Chapter 2

The tension in me finally eased up a bit.

I held myself back, careful not to breathe too much.

When diving this deep, the air in the tank was usually custom-mixed for these conditions.

Breathing too much too fast could easily triggered nitrogen narcosis or oxygen toxicity.

Once my breathing steadied, I turned my attention back to the two below.

In the pitch-black water, all I could see were the headlamps of Frank and Moira.

Their 600-lumen lights were like streetlights blurred by heavy rain, faintly outlining where they were in the darkness.

I swam over to where Moira was, trying to retrieve my fins.

The fins were the only thing that could really push me forward at this depth. Without them, there was no way I'd ever reach the surface.

When Moira saw me swimming over, she instinctively pulled back, her eyes darting to Frank.

My heart sank, and I couldn't help but follow her gaze to Frank.

We'd been down here way too long, and the bubbles we exhaled had stirred up the water, making everything murky.

Frank's face was obscured by the swirling silt and his mask, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Down here, every second felt like an eternity.

My heart went cold.

I had no idea what Frank was thinking.

I couldn't help but ask myself if he wanted to kill me.

But I couldn't figure out why he did it.

Even if those childhood jokes adults used to make annoyed him, he could've just kept his distance from me. Why bother getting close, only to try and kill me?

We were getting engaged tomorrow.

We'd known each other for almost twenty years, and we'd been together for a year now.

Was he just pretending to care about me all this time?

I didn't believe he was like that.

My strength was slipping away, and my kicks slowed, losing power. I could feel myself sinking deeper and deeper.

Desperate, my eyes found Frank again.

Frank gave me a long, thoughtful look, sighed quietly, then gestured to Moira.

Moira, clearly reluctant, dragged herself over and returned my fins.

I snatched them, slipped them on, and kicked hard for the surface.

As soon as I broke the surface, I stripped off my gear. Before I could even take a full breath, a sharp pain shot through every joint in my body, like someone was twisting them apart.

My heart sank. I knew I had decompression sickness.

It was the most common illness among cave divers. When ascending too quickly from deep water without stopping at various depths to decompress, the absorbed gases couldn’t escape fast enough. Bubbles form and block blood vessels, the heart, and the lungs.

I needed medical attention, and I needed it right now.

I crawled back into the car to call for help, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find my phone anywhere, the one I'd left on the seat before the dive.

My breath burned in my chest, and I couldn't stop gagging. I felt totally out of it, like I was both drunk and burning up with a fever, dizzy and barely able to stand.

Right when I was about to lose all hope, a spark of clarity shot through my mind.

It was Moira.

Before we went under, Frank had Moira lock all our phones in the safe, saying it was for our own safety.

And Frank kept the key on him the whole time.

About forty minutes later, Frank and Moira finally finished their decompression ascent.

I was curled up in the back seat of the car, on the verge of passing out, still trapped in my cold, wet wetsuit.

Moira glanced at me, a bit surprised. "Yvette, what happened to you? How did you end up like this?"

She looked up at Frank, her face puzzled. "Frank, didn’t you say Yvette was a cave diving expert? How could she forget decompression stops, something even a beginner like me knows?"

Frank ignored her and came over to me, his cool hand cupping the back of my neck.

He asked, concern in his voice, "Yvette, does it hurt a lot?"

He paused, then sighed, sounding a bit helpless. "Why did you rush to the surface like that? I told you, it was just a little test before we get engaged. Did you really think I'd kill you?"

He suddenly slipped back into that sweet, attentive boyfriend role.

But his unpredictable mood swings only made me more afraid of him.

Moira snarked from the side, her tone full of mockery. "Yeah, Yvette, as if Frank would ever actually hurt you. Seriously, you're really hurting his feelings with that.

"And you handled yourself so well under pressure. You passed Frank's pre-engagement test. Guess what, Yvette, you're about to become Mrs. Boyle."

I sneered inwardly.

Honestly, if she was so desperate to be Mrs. Boyle, just take it.

Even though I'd already made up my mind to dump Frank, out here in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't just make a scene and cut him off right now.

I took a deep breath, clung to one of Frank's fingers, tears welling up in my eyes as I played the weak card.

"Frank, please, my head really hurts. Can you take me to the hospital?" I whimpered.