Page 45 of Midnight

Olivia smiled. ‘I will. I’m terrible at social media, though.’

‘I doubt that. Your life seems kind of amazing from what I’ve heard. Art galleries and fancy trips … I’m sure you’d pick up a lot of followers.’

‘It’s the disconnect for me. I went through kind of a rough patch these past few months, but if you looked back over my social media, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong. Sure there are some beautiful pictures. But I was too numb to feel anything, and no one understood because it looked like everything was perfect.’

‘I can relate to that. Never let them see the cracks.’

‘Even if those cracks are Grand Canyon deep,’ muttered Olivia. ‘Only my best friend saw through it. And I was too far gone to listen to her.’

On the way to the gallery, they passed a small gift shop with a vast array of Antarctica-branded ornaments, clothing and souvenirs. Tokens from the very bottom of the world. They stopped to browse, looking over penguin-themed magnets and bookmarks, along with books about Antarctica, postcards and notebooks.

She took a woolly hat to the nearest mirror, but then screamed and dropped it when she saw a face in the reflection, standing in the hallway outside the shop staring at her.

The crewman with the shaved head. Liam’s roommate, who’d chased her until she’d fallen and cracked her head.

‘What is it?’ Janine asked.

Olivia spun around, but the crew member was gone.

She placed her hand over her racing heart. ‘It’s stupid.’

‘No, tell me. A problem shared, and all that.’

‘Really, it’s nothing. I think it’s being on the boat, without Aaron … I’m all jumpy and confused.’

Janine raised an eyebrow, leaving Olivia to fill the silence.

‘OK, so I keep seeing this guy with a shaved head following me. It happened first when I was out to dinner with Aaron in Ushuaia. It looked like he was staring at us. And then I’ve seen him on board a couple of times … like right before I fell down the stairs. It sounds ridiculous, I know.’

‘No, it sounds scary. But I bet it’s just men with similar hairstyles.’

‘I think you’re exactly right. My mind is playing tricks on me.’

‘Hey, I would never tell you not to trust your instincts. You never know. Obviously your gut is telling you something, so you might be right to keep your guard up.’

They moved on to the gallery. At the end of the long hallway, Stefan had hung an enormous painting – the original on board. Notnemiga, the painting she had fallen in love with, but another –šviesa– a burst of sunlight from behind a cloud, over a world covered in ice. Although the painting was essentially made up entirely of shades of white, it seemed to glow with inner light.

But she narrowed her eyes, staring at it as they walked closer. She felt the urge to turn to Aaron, as if he was standing beside her – he would know immediately what was wrong.

Before she could question it in her mind any further, there was a loud noise – a shout – from inside the gallery.

Janine and Olivia exchanged a look of concern, and Olivia picked up her pace.

‘This is outrageous!’ came a woman’s voice.

‘Please, calm down …’ Olivia heard Stefan reply.

A woman came into view, her hands thrown high in the air. It took Olivia a moment, but she recognized her as Lucinda, Maxwell Sadler’s girlfriend. ‘Get away from me,’ she snapped. ‘You shouldn’t be able to get away with this.’

She stormed out of the gallery.

‘You go ahead,’ Olivia said to Janine. ‘I’d better make sure she’s OK.’

‘Sure?’

Olivia nodded, then walked back down the hallway in the direction Lucinda had gone. She didn’t know exactly what she was going to say, but it was part of her responsibility to make sure the potential art buyers were happy, and Lucinda had looked anything but.

She worried she’d missed her, but then saw strands of long dark hair flying out on deck. She tugged on the heavy exterior doors and stepped out on to the balcony.

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