Chapter 1

My foster sister Sienna became jealous. On SAT exam day, she drugged me unconscious and abandoned me on a deserted island six thousand miles away.

When my boyfriend found me, I already had a child with a local fisherman.

He risked his life trying to take me away, but the other fishermen beat him to death with clubs.

Grief-stricken and desperate, I tried drowning myself in the sea several times.

The fisherman husband saved me each time, until finally he grew impatient and pulled off his hood, revealing my boyfriend's face.

I stared at him in shock, then pointed trembling at the hood on the ground.

"Didn't you die trying to save me?"

He sat down and methodically burned the hood.

"I brought you here to make you give up your Ivy League recommendation spot for Sienna."

"Because I felt guilty about you, I hid it from Sienna and pretended to be a fisherman, giving you a child."

"This fake death was supposed to make you give up on leaving. I didn't expect you to keep trying to kill yourself."

"Since you know now, I don't need to pretend anymore. You're on the island, she's on the mainland."

"If you can accept it, we'll continue like this."