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She Found His Affair,Then Sailed Away and Never Looked Back
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
After five years adrift at sea with Lloyd Harding, I'd gone from a fresh-faced girl to a weathered sailor who reeked of salt. But the first thing he did when he made captain was throw me off his ship....
Chương (4)
第1章
After five years adrift at sea with Lloyd Harding, I'd gone from a fresh-faced girl to a weathered sailor who reeked of salt.
But the first thing he did when he made captain was throw me off his ship.
"The sea's rough out there. I can't stand the thought of you suffering anymore."
I believed him. So I went from being at his side on the ship to waiting for him on shore.
Until I happened to scroll past a video some blogger posted.
On the deck, a pair of arms wrapped tight around a girl's slender waist.
The caption read, "No matter how rough the sea gets, someone's here to shield me from it."
I recognized those arms in an instant. The crescent scar on his forearm, left when a steel crate slammed into him on the ship five years ago.
Back then I'd laughed and said it looked like a little moon.
I clicked into her profile and watched every single video, every detail of them.
She never had to touch a drop of seawater. She was the flower he kept cupped in his palms and pampered.
I hauled rigging and patched decks, working through storms, the spare pair of hands shoved wherever the labor was needed.
I didn't call to confront him. I only clenched my calloused hands tighter.
Watching the ferry shrink into the distance, I opened my email and replied to the job offer waiting inside.
I'd waited from the sea to the shore. This time, at last, there was nothing left to wait for.
He wasn't the captain of my voyage. So I would set sail on my own.
——
"Why didn't you come down to the dock to meet me?"
Lloyd came in from outside, soaked through.
I glanced at the wind howling outside and answered offhandedly, "The rain was too heavy."
The double row of gold buttons on his uniform glinted until my eyes ached.
I just turned my head away and stopped looking at him.
He walked into the inner room, grabbed a towel, and rubbed himself down in a careless hurry.
He dug around in his pocket for a long while before pulling out a Maltese cross fridge magnet.
"I spent ages picking this out. You're going to love it."
In that moment, my heart went cold to the very bottom.
A mass-produced fridge magnet. You could buy one online.
But in that blogger's video, on her fair, delicate neck, she wore a gift he'd given her.
A hand-chiseled miniature Maltese cross silver anchor pendant. The kind you could only find at an artisan's shop in the back alleys of the old town.
So the distance between caring and going through the motions was just one souvenir wide.
He didn't look at how I reacted. He set the magnet on the table and turned to pack for his next voyage.
"Rosamund Powell, this combination won't work. Pick another one."
Lloyd frowned, an outfit he'd put together in his hand.
Years of habit. Before he set out to sea, I'd lay out his everyday clothes for him.
Looking at the outfit, no different from the ones I always picked, it took me a second to register what he meant.
"I want that custom shirt you had made for me."
His words made my heart skip a beat.
That handmade white shirt was the gift I'd saved up to have made when he was promoted to captain.
Normally he kept it carefully put away, only willing to wear it for important occasions.
And now he was taking it aboard the cruise.
"Is there a formal dinner on the ship?" I asked, feigning indifference.
His fingers kept sliding across his phone, firing off replies at lightning speed, brushing me off without looking up.
"No. There's a travel blogger coming aboard soon to shoot some promo. Want a decent outfit to look the part."
It was all crystal clear to me now.
I knew cruise rules better than anyone. In the guest areas, you couldn't wear personal clothes unless it was official business.
There was no way he didn't know that.
The only explanation was that he meant to save it for late at night, after the guests had cleared off the deck, to shoot with her alone.
My throat tightened. Swallowing the ache, I asked him.
"Is the shoot that important?"
"It's promotion. Besides, the young girl always thinks I dress too stuffy. That shirt makes me look younger."
第2章
A man only starts paying attention to his looks and his age when his heart has been stirred.
I was just about to speak when his phone rang.
The girl's voice came through, sweet and full of energy.
"Lloyd, remember to bring your casual clothes, okay? The other stuff looks way too old-fashioned."
"I'll make sure our Lloyd comes out super handsome in the shots."
Lloyd listened so intently he forgot I'd been in the middle of talking.
Only after the girl hung up did the curve at the corner of his mouth fall away.
"Rosamund, what were you saying just now?"
"She's young, and she takes the shoot seriously. It's her first time doing a big production like this."
"I'm the senior here, I have to look out for her. Don't read into it."
His tone was light, weightless. It wasn't reassurance. He just couldn't be bothered to deal with my feelings.
The words had barely left his mouth before he picked up his bag and walked out the door.
I glanced at the schedule for his next route. Two hours until the ship departed.
If he was leaving in such a hurry, then where was he going?
I didn't dare think the answer through. A pain that pierced straight through wrapped itself around my whole heart.
I grabbed my keys and went out too.
By the time I reached the dock, there was no sign of Lloyd.
