Where Love Sank

My heart sank again.

I wanted to tell Craig this was his baby. If he didn’t believe me, he could go ahead and get a paternity test. However, no words came out of my mouth.

My throat was dry as dust. Days without water had left my mouth bone-dry and tasteless. I was dying of thirst.

Desperate, I begged, using the last bit of strength I had to bang against the inside of the shark’s belly.

“Please, Craig, let me out…”

Unfortunately, my voice didn’t carry—not through the thick, suffocating walls of flesh.

One of the fishermen couldn’t take it anymore. “Mr. Craig, there’s barely any air in there. There’s no water either. She’s gonna die if this keeps up!”

Looking pitiful, Izzy butt in. “I looked it up. A person can survive in a shark for a month, and I’ve been sending her water every day. She drank every last drop! Jane must be mad at me and lying to Craig on purpose. That woman is manipulative!”

That was what she said, but I’d seen the truth through the surveillance camera. Every single bottle of water she was supposed to send me, she dumped straight into the ocean. Then, she’d laugh into the lens, right at me.

“Thirsty? Too bad. You can drink the shark’s leftovers!”

Craig didn’t know. All he saw were the empty bottles scattered on the ground, and he sneered.

“What's there to say? It looks like she’s been eating and drinking just fine.”

The fishermen fell silent, none daring to speak up.

Then Izzy, clearly not done stirring the pot, added with a sweet, evil voice, “Why do you always listen to Jane, huh? Have you fallen for her or something?”

Right on cue, Craig’s expression turned ice cold.

“That woman’s never known her place,” he growled before turning to the fishermen, eyes sharp and cruel. “And you, get out of here, unless you want me to wipe this whole village off the map.”

The men scattered, too afraid to even look back.

My last bit of hope vanished, like someone had crushed my heart in their fist. Inside me, I could feel my baby kicking, like they were struggling too.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so, so sorry…”

I felt myself growing numb—inside and out. I didn’t know what else to do.

The stench was so unbearable and putrid that it made me retch again and again. However, if I kept throwing up like that, I’d die of thirst or suffocate.

No. I had to get out of here!

In the pitch-black darkness, I fumbled around. I had no weapons or anything sharp. The only thing I could use was the hairpin tucked into my bun.

I pulled it free and tried to use the sharp end to slice my way out through the shark’s belly, but every cut was slow and weak. The shark’s skin, thick and rubbery, might as well have been steel. I put everything I had into it, but all I managed was a small tear.

Time lost all meaning. Then, a sudden, gut-wrenching pain twisted through my lower abdomen. Something slipped from my body—soft, bloody, and warm.

My trembling hands reached for it, but they got stuck between the shark’s ribs. It took me a second to understand what had happened; it was my baby.

A broken sob tore from my throat, but I didn’t even have the strength to cry.

“My baby… My poor baby…”

Rage surged up from somewhere deep inside me.

Why didn’t he believe me? Why did he kill my child?

I didn’t know how many times I passed out and came to again. The darkness was endless. My whole body convulsed as if I were already dying… or maybe already dead.

Back on the shore, Craig frowned at a sudden spike in the monitor’s readings.

“What is going on in there? Why is she still pulling this crap? Put it on the screen,” he ordered. “I want to see what she’s doing in there.”

The feed turned on. Everyone could see me twitching and shaking violently inside the shark’s stomach.

Izzy snorted. “Wow, Jane sure is full of energy. It looks like she’s throwing a party in there.”

Craig scoffed coldly. “She’s got that much strength, but she still won’t apologize to Izzy. She deserves everything she gets.”

Just then, one of the monitoring techs hesitated and could not help but speak, “Sir, there’s blood. It’s coming from under her.”