After my mother and her mother arrived, we
went to the police station to report the
incident.
I noticed that we were being followed.
We explained what happened to the police.
The police said that because it was only a
deep sea diving experience, and there was no
direct evidence of Ashley’s death, they
couldn’t call out a search and rescue team.
The mother was frantic, and tried to find her.
く
I called out to her. I pointed to a girl that was soaking wet, covered in bruises, and said that
Ashley went with her.
I frowned. She looked more injured than my
past life, and the police ran towards her to
ask what had happened.
I yelled, “Ashley went with them!”
Ashley’s mother almost collapsed and ran
over to shake the injured girl. “Where’s my
daughter? What happened to my daughter!”
The injured girl trembled, with a horrified
look.
“No, don’t hit me! Don’t take off my oxygen
mask! Don’t throw me into the ocean!”
Female officers came to calm the girl down.
Ashley’s parents were pacing. She asked the
police to find her daughter.
The police told her that they needed to hear
the news from the girl.
Ashley’s mother continued to ask the girl,
[“Do you know Ashley? How is she? Where is
she?“]
When the girl heard the name, she began to
focus her gaze and look at Ashley’s mother.
Her lips moved.
“Ashley?”
My heart jumped into my throat, hoping to
hear that Ashley was dead.
<
Chapter 2
“Aaaahhhhh!” the girl just started screaming.
She went totally nuts and lunged at Barb
(Ashley’s mom), biting her ear like a rabid
dog.
It took the cops ripping her off to get her to
let go.
“That bitch! That’s the one! If it wasn’t for
her, I wouldn’t be in this mess!” the girl
shrieked.
Through her yelling, I pieced together that
Liam had taken them out for a deep dive.
But as soon as they were down there, he
wanted them to pay a fortune for photos and
く
videos. If they refused, he threatened to take
off their masks.
Both girls had drained their bank accounts,
but it wasn’t enough. Liam pressured them to
take out loans.
Turns out, Ashley, with her fancy clothes, was
already drowning in debt.
She couldn’t get any loans. So, she offered
the instructor the remaining two thousand
dollars in her bank accounts.
Liam got mad that he barely earned anything
on this deep sea trip, so he made them pay
with their bodies, and filmed them so they
wouldn’t report him to the police.
The other girl, who had the strength to resist
く
jumped out of the boat during the melee.
She was lucky she made it back alive.
The girl finally passed out. The cops ID’d her
as Brittany. But that was it.
All they could do was contact the coast guard
with the address I’d given them.
On the way, I kept trying to reassure Barb.
“Brittany’s probably just freaked out. Ashley’s
got a guardian angel watching over her, she’ll
be fine.”
We were still waiting for the boat when a
speedboat pulled up.
The people on board were laughing and
L
joking around. Ashley saw us, and you could
tell she was shocked.
Ashley had a slap mark on her face, and her
bare legs were covered in bite marks. It was
horrifying.
The cops swarmed them immediately.
Barb ran to Ashley, sobbing.
“Oh, honey, what are you going to do now?”
Ashley shoved her away, annoyed.
“I just went for a deep dive. Why are you
crying so much?”
Barb was stunned. It took her a second to get
the words out. “Rory said…and we saw
<
Brittany at the police station. She said…said
you were in trouble!”
“Oh, Rory, I should have known you’d spread
rumors. Why are you like this? You must be
jealous of my beauty, because people always
ask me to go diving, and I always get the best
photos. You should try to get plastic surgery,
loser.”
Then, she turned to the cops, shouting,
“Officers, I want to report Brittany for
extortion!”
The cops frowned.
It was getting late, so they hauled us all back
to the station to make statements.
As soon as we got there, Brittany started
<
yelling.
“She’s going to tell you that those instructors
made us pay a fortune for videos, but that’s
because she’s greedy!”
“The instructor was giving us a free dive and
video, but she was super picky. She didn’t like
the shots, and kept threatening to leave a bad
review until she was satisfied with the
results.”
“Later, she said she had tons of money, and
she sent money to the instructor so that he
had proof of her crime.”
“She jumped into the ocean!”
Brittany was soaking wet and looked like she
had been through the wringer.
Barb started hitting Ashley, crying.
“Ashley, were they threatening you? Don’t be
scared, Mom and Dad are here. Whatever
happened, we’ll take care of it. Just tell us the
truth.”
Ashley shot her mom a dirty look and turned
to the cops, swearing.
“I swear, that woman is seriously evil. She
sabotages other people’s business and
livelihoods!”
She was really putting on a show. The cops
frowned.
Liam and Lin handed over their cameras for
inspection.
They said they hadn’t taken Brittany’s money,
but they’d accidentally charged her credit
card, so they offered to pay her back.
They also said they wanted the police to
witness them and that they didn’t want
Brittany to make false accusations.
The tech guys took the cameras and
recovered the deleted files. They were normal
videos and photos.
The cops who went to the hospital with.
Brittany reported that she hadn’t been
assaulted.
Everything lined up with Ashley’s story. It was
like Brittany was making it all up out of spite.
One of the cops pointed to the bite marks on
<
Ashley’s legs.
Ashley just shrugged. “It’s a beach. We’re all
adults. It’s not illegal if we both wanted it.”
I knew something was off. Bob (Ashley’s dad)
was a college professor. He was super old-
fashioned.
Ashley always acted like a good girl in front
of them. That’s how she got away with
racking up a million dollars in debt without
them knowing.
Now, with her dad standing right there, she
was talking like a tramp. Something wasn’t
adding up.
But Ashley and Liam were working together
perfectly. And Brittany recanted her story
after hearing that Liam was going to give her
money back. She said she was confused.
It was a tourist town, and the cops didn’t
want to hurt business by spreading bad press.
In the end, they just gave them a warning and
let them go.
On the way back to the hotel, everyone was
quiet.
As soon as we got back to the hotel and
closed the door, we heard Bob hit Ashley in
their hotel suite.
Then, Ashley started crying and yelling.
“You only care about hitting me! You never
actually care about me!”
Г
Then, she stormed out of the hotel and glared
at me as she passed.
Mom suspected that Ashley wasn’t telling the
truth, and pulled me behind her.
When we got back to our room, she kept
saying that something was wrong.
“Something is up with Ashley, Rory. Stay
away from her for a while. Don’t go out alone
with her.”
