Page 75 of Sunburned

In my cabin, I ate a banana from the snack table to steady my stomach, then brushed my teeth, showered, and changed into a cream shift dress, letting my hair air-dry into messy waves. I deliberated whether I would appear insensitive, wearing white, but it was what I had. This was an unexpected circumstance.

A man was dead, and I was wondering what to wear. It seemed wrong.

But what was right in this situation?

It was shocking. I was in shock. Allison was right, we were all in shock. I kept thinking of that word, “shock.” Was it an onomatopoeia? It felt like one.

I thought of my boys, wishing intensely that I could wrap my arms around them right now. I picked up my phone to see a text from Rosa wanting to know where Benji’s shin guards were. I answered, thentapped out a message asking her to tell the boys how much I missed them.

As I sat on the bed waiting for the message to go through, I imagined the hugs I would give Alex and Benji when I got home. Though it wouldn’t be tomorrow, I was relatively sure now.

Tyson would have no more tomorrows.

The realization hit me like a truck, the finality of it. He would never have a chance to grow old, to see his children grow up, to become a better man. Because as much of an asshole as he was, there had still been some scrap of hope inside me that he might change someday. That as surely as the darkness had claimed him, the light might recover him in the end.

Even though I hardly recognized the man he’d become, I’d loved him when he was a boy. And though he’d hurt me, I still wanted to believe he had goodness in him, somewhere deep in the recesses of his soul. The seed of it still remained in the generosity he sometimes displayed. But now that seed would never sprout.

A red exclamation mark appeared next to my text and I hit Send again, but the Wi-Fi signal indicator was dark. I’d try again later, I thought, taking one more deep, centering breath before I grabbed my hat and sunglasses and closed my cabin door behind me.

Chapter 25

Upstairs, I found Cody in the midst of his announcement, the crew gathered around him on the pool deck. Allison and Jennifer were there too, but I didn’t see Gisèle and Samira anywhere. I hovered at the edge of the crowd as Cody spoke, fascinated by his transformation this afternoon. For as long as I’d known him, he’d always seemed so unassuming; the milder-mannered, meeker brother. But it had been years since I’d spent any time with him, and I’d never seen him in a business environment. Perhaps this stronger, sharper Cody was who he’d always been at work. He did run a multi-billion-dollar company, after all.

And now…would Tyson’s shares go to Cody? Or to Samira?

“We appreciate your discretion during this trying time,” Cody concluded as the chief steward handed out NDAs and pens. “Any questions?”

A hand went up and Cody pointed. “Are you all still having dinner on the boat tonight?” the chef asked.

Cody looked over at Allison. “We have to eat,” Allison said.

“We’ll be staying overnight,” Cody added. “For containment purposes.”

“When will the Wi-Fi be turned back on?” a guy in the back asked.

So that was why my text to Rosa hadn’t gone through.

“After the public announcement has been made tomorrow morning,” Cody said.

As the crew signed their documents and handed them over to the chief steward, I made my way to the railing on the far side of the ship. Even with the protection of my hat and dark glasses, the glare from the sun on the sea was so bright that it was hard to make out any details across the water. Our dinghies were no longer moored in front of the big rock, but the Search and Rescue boat and the police boat were still there.

I wondered where they’d found Tyson and what had happened to him, what his final moments had been like. I thought of Laurent, of how harrowing it must have been to discover Tyson unresponsive. It had been an hour now since they reeled him in. What were they still doing over there?

A heavy hand on my shoulder startled me and I turned to see Cody. “Audrey, can you come with me?”

I nodded, uneasy as I trailed him up the two sets of stairs to the primary level and across the living area. Before we could step into the office, the door to Tyson’s suite opened and Gisèle emerged, closing it behind her with unsteady hands.

“How’s Samira doing?” I asked.

“Not well.”

Cody loitered in the doorway of the office, waiting for me. “The crew’s on the main deck, if she needs anything,” he offered.

She nodded, starting down the stairs as Cody beckoned me into the office, shutting us inside.

A large built-in lucite desk faced the view, with two barrel-backed white velvet chairs opposite it and a wall of mostly empty white shelves behind it. Cody sat heavily into the white leather desk chair and dropped his forehead to his hands. I took the chair opposite him, waiting for him to compose himself.

“Sorry,” he said after a moment, looking up.

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