I waited an hour. At last I saw him.
And the girl walking shoulder to shoulder beside him.
Lloyd held the umbrella tilted toward her, more than half of his own body soaked through.
The girl beside him didn't have a single drop on her.
"Rosamund, what are you doing here? Weren't you the one who said the rain was too heavy?"
My coat was already drenched. On instinct, he started to drape his coat over me.
Only to realize his uniform jacket was already draped over the girl.
"Ivy Swanson's delicate, and rainy weather is too cold for her. Hurry up and go back."
I said nothing, my gaze moving back and forth between the two of them.
"I'm so sorry, ma'am. My scent is on this jacket. You won't mind, will you?" Ivy slipped off the coat and held it out to me with both hands.
"I don't mind." I had just reached to take it.
The girl across from me let out a sudden sneeze.
In one motion Lloyd snatched the coat back and draped it over her again.
"Keep it on. You can't take the cold with a frame like yours. Rosamund's fine. She's weathered wind and waves out at sea before."
I'd clenched my teeth through towering storms at sea, and now this one weightless sentence of his froze me stiff all over.
"Lloyd, the truth is, I get cold too."
"The girl's right here. Quit joking around. Who was it that went out to fix the deck in the pouring rain back then?"
"I got sick from the cold that time and you were perfectly fine. I know that body of yours better than anyone. It's plenty tough."
My expression went completely cold.
Seeing the mood turn, Ivy hurried to push the coat into my hands.
"She's just jealous, that's all. It's fine, I'm not cold."
"Lloyd, you run warm. I'll just stay close to you."
Ivy pressed herself tight against Lloyd's arm, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Lloyd even raised his voice.
"She's just a kid, what is there to be jealous about? See, this is what happens when you spend too long stuck at home. You start imagining things."
I laughed. Wasn't he the one who'd kept me at home?
And now somehow it had become my fault.
"What exactly did you come here for?" His handsome brows knit together.
I drew a deep breath and rubbed my two hands, red from the cold.
"You forgot something."
Lloyd patted himself all over. "Right, my keycard. Good thing I have you."
"Just that?"
I asked again.
Lloyd stood there racking his brain for a long while and still couldn't come up with it.
"Just that. That's all, I have to board now. Hurry and give it to me."
He held out his hand to me, waiting for it.
I only handed his uniform jacket back to him. "You didn't forget it. It's in the inner pocket of your uniform."
第3章
“Let me take it, hon. I'll carry it for Lloyd, his hands are full with the umbrella.”
Ivy lifted the coat out of my hands.
One of the crewmen called for them to board, and Lloyd took Ivy by the hand, the two of them hurrying off.
My fingers closed around the ring in my pocket, the one he'd forgotten.
I didn't want to remind him anymore.
I pulled it out and dropped it into the trash can beside me without a second thought.
He'd never forgotten it before. Even if he left it at home, he'd rush back in time to grab it.
Once he'd nearly missed setting sail because of it.
“It's just a ring, it's not that important. You can leave it.”
“No way. I want everyone to know I'm taken.”
Now, it seemed, he didn't need the ring anymore.
He didn't need me anymore, either.
Once I got home, I set about clearing out the apartment.
Every corner of the place carried the traces of the life we'd built together.
His worn-out old sailor's uniforms, his fishing gear, I piled it all in a corner, ready to throw out.
My phone kept buzzing, but I didn't stop.
I only looked once everything was packed away.
A few photos. Lloyd's usual way of checking in.
One of them caught my eye.
He was standing in the lounge, and behind him a pair of pale, slender bare feet stood out sharply. I didn't need to think twice about whose they were.
Below it was the explanation he'd sent.
“Don't read into it. Ivy had never seen the crew lounge, so I showed her around.”
Back on the ship he'd been rigid about the rules. When I brought him fresh clothes, I could only leave them outside the door.
He said it wouldn't look good if his coworkers saw.
Yet now he could bend the rules for Ivy.
I typed and deleted, typed and deleted.
In the end all I sent was one line. “So making captain means the rules don't apply to you anymore?”
His reply came back almost instantly, every word dripping with impatience.
“Can you stop fixating on every little thing? Ivy was the one who asked me to explain myself to you. Clearly I wasted my breath.”
I didn't answer. I just locked the screen.
For the next few days there was nothing from him.
Until a call came through.
The noise of a foreign street filled the receiver, threaded with Ivy's sweet, soft voice, coming through clear against my ear.
“Lloyd, just talk to her nicely. Tell her we came out today just to pick a gift for her. She'll come around, I promise.”
The two of them were so close together their breaths tangled.
“Lloyd, we've been together this long. You really need someone to teach you how to smooth things over with me?”
“I'm sorry, hon. It's my fault for dragging Lloyd out shopping. He said it isn't safe for a girl to walk around alone in a foreign country.”
“Ivy, it's a small thing. There's nothing to apologize for. Rosamund won't mind.”
