The Sapphire Cove: An absolutely heartbreaking and gripping page-turner by Sophie Anderson

Author:Sophie Anderson [Anderson, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Romy

The walk back down the hill from Cogon was easier on the heart and lungs but hard on the knees. Romy and Joseph collapsed at a table at the restaurant on the beach and waited an interminably long time for a plate of dried-up rice and chicken and a deliciously cold bottle of Coke with a straw. After lunch Joseph asked Romy if she wanted to dive again, but she said she was a little tired. She lay on the bench at the front of the boat and slept the entire duration of the journey home.

It was dusk when they arrived back at Sapphire Cove and the guests were gathering for sundowners in the bar, their hair wet and their faces shiny.

‘You look like you could do with a cold beer,’ Bob called to her as she walked through the restaurant on wobbly legs.

‘Just going for a shower,’ she called over her shoulder and kept walking, her head down, praying no one else would engage her in conversation.

The walk up the stairs to the house and then the next flight to her bedroom made every muscle in her body scream. Her lungs hurt just trying to draw the air down. She didn’t change but collapsed onto the bed. She could see the mosquitoes hovering around the light which hung from the ceiling and could feel the familiar pinch as they sucked at her skin, but she couldn’t move. She shut her eyes and willed the pounding in her head, the aching of her body, the relentless bobbing up and down to stop, stop, stop, stop.

It was pitch-black when she woke; her light had been turned off. The mosquito net now covered her bed and the sheet had been pulled over her body, still crispy with sand in her bikini and shorts. Her mouth was sticky and dry and she longed for water, but there was none within reach and no way she could get up to find some. Her head still pounded, squeezing her temples like her brain was swelling and bursting at the seams of her skull. She tried to sit up but an overwhelming rush of nausea pushed her back down. She closed her eyes and tried to fight the fear that was circulating around her body and forcing the air out of her lungs. She moaned, a noise she didn’t recognise that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside. Then Joseph was there in the doorway, and then kneeling by her bed, his hand on her clammy brow.

‘What is it, Romy?’ His eyes were wide with fear. ‘Are you sick?’

She couldn’t bring herself to say the words but she nodded, a slow, painful nod that made her brain rattle.

‘Is it bad?’

‘Mm…’ she whimpered. Another wave of nausea, crashing over her head, tumbling her over and over in its wash. She couldn’t breathe.

‘I’m going to get the doctor.’ She didn’t resist, just pulled her knees up towards her chest and hugged them tight. Joseph disappeared from the room but was back soon – or was he? Time was not time as she knew it.

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