The Sea Owes Me a Fortune

“Jasper, be gentle. You’re hurting me…”

The plea came trembling through the dim room. Jasper Holt looked at the woman beneath him with disgust.

“Hurting you? You drugged me so you could trap me into taking your husband’s place. You weren’t worried about pain then, were you?”

Vicky Beatty went rigid. Her eyes, squeezed shut in embarrassment a moment before, flew open.

“You… you know?”

Jasper gave a cold laugh and showed even less restraint. He was in his twenties and had strength to spare. Before long, Vicky lost consciousness.

He pulled away and sat up, his head clear at last, then cast a cold glance at the woman beside him.

She was the most beautiful woman on Saltwick Island, with a softly rounded face and a full figure. Even the sea wind had left her skin untouched.

Jasper knew that desperation had driven her to this. Her hardships, however, didn’t excuse what she had done to him.

Three years earlier, Vicky had married Tim Hunnam and moved to Saltwick. Their household was small: Tim, his father Matthew, and his younger sister Sydney. They owned a fishing boat and had been comfortably off.

Then, the previous year, Tim had been caught in a tsunami while out at sea. The boat was destroyed. He had been pulled from the water alive, but the accident left him paralyzed. The Hunnams lost their livelihood overnight.

In his first life, Jasper and Sydney had been childhood sweethearts. After the disaster, her family had wanted him to marry her, move into their house, and help support them all.

He had refused to turn his back on his own family to take responsibility for hers. He’d hoped they could talk things through, but instead, the Hunnams had drugged him.

The next morning, he had woken in Vicky’s bed.

They had used that to blackmail him into moving in and taking Tim’s place. He would become Vicky’s stand-in husband and provide for the household, while her actual husband continued living under the same roof.

Jasper hadn’t dared risk a scandal. His parents had lived honest, decent lives. If their son was branded a rapist, the whole family would have to live with the shame. Worse, he had believed he’d gotten drunk and done something unforgivable. Sick with guilt and unable to see a way out, he had agreed.

His own family couldn’t understand his decision and cut him off. Sydney couldn’t bear what had happened either. She left home, and he never heard from her again.

Jasper spent the rest of his life working himself into the ground for the Hunnams. He did every miserable job that came his way, supported Matthew in his old age, and paid for Tim’s medication. Even his own son had to bear the Hunnam name.

Only as he lay dying did he learn that it had all been a setup.

He had thought that was the end. Instead, he opened his eyes after death and found himself back on the very night they had drugged him.

Jasper looked at the calendar on the wall.

June 18, 1984.

He remembered it clearly. The first time, the drug had kept him unconscious until dawn. By the time he woke, the Hunnams had cornered him in the bedroom and forced him into the arrangement that ruined his life.

This time, he could still get away.

Jasper rubbed his eyes and frowned. They had been bothering him ever since he woke in his younger body, a faint stinging that wouldn’t quite go away.

“Must be whatever they put in my drink…”

He dismissed it. After another glance at Vicky, he quietly dressed and climbed out of the window.

The moment he was outside, he ran.

Salt air rushed against his face, filling him with an exhilaration he could barely contain. In his first life, Matthew had constantly accused him of destroying the family. Vicky had cried in front of him so often that he had worked himself half to death trying to make amends.

He had finally saved enough to buy a fishing boat at thirty-two. From then on, he went out every day to earn a living. No one knew these waters better than he did.

“I’m going to buy a boat! Make some money, marry Sydney, give Mom and Dad a better life!”

He stood at the water’s edge and threw his arms into the air, shouting out his plans. He had his whole life ahead of him again, and this time he knew what he wanted to do with it.

The open water was too much to resist. He stripped off his clothes and plunged in. The familiar feel of the sea around him nearly brought him to tears.

He had spent half his first life fishing, yet the work, the guilt, and the weight of other people’s judgment had robbed him of something as simple as a carefree swim. Now, with all of it still avoidable, he let himself enjoy the water.

Before long, though, the stinging in his eyes grew sharper.

“Is it the salt water?”

He hurried ashore and blinked furiously, but the pain only worsened. Soon he was doubled over, fighting a sudden surge of fear.

What if getting his life back meant losing his sight?

It took a long time for the pain to subside. When he finally dared open his eyes, he stared in disbelief.

The beach and the sea, dark only moments before, glittered with colored lights. Some were faint; others shone brightly.

“What the hell?”

He blinked hard. The lights remained, bright enough to make his eyes ache. Yet the moment he wished they would stop hurting his eyes, they vanished.

Puzzled, he blinked again. The lights returned.

He walked toward the nearest faint glow. Up close, he saw that it came from a plump sea snail. The light disappeared as soon as he picked it up.

Unable to make sense of it, he moved on to another patch of pale color nearby. When he saw what was there, he sucked in a breath.

“That’s a hell of a scallop!”

He picked it up. It was as big as his palm. A thought began to form: what if the lights were showing him things worth collecting?

He checked several more spots to be sure. Every light led to a catch, and the brighter it shone, the more valuable the find. He also discovered that he could switch the glow off just by willing it away, leaving his ordinary vision unaffected.

As the possibilities sank in, Jasper felt a rush of joy. It was like having his own built-in radar.

“This is incredible!”

With lights scattered all across the beach, he went home for a couple of buckets, then returned to gather whatever he could find.

Less than half an hour later, a splitting headache forced him to stop. The lights had disappeared as well. He guessed he had pushed his new ability too far and reluctantly called it a night. At least both buckets were full.

There were fist-sized whelks, mud crabs weighing over a pound, octopuses, and blue swimming crabs, all excellent catches. He had even found a live grouper.

“I should get at least fifteen or sixteen dollars for this lot at the docks tomorrow.”

Adding up the catch in his head, Jasper hummed all the way home.

The house was quiet. His father and older brother had probably already gone out to sea. He put the buckets away, went to his room, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It was broad daylight when voices in the yard woke him.

“Mom, did you go down to the shore last night?”

That was his sister-in-law, Rebecca Abrams. She sounded delighted.

“My brother’s wife just had her baby. Perfect timing! I’ll take half of this over to them.”

Jasper was instantly awake. He scrambled out of bed and found Rebecca picking through the buckets. She had already taken out the grouper.

“Rebecca, I caught those.” He leaned against the doorframe. “I’m taking them to the docks to sell.”

Her face fell.

He had never had much patience for his stingy, selfish sister-in-law, and he wasn’t about to waste his breath arguing. He walked over, tipped the grouper back into a bucket, put the lid on, and picked up his catch.

“Oh, aren’t you important!” Rebecca scoffed. “You’re all set to move in with the Hunnams, and you’re still throwing your weight around here!”

Jasper heard her but kept walking.

He hadn’t gone far when he came face-to-face with Matthew Hunnam.

Matthew had been hurrying along the road. At the sight of Jasper, he stopped, his gaze dropping to the buckets.

“Jasper! You had too much to drink last night and fell asleep at our place. Why did you sneak off in the middle of the night without a word? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”