I still remember the exact moment the cold water closed over my head.

The sea was not blue that evening.

It was black and endless, and I sank into it like a stone.

My name is Rosemary, and for five years I believed I was the luckiest woman in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

I was married to Harold, a man with kind eyes and a gentle voice.

Every morning I thanked God for him.

But I did not know that Harold had already given his heart to another woman, a woman named Janice.

This is the story of how my husband tried to take my life, and what happened three years later when I came back.

That year, our fifth anniversary was all I could think about.

For weeks I prepared little surprises.

I wrote him twelve handwritten notes and hid them in his coat pockets, his lunch bag, and inside his favorite book.

I learned to cook his mother’s clam chowder recipe until the whole kitchen smelled like his childhood.

I made an album of photographs from our first date at the lighthouse to our wedding day under the old maple tree.

I wanted to remind him that our love was still alive.

But Harold had been distant for months.

He came home late, stared at his phone, and answered me with one-word replies.

I told myself it was just pressure at work.

I told myself that men sometimes forget how to show affection.

On the morning of our anniversary, I was standing in front of my vanity.

I wore my mother’s pearl earrings and a soft blue dress.

I wanted to look like the girl he had fallen in love with.

Harold walked in and leaned against the doorframe.

His smile was tired, but his voice was gentle.

“I have a surprise for you too,” he said.

I turned around, my heart beating fast.

“What is it?”

“We’re going to the sea. I rented a private boat. Just you and me.”

I ran to him and hugged him tightly.

“You did this? Lately you’ve been so distant. I thought you had forgotten.”

He hugged me back, but his arms were stiff like cold wood.

I did not notice.

I only saw the man I still loved.

For me, that trip meant a new beginning.

For Harold, it was a farewell.

When we arrived at the private dock, the sea breeze lifted my hair.

I closed my eyes and breathed in the salty air.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.

The golden horizon stretched over the water like a painting.

Harold offered me his hand and helped me step onto the boat.

The deck rocked gently beneath my feet.

A lone seagull cried in the distance.

I smiled up at him.

“I can’t remember the last time we did something like this.”

“I wanted it to be perfect,” he said, but his eyes never met mine.

I did not see Janice.

She was sitting inside a parked car far down the road, dressed all in white.

She watched us board the boat in silence.

And I had no idea that my life was about to change forever.

Once we were out at sea, Harold opened a bottle of wine.

He poured two glasses and handed one to me.

“To us,” he said, raising his glass.

“To a new beginning,” I answered with a hopeful smile.

We clinked glasses, and I took a small sip.

The wine was sweet, but my heart was sweeter.

For a long while I could not stop talking.

I reminded him of our first date at the little seafood restaurant near the harbor.

I reminded him of the way he used to make me laugh until my sides hurt.

I told him how much I missed his laughter.

Then I told him something I had been holding in my heart.

“I want us to have a child soon,” I said softly. “I want our family to grow.”

Harold looked at me, but he was not listening.

His mind was somewhere else.

Cold.

Calculating.

I did not see it.

I kept talking about the future while he quietly planned the end of mine.

As the sun began to set, Harold stood up.

“Come to the edge,” he said.

“We can take a picture with the sunlight behind us.”

I laughed and brushed my hair away from my face.

“Do you still want more pictures with me?” I teased.

He smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

I walked to the edge with my arms open wide.

My heart was overflowing with emotion.

I turned my back to the water and looked at him.

“Okay, take the picture,” I said.

But Harold was not holding a camera.

He was staring at me with a look I had never seen before.

And then he stepped forward and pushed me hard.

I fell backward.

The wooden railing slipped away from my fingers.

The last thing I saw was Harold’s face looking down at me.

Then the freezing water swallowed me whole