Chapter 1
Seven years later, I stepped onto the ferry heading for that very ocean again.
The sea air tasted salty and raw, whipping up waves that crashed against the hull with a dull thud, an echo of that sinking ship’s final wail seven years ago.
I stood on the deck, my son Leo’s hand in mine.
This time, it wasn’t for sightseeing, but for a formal farewell to the past.
I was back, a new man.
“Daddy, the ocean is so big!”
Leo looked up, his small face beaming with excitement, pointing at the distant seagulls.
I ruffled his hair, smiling, the gloom in my heart lifting a little with his cheerful laughter.
But that calm was shattered by a disbelieving female voice.
“Liam Stone?”
My body froze. The voice seemed to come from a century away, blurry and distant.
I hadn’t seen Seraphina in seven years.
Instinctively, I pulled Leo closer, turning to duck into the cabin.
But Seraphina was faster. She lunged forward, gripping my wrist in an iron vice.
I looked up, meeting those familiar eyes.
Once, they held so much tenderness. Now, only raw fury burned there.
Her gaze dropped to Leo beside me, her pupils instantly shrinking.
“A child?” Her voice trembled. “I told you to wait for me. Is this how you waited?”
“How dare you have a child with another woman?!”
She shrieked, drawing the stares of curious passengers around us.
Leo, terrified by her distorted face, went pale. He clung to my leg, whimpering,
“Daddy, I’m scared…”
My heart ached. I pulled my son protectively into my arms and coldly yanked my wrist free.
“Ms. Blackwood, please show some respect. We’re long past having any relationship.”
“No relationship?” Her bloodshot eyes were filled with mockery.
“Liam Stone, is your heart made of stone? I searched for you for seven years! Seven years! You hid away, had a kid with some other woman, and now you’re telling me we have no relationship?”
Before she could finish, a tall, slender figure rushed forward and tightly hooked an arm around hers.
It was my dear brother, Caleb Stone.
He looked at me, a flicker of venom flashing in his eyes.
“Bro, it’s really you! We all thought you…”
He choked up mid-sentence, his eyes welling with tears at just the right moment.
“It’s so wonderful you’re alive!”
“We took this ferry because Sera wanted to come mourn you. We searched for you for seven years, we thought you were already…”
He put on a performance of genuine emotion, then his tone shifted. His gaze lingered on me ambiguously, and he spoke with clear insinuation:
“Bro, where have you been all these years? When the ship went down, did you get stranded on some deserted island all alone, with some wild woman…?”
He didn’t finish, but his scornful look said everything he left unsaid.
Seraphina’s face darkened further at his words. She looked at me as if I were something vile.
“I kept myself pure for you for seven years, and you debased yourself like this!”
She pointed at the ocean, her face contorted in anguish.
“I came here every year, hoping to find a trace of you! But where were you? Living it up somewhere else!”