Page 70 of Endgame

‘I do feel a little sorry for her. She burst into tears, Aari.’

‘Caleb, please tell me that you did not spend part of your evening consoling the rapist who successfully orchestrated moving our lives across the world and then tried to get eight innocent people convicted for her financial crimes?’

‘I didn’t know what to do.’

I want to scream until my lungs give out, because that’s the alternative to being numb. I’m angry and I’m hurt, but being able to share things like this with me is new for him and I promised I’d try to understand.

‘I need to know if you’ll keep running to her if she calls, Caleb. I’m trying to remove this person from our personal and professional lives, and I don’t think I can cope with her reintroduction – especially by you.’

‘That’s not what this is, Aari. She has been blocked this entire time. I genuinely just needed to know what Kevin knew.’ He looks at me regretfully. ‘Things just took a turn, that’s all.’

It takes me about a minute to breathe through the conversation we have just had. Eventually, I reach for his hand and lace my fingers through his. I didn’t handle that well.

‘I’m sorry. Thank you for telling me. The next time something like this pops up, please can we maybe talk about it and find a way to get what we need without involving her?’ I pull my boyfriend close and kiss him deeply.

‘You’re not pissed off?’

‘I’m more thankful that we’re using this to try to be kinder and more open with each other. It happened, we talked about it, you said it’s not going to happen again and I believe you. I think that’s kind of how the growing-up thing is going to work.’

‘Ugh. I hate that we’re out of supplies,’ Caleb says, pulling me in even closer.

‘Maybe if we’re careful…’ I raise my eyebrows twice at him.

‘Good girls would shut me down and suggest we go to sleep.’

‘True, but naughty girls tend to do whatever they want.’

It doesn’t take long for Caleb to pounce.

Morning comes too quickly. I am up before him and feeling playful, so I straddle him to wake him up. Without opening his eyes, he reaches out, grabs me and pulls me into his chest before he shifts my hips to a place where I get a crystal-clear idea of what his morning plans are.

‘Goodness, Caleb. You have such a one-track mind!’ I laugh and he laughs right along with me.

‘One-track mind? I’m not the one straddling a sleeping man.’

‘You’re not sleeping any more, are you?’

‘No, I am not. I am very much awake, in every sense,’ he says, placing his lips on mine.

After we shower, Caleb and I decide to skip the wedding brunch and explore the island. Lara’s exploits over the last couple of days have left her more infamous than she would like, so she and Honey decide to join us.

As we make our way to the far end of the beach away from the party, we are quickly approached by an island resident who suggests that we go further afield for a mangrove lunch. After Caleb vehemently votes no because he doesn’t want to get killed while protecting us from our poor choices, Honey volunteers to be our group muscle if anything goes wrong. With Caleboutvoted three to one, we get in the gentleman’s car and are taken to a shuttle boat ten minutes away. The floating restaurant is peacefully empty when we arrive. We have a lazy brunch, navigating the items sent to us from the kitchen, and I wish we had more days like this. After we have had some food, we pick a hammock each from the many tied to the boat’s structure and allow the motion to rock us to sleep. After what feels like seconds, Caleb wakes me. The restaurant is much busier. He looks concerned.

‘Mason, we have to go.’ He gives me a quick kiss, then goes off to find our waiter. By the time I get out of my hammock, our bill is paid and the shuttle boat to shore is waiting.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘We’re going to miss our transfer back home.’

Thankfully our car is waiting at the shore to take us back to the resort. We pack quickly and make it just in time to get through immigration and get on Dominic’s plane. When we board, he’s not there, so I shoot him a quick text.

Hey Dom, we just made the plane. We’re on board now.

Where were you this morning?

His response is a little sharp. It’s expected; we were cutting it fine.

Went to a floating mangrove restaurant.

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