CHAPTER 278: CHAPTER 278 NO SIGNAL

I clutched the leaf dress tighter against my chest. I didn’t understand.

Ashton didn’t wait for me to move but reached forward himself.

My body stiffened. Surely he wouldn’t try to strip me by force? They say desperate situations bring out the worst in people. But I refused to believe Ashton would do something like that.

Confusion filled me. I tightened my grip on the leaf dress and raised my other hand defensively into a fist.

His hand came closer.

But at the last second, it bypassed me and reached behind.

A moment later, he pulled something free.

My wetsuit.

I blinked, realising I must have slept on top of it without noticing.

Ashton shook out the wetsuit to dry it. But as he did, something dropped from the pocket and landed at his feet with a soft thud.

We both looked down at once.

For a heartbeat, we both froze, then excitement sparked.

A phone.

I had forgotten I had taken it with me into the water.

I practically leapt to snatch it up, pulling it from the waterproof pouch.

I had charged it back on the yacht, so it should still have plenty of battery.

My fingers flew across the screen as Ashton leaned in beside me.

But as soon as the display lit up, my joy collapsed.

No signal. Not a single bar.

I remembered then that my phone had been without service ever since we entered this stretch of sea.

Disappointment crashed through me. I jabbed Ashton’s leg with my finger, a last flicker of hope clinging.

‘Did you have signal yesterday?’

Maybe it was just my phone. If his worked, we could still search for his luggage, maybe even the yacht, and escape this place.

‘No,’ he said simply.

My final hope vanished.

Even if we found his belongings, it wouldn’t matter. We would still be cut off.

I sat down heavily beside him, drained. Ashton hung the wetsuit on the simple rack he had built from the branches.

I helped him here and there, handing him stones and leaves to fix the rack, but my mind was a total blank.

Ashton finally looked at me. ‘Should we look for shelter first, or luggage, or food and fresh water.’

I muttered, ‘You should decide.’

The last decision I’d made was what landed us here.

Ashton decided we should look for the luggage.

To be precise, he wanted to look for our yacht first. With luck, it might have been hurled ashore rather than destroyed.

We walked along the beach. After the long chill of the early morning hours, the sun was finally rising. Its warmth drove the cold from our bodies.

I trailed behind Ashton, eyes lowered to my feet. A thin film of wet sand clung to them. With each step, more sand got stuck.

Stuck, just like us.

My forehead smacked into something solid.

A sharp sting spread across my skin, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.

‘Sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.’

Ashton studied me for a long moment. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

My eyes never lifted. I could not meet his gaze.

My lashes trembled. My head dipped lower. ‘Nothing.’

My voice was quiet and slow.

Ashton folded his arms, watching me closely. His tone carried a chill. ‘Tell me.’

‘There really isn’t anything wrong. We’re supposed to be finding the luggage, aren’t we? Don’t waste time on me.’ My voice sounded weaker than I intended.

I hurried past him, pulling myself together as best I could. My fists clenched tight, and I did not dare look back. I was afraid my eyes would betray my guilt, more afraid of seeing nothing in his eyes but coldness and distance.

***

After almost an hour of fruitless search, we stopped and tried to estimate where the tsunami might have flung the yacht.

‘The waves rise straight up and crash down. There’s no rotation,’ I said. ‘If the yacht was thrown ashore, it should still be somewhere along the same line of longitude.’

‘If we could work out our current location, it would be much easier to find,’ Ashton said.

‘But we don’t have any tools.’

I crouched down, wondering if I should stick a pole in the ground to get a rough reading of latitude and longitude. It would hardly be precise, but better than nothing.

Ashton’s voice cut in. ‘Come with me.’

I looked up, puzzled. ‘You know where it is?’

He said nothing, but strode off with clear intent.

I hurried to catch up, tapping the stick I had picked up against my palm. ‘How do you know which way to go?’

Ashton pointed to a pale-bellied fish lying in the sand. ‘Know what that is?’

I gave it a brief glance. The Mediterranean had too many fish for me to recognise, so I simply shook my head.

‘It’s a goldfish.’

I blinked. ‘What?’

‘A common goldfish,’ he said. ‘It was on our boat.’

I froze, my lips parting without a sound. Shock and delight tangled on my tongue, impossible to put into words.

I had not even known there were goldfish on board. After all, the boat was rented.

‘How do you know there was a goldfish on the yacht?’ I asked.

‘I saw it in a little plastic tank. Whoever used the boat last must have brought it with them.’

‘What for?’

He shrugged.

I cursed myself for asking something so irrelevant. It did not matter who brought it. What mattered was that goldfish were not native to the Mediterranean. Which meant the one lying here had to have come from our yacht.

If the fish had washed up here, the boat could not be far.

Ashton picked up the fish, wrapped it carefully in a leaf, and carried it with him.

Stranded on a deserted island, with no food in sight, even one dead goldfish felt like a strange sort of blessing.

But our good fortune did not last long.