With one airy sentence, Lloyd had cast me in the role of the gracious, understanding one.
I hung up the phone.
The fish in the tank were the ones Lloyd hated most. Back then I'd wheedled and pleaded for ages before he finally agreed to keep them.
That same day I arranged for an aquarium to come take them away.
Just as I'd finished packing up the tank, the lock at the door rattled.
Lloyd was home.
But he wasn't alone. Ivy had come back with him.
“So you finally got rid of those stinking fish? Here, brought you a gift.”
Lloyd held out a cheap, mass-produced necklace, the kind you saw everywhere.
“This isn't the necklace I wanted.”
“Hon, I picked this out just for you. Here, let me put it on you.”
Ivy took the necklace and stepped toward me.
It was only then that I noticed the one around her own neck, a custom piece from Barcelona.
She must have caught me looking.
Ivy unclasped it at once. “Lloyd bought this for me. He said it suited me. But if you like it, hon, you can have it.”
“That style's too delicate. Something like this suits Rosamund better. Easier to work in.”
第4章
He took the necklace and tenderly fastened it around Ivy's throat.
His gaze was soft, the corners of his mouth curving up.
In that moment, I was the one who didn't belong here.
"Then I shouldn't stay any longer."
I picked up the suitcase I'd packed long ago.
And turned and walked out the door.
Lloyd didn't come after me.
He only called.
"Ivy's a guest in our home and she wanted to taste your cooking. How could you be so rude?"
"If you know what's polite, then go cook for your precious Ivy yourself."
Then I blocked and deleted him.
Once I reached my new place, every knot in me loosened.
For days, Lloyd didn't come looking for me.
It was only on my birthday that a bouquet of roses arrived.
Tucked inside was a cruise ticket.
A ticket to the Aegean Sea, the one I'd longed for so long.
But Lloyd had always claimed he didn't have time.
"Rosamund, don't be angry. You've always wanted to go, haven't you? Once I get through these busy few days, I'll take you."
Lloyd appeared behind me and wrapped his arms around me from the back.
"What? No more keeping your precious Ivy company?"
At my words, Lloyd abruptly let go.
"I already apologized. Why are you still so jealous?"
"This route was supposed to be a promo shoot for Ivy and me. For your sake, I canceled the whole thing."
"What more do you have to complain about?"
The motion-sensor lights in the stairwell flickered on at the volume of his voice.
In our first year together on the ship, back when the two of us started from the very bottom as ordinary deckhands.
Lloyd had promised he'd take me to Greece to watch the sun set.
Now that promise had become a handout from him.
"Ivy will be there too. She said she'll take a set of photos of us, as a way to apologize to you."
But I caught the flaw in his words.
"I'll use the ticket. What about her? If I remember right, a captain gets one family guest slot, doesn't he?"
Lloyd didn't even bother to hide it. He admitted it freely.
"It's just one slot. Don't make such a fuss over nothing."
Listening to him, I suddenly felt that the wind today was unusually cold.
"Then go with her."
"Rosamund, I'm already exhausted from work. Stop acting up."
I pulled my hand free of his.
My tone turned distant.
"Mr. Harding, hold on to your own ticket. Off you go, I won't see you out."
I stood in the doorway and made a sweeping gesture toward it.
"Rosamund! I've spoiled you far too much!"
His face went ashen as he slammed the door hard and walked off without looking back.
My hand happened to be right at the door's edge, and my fingers were crushed so painfully that a cold sweat broke out on my forehead at once.
Lloyd glanced back once, but he didn't stop walking.
After my hand healed, my start date arrived.
I deliberately avoided the Greece route and chose the opposite direction, Norway.
Once I boarded and stowed my luggage, I went up to wander around the deck.
A crowd had gathered around a young couple in the center.
I edged closer to look, and the scene before me tore my heart apart.
Lloyd and Ivy were in matching outfits, posing for photos.
Yet I had checked, clearly, this route wasn't on his work schedule.
"Ivy's so lucky. She gets to shoot a promo film for the ferry company and reels in a handsome captain on top of it."
"I heard Captain Harding came along just to keep Ivy company. 'This ship belongs to a rival company, you know.'"
"Romance on the company's dime. Isn't this supposed to be scenery shots? Ivy used the scenery shoot to turn it straight into couple photos."
The lighting crew around them chatted on and off, half-interested.
Lloyd awkwardly made a heart shape with Ivy, mimicking the way young people posed for pictures.
The onlookers gushed, "So sweet, now I want to fall in love too."
I had never seen this side of Lloyd before.
But now I had.
I didn't keep watching. I just faced into the wind, swallowed my tears, and went back to the lounge.
I put on the uniform I'd had ready for days.
Four gold bars gleamed on each shoulder, and they made me look sharp, alive.
I wasn't supposed to start until the day after tomorrow, but now I wanted to start early.