Chapter 8
On the plane, Angie wanted to sit next to Dominick.
I was happy to let her have her way, but Dominick refused.
“Don’t be difficult, Angie. Don’t upset Lynda again.”
Angie shot me a glance and then plopped heavily into the seat behind us.
It was the off–season for tourism, so there were few travelers
around.
We rented a yacht to take us to a diving spot.
In my past life, I’d been too busy enjoying the sun and sea breeze to pay attention to their actions.
This time, I stayed vigilant, watching them through the reflection on the railings.
Just as I suspected, Angie took the opportunity, while my back was turned, to tamper with a diving mask.
She used a sharp piece of broken stone to repeatedly scrape at the oxygen hose.
Dominick, meanwhile, was looking down, busy adjusting his diving suit.
“Lynda, I’ve checked your mask for you,” Angie said, folding the
I took it casually, then handed them each a coconut.
nick, could
you open this for me?”
Angie offered him a coconut that was already cracked open, along with a straw.
While he inserted the straw, I quietly swapped Angie’s mask
with mine.
Before we went underwater, Angie made a point of mentioning that she had just learned to dive and wasn’t very skilled yet. She hoped I could guide her.
“I’ll be sticking close to you, Lynda. Don’t mind me,” she said with a sweet smile.
I nodded with a grin. “If you can keep up.”
Dominick remained as serious and calm as always, showing no signs of anything unusual..
When we dove to a depth of 16 feet, Angie suddenly slithered up to me like an eel.
It was just the two of us here.
Dominick should’ve been over by the rocks, watching the tropical fish.
Angie, who was usually clumsy and frail, suddenly moved with surprising agility. She flipped in the water, trying to yank off my oxygen hose.
According to her plan, the hose, having been tampered with, should have been easy to tear apart.
But the hose held strong; not a single crease appeared.
While she hesitated, puzzled, I grabbed her oxygen hose and gave it a hard pull.
Tiny bubbles started to stream out; a crack had started to form.
Angie coughed up some water and flailed backward in panic.
I curled myself up and shoved her hard toward the deeper
water.
Then, I easily swam up to the surface.
Dominick looked stunned when he saw me and immediately asked where Angie was.
I took off my mask and gave him a cold, hard‘ stare.
I realized he knew exactly what Angie would try to do down there. Seeing me surface alone while Angie was nowhere to be found made him panic.
“I don’t know. Angie said she saw something interesting and swam off on her own.”
I pushed myself up and climbed back onto the yacht.
Dominick quickly dove back into the water and disappeared.
I called Zoya and asked her to check Dominick and Angie’s
water kept trickling from the corners of her mouth.
Dominick had managed to dive in and rescue Angie in seven minutes.
But in my previous life, he couldn’t save me when I’d struggled underwater for nearly ten minutes.
Neither of them was innocent.
The hospital on the island wasn’t well–equipped. Although Angie’s vital signs were stable, she hadn’t regained consciousness.
The doctor said she’d been deprived of oxygen for too long and might have suffered extensive neurological damage, which could result in lasting effects.
“Book the tickets immediately. Angie needs to be flown back home for proper treatment,” Dominick urged, anxiously stroking Angie’s forehead, not looking at all like his usual composed self.
“All right, I’ll contact the best doctors right away,” I said as I picked up my phone and walked out of the
room.
After checking the weather forecast, a satisfied smile spread across my face.
