Chapter 1

When the ship went down, I pushed my fiancée into the lifeboat with everything I had.

My strength was gone. Just as I tried to climb in after her, Luna Sutton shoved me back into the sea:

"You haven't saved Lucas yet and you want to climb up here? How can you be so selfish?"

Thrashing in the water, I choked down mouthful after mouthful, my eyes wide with shock.

My bleeding arm got even harder to lift.

We'd been childhood sweethearts for fourteen years, and I had been nothing but good to Luna.

When she had a fever, I carried her on my back for two miles down a mountain road.

When her father threw her out of the house, I gave her the only home I had.

When her company was on the verge of bankruptcy, I used the fund my mother left me to carry her through the three hardest years.

But after Lucas Lowell came back from overseas, she decided he was the one who had saved her in the fire all those years ago.

For Lucas,

she showed up late to our dates and left me waiting six hours in a downpour;

she started breaking her promises, pushing back our wedding again and again.

And today, for him, she had pushed me into the sea with her own hands, without caring at all whether I lived or died.

I finally gave up on her. I understood it wasn't that she hadn't figured out her own heart,

it was just that the person in it wasn't me.

Later, her father admitted it himself: from start to finish, Lucas had been taking credit for saving her life when it was me.

That day, she cried and asked if we could start over.

I looked at her pale face and said softly:

"Luna, I've already died once."

"And the dead don't come back."

……

By the time seawater was pouring into my lungs, I could no longer feel the pain in my left leg.

Thick smoke from the burning yacht hung low over the water, and flames licked their way along the deck toward us.

"Adrian Grant, save Lucas first!"

Luna was sprawled against the side of the lifeboat, half her body leaning out over the water, her voice shaking as the wind tore at it.

I glanced back.

Lucas was tangled in a snapped cable, only one hand still above the surface.

When I'd saved Luna a moment ago, a steel plate had pinned my knee, and my left leg had gone almost completely numb.

I had the strength to save one person at most.

"You get in first."

I pushed her toward the lifeboat.

Once she was in, she saw me climbing up too. Without warning, she pried my arm loose and shoved me back into the sea.

"Lucas can't swim, and he has severe asthma! Hurry up and save him!"

I stared at her frantic face, and for a moment I was lost.

In that fire fourteen years ago, she had grabbed the hem of my shirt just like this.

She'd been trapped in a corner of the warehouse, crying, asking if I would come back for her.

I said I would.

I carried her out of the fire on my back, and my shoulder blade was badly burned. But when I woke up, my name wasn't anywhere in the rescue records.

She always believed the one who saved her was another boy, one who had left with the rescue team that night.

His name was Lucas.

The water was ice-cold.

After swallowing several more mouthfuls, I fought my way to the surface.

Once I'd steadied myself, I grabbed Lucas, untangled the cable from around his ankle, and dragged him back toward the boat.

The moment his head broke the surface, he started coughing violently.

"Adrian, get him up here first!"

Luna knelt in the lifeboat, reaching for Lucas.

I pushed him right up to her.

Then a wave rocked the lifeboat sideways, and an oxygen tank rolled out.

Lucas clutched at it, and Luna immediately handed it to him.

"He needs this!"

I have a phobia of deep water. When it hits, I can barely breathe on my own.

I had just managed to save two people, and now I couldn't hold it back anymore.

It felt like a boulder was crushing my chest.

"Luna."

I raised my hand, wanting her to pass me the oxygen tank.

My left arm was broken, and my right hand was still seeping blood.

She saw it. All she did was frown.

"Aren't you the one who's best at saving people?"

She held on to Lucas, her voice trembling with worry.

"Hang on a little longer. The rescue ship will be here soon."

I looked at her.

The year I carried her out of the fire, she had cried and told me to hold on a little longer, that someone would come any minute.

I held on for fourteen years.

But this time, I was truly tired.

A huge wave crashed down hard.

My hand was torn from the lifeboat, and the sea dragged me down toward the black depths.

Before I sank, I saw Luna holding Lucas tight.

She never once looked back at me.