Daniel's hands began to shake as he held the gun at his wife's forehead. His eyes were filled with tears. He stared at Emily and then glanced at his mother, wondering why on earth they had hurt and betrayed him so terribly. Daniel was seething with anger. He felt like he was going to explode with rage any minute.

"Daniel… put the gun down," pleaded Emily.

"Don't tell me what to do, bitch!" yelled Daniel suddenly, dazed from the amount of alcohol in his system. He forced the tip of the gun harder into his Emily's forehead. She stood, shuddering, fearing for her life.

"Daniel! Oh God, please stop," cried Victoria in distress from the other side of the boat. She felt frozen and terrified, watching in horror as her son transformed into a drunken psychopath.

In the blink of an eye, Daniel turned the gun towards his mother. "Shut up!" he bellowed. Tears were streaming down his face as he fought the urge to pull the trigger. "Both of you, just shut up. I don't even know how to… God, I saw you kiss her, mom! I can't believe you would do that to me."

Emily and Victoria looked at each other in shame. They had both been so careless, disrespectful and unfaithful. Emily began to glare at Victoria, and instantly the older woman knew what Emily was thinking. Victoria was suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of regret – she should not have given in to her own selfish desires. If she had simply ignored her feelings towards Emily, then none of this would be happening.

"I can't even look at the two of you right now," said Daniel, his hands continuing to shake as he aimed the gun back towards Emily. "You disgust me. How could you do this? All this time, all these years, the two of you had some crazy lesbian affair going on, didn't you? You make me sick…"

"No! No, Daniel, that's not what happened," sobbed Victoria.

"Or was it just tonight?" continued Daniel. "Did you want to ruin my wedding day and my entire fucking life? Because that's what you've done!"

"Daniel, come on. Just let me explain," pleaded Emily.

"You say one more word and I pull this trigger!" his voice boomed.

Emily silenced herself, exhaling heavily in fear of what she knew was to come. She had no clue how her entire night had turned upside down like this – she had planned everything to the finest detail and had been ready to make an escape with Aiden. Now she was standing here with a gun to her head, her life flashing before her eyes.

"Daniel, don't you dare!" said Victoria firmly. "We can sort everything out if you put down that damn gun,"

For a moment, it was completely silent. Daniel glared at his mother, his fury overpowering him, his eyes wild and ruthless with a violent streak that Victoria and Emily had never seen before.

Emily felt the cold, hard metal pressing against her head. Her heart was pounding as she slowly glanced up, hearing a soft click – the sound of Daniel's thumb moving towards the trigger.

Bang.

The sound of the shot echoed in the silence of the night. The body fell to the floor with a projected thud as blood began to stream out of it, creating a thick, dark pool of deep red that glistened in the darkness.

The lost, tormented brown eyes of Daniel Grayson looked into Emily's for one last time, before closing with hopelessness - giving up, giving in.

The ground felt like it was shaking. Emily struggled to stand as she watched Daniel's muscular body hit the ground, suddenly devoid of all life and soul. Emily's ears were ringing and her knees felt like they were about to give way. The booming echo of the gunshot haunted her memory.

"I'm sorry."

Aiden.

Aiden had just saved their lives.

Victoria was speechless as she stared at her son's lifeless body that lay just a few metres from her. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She began to tremble with shock, unable to stop herself from losing control. She suddenly collapsed onto her knees, crying in weakness. Both Emily and Aiden rushed to her side to comfort her.

"Victoria, I am so, so sorry," whispered Aiden. "I had to do it. He was going to kill both of you."

Victoria was lost for words as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. Her dear, beautiful son was dead. Dead. Victoria couldn't bear the thought of it. She screamed out in agony, the intensity of her emotional pain overwhelming her.

Meanwhile, Emily was in a state of shock herself. She didn't know how she felt about Daniel, who was now dead in front of her, limp and still, blood pouring from his stomach, sweat on his brow. She felt incredibly grateful that Aiden had been there at that moment – he had saved her life. But yet, this was not how things should have turned out. Victoria had just witnessed Aiden kill her beloved Daniel. How was Aiden going to get away with such a crime? Was Victoria going to seek retribution, or would she find a way to forgive him? A million questions were racing around in Emily's mind as she tried to comfort the grieving Victoria. However, Emily had no doubt that if Aiden hadn't have shot Daniel, Emily herself would now be dead. The way Daniel had looked at her just moments beforehand, the burning anger and hatred in his eyes – he would not have hesitated to shoot Emily.

She tried to catch Aiden's eye to say thank you, but he quickly looked away the moment she did. He seemed cold and hostile. Emily panicked silently. Had Aiden heard what had happened between her and Victoria? Had he been there, lurking in the background, listening to what Daniel had been saying? Or worse, had he also seen Emily and Victoria together?

"Aiden," began Emily, praying that he hadn't been there watching them.

"I need to go distract everyone downstairs to make sure they don't come up here," replied Aiden quietly, his eyes cool.

"Wait…"

He turned and opened the door, his back to Emily. "We'll talk later."

Attempting to block out the negative thoughts of Aiden, Emily turned back to Victoria who still sat on the floor, sobbing in disbelief. Her long, black hair fell in her face and her make up began to run. As much as Emily hated to admit it, she felt a great sense of sympathy towards Victoria. It pained her to see the older woman in such a vulnerable and weak state of mind, which was a rarity. However, Emily desperately needed to clarify things with Aiden.

"Listen, Victoria, I have to go back downstairs. I'm sorry. You should go home and get some rest,"

Victoria looked up. "Emily, please don't leave me again,"

"There's something important I need to sort out. I'll call you when I get home, I promise."

She stood up and began to rush downstairs. Emily forced herself not to turn back to Victoria – she knew that if she did, she wouldn't be able to let the older woman go. Something had changed within Emily and she was well aware of it. She felt a strange, intimate attachment to Victoria. Something drew them to each other. Emily had always felt something towards Victoria, yet she had never been able to pinpoint exactly what it was. Nor had she ever taken the time to think properly about it. It was a feeling that had often made her feel very hesitant to hurt Victoria, even though Emily knew that Victoria deserved all the pain she received.

As Emily thought back to their many previous interactions, including the events of today, she began to realise that she had been repressing her deep feelings towards Victoria for a very long time.