Chapter 1

On our tenth wedding anniversary, my husband, Noah Bennett dragged me, despite my thalassophobia, to go freediving and "accidentally" ran into his childhood sweetheart, Ruby Fraser.

When a massive sea creature appeared, Noah ripped away my oxygen tank. He abandoned me with my foot trapped in the coral reef, choosing to save Ruby instead.

After being rescued, I begged Noah, an avid gamer, to keep the noise down as I was having a nervous breakdown. Instead, I was forced to listen to their passionate lovemaking next door all night long.

Noah blamed me for being immature, while my own mother, Ashley Ford, advised me to learn to tolerate it.

Little did anyone know that I had already accepted my professor, Edward Langley's offer to study abroad that night.

Noah, you wouldn't be able to catch up to me.

My feet throbbed with excruciating pain as the coral had torn through my ankles, leaving them bleeding badly.

I hunched over, my hands trembling as I desperately tried to free myself from the coral branches. Even with my broken nails, I couldn't make any progress.

Yet I remembered Noah insisted on bandaging even the slightest bruise whenever I got hurt.

"Please, Noah, help me!" I begged.

As I waved my arms frantically, seawater rushed into my mouth while I tried to call for help.

With only one lung, I was on the verge of suffocation and quickly pulled my breathing mask back on like it was my lifeline.

"Noah, I think I'm running low on oxygen," Ruby said sweetly, her fingers trailing suggestively across Noah's muscular chest beneath his diving suit.

Noah gently took Ruby's hand in his.

"Zoe, switch tanks with Ruby," he ordered.

The color drained from my face as my bloodied hands instinctively clutched the oxygen tank on my back.

How could you do this to me? I shook my head frantically.

Fear crept over me like an invisible net, squeezing the breath from my lungs.

The deep blue water surrounding me seemed to close in as the feeling of suffocation wrapped around my throat like an invisible hand.

Dizzy and lightheaded, I gave up trying to free my feet and hunched over the coral, taking deep breaths through my mask.

The underwater current shifted suddenly. Small fish darted away as a large, dark shadow slowly approached from the distance.

"Oh my God! What is that monster? Grab the oxygen tanks, and let's get out of here!" someone screamed in panic.

Noah was freaking out, too, swimming frantically towards me.

"You should have given them to us earlier! Are you trying to get us killed?" he shouted as he roughly yanked the oxygen tank off my back, causing me to stumble and sink toward the ocean floor.

My foot got caught on something, leaving me hanging upside down.

The combination of weightlessness, suffocation, and pain was unbearable. I felt like I was dying!

In the last second, before losing consciousness, I desperately grabbed the edge of Noah's clothes.

A sharp pain shot through my chest as my body swayed from the impact.

Did he... just kick me?

Through my fading vision, I saw Noah clutching Ruby with one arm and gripping the oxygen tank with the other, his fins moving at lightning speed.

I had given Ruby one of my lungs, let him force me to get an IUD, and now he kicked me and left me to die?