
If only a kidney became available in time.
Her gaze drifted to the ceiling, to the harsh fluorescent lights humming above.Hope and a prayer, she thought.The phrase came unbidden, and she almost laughed.Prayer?That was Caleb’s doing.The man had lived by faith, fought by faith, loved by faith.
A man of God.
A God she no longer believed in.
But maybe… maybe she should.
Back in her room aboveOcean’s Echo, Desi dropped her keys onto the dresser, the metallic clatter echoing through the stillness.She collapsed onto the bed, too weary to kick off her shoes.Her mind spun in circles; her heart throbbed with an ache that refused to ease.
Traveling through time again and again had taken more from her than she’d imagined.It gnawed at her, body and soul.Once, she’d been the strong one—the fearless diver, the woman who faced the sea head-on and always came back smiling.The one whom people leaned on.
Now she felt lost.Unmoored.
She turned her head toward the familiar walls—the driftwood shelf, the framed photographs, the shells and relics she’d collected over the years.They’d once comforted her, reminders of a life she’d built with her own hands.Now, they seemed foreign.The room itself seemed foreign.
She no longer belonged here.
