The Sea, Without You

My childhood sweetheart proposed to my sister Camille at my graduation. Just then, Blington’s most sought-after bachelor Jonathan Bennett confessed his love for me. We married, and for five years he doted on me utterly. But I overheard him tell a friend he’d only stayed with me to safeguard Camille’s happiness—he’d never had a chance with her, and I was just a pretense. The precious notes he kept were all for Camille, filled with his deepest wishes for her. My five years of bliss crumbled in an instant. I created a fake identity, faked my death in a drowning, and vanished for good. In this life and all others, we will never meet again.