Read Overboard for Free Online Page B

teeth.
“You know it wasn’t.”
    Brenna shook her head. “Stop this! Stop treating me
like I am the enemy. It was an accident. Everyone can see it but
you! You need help, Hallie. You can’t just go around accusing
people...”
    “Where is Marissa? Did you have anything to do with
her disappearance?” Hallie said, doing little to mask her
hatred.
    “No,” Brenna said in a whisper, shaking her head. “I
don’t know what you are talking about.”
    “Do you really expect me to believe she just got lost
or whatever Orman is trying to convince everyone of?” Hallie
questioned angrily.
    “I don’t know,” she told her at a loss for words as
hot tears began to stream down her face at the mention of her
missing friend. “I don’t know anything.”
    “How well do you know your friend Chelsea?”
    “You are delusional if you are going to blame Chelsea
for any of this.”
    “How did you meet her?”
    Brenna backed away from Hallie. Her mind raced. She
couldn’t think... She was so confused.
    Images of Chelsea popped in her head. Chelsea... She
just appeared in her life one day, but she couldn’t pinpoint the
exact time. The memory of their first encounter evaded her. Brenna
found herself frightened by this. How had she forgotten?
    “Where is Chelsea, Bren? I haven’t seen her since I
boarded. Why else would she be hiding from me?” Hallie told her.
“Something happened to my sister, and I know you know something
about it... Something is not right about you, Bren, and I am
determined to find out.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Brenna ran to her suite in tears. Confused, she
wondered how Hallie could ever believe she had anything to do with
her sister’s death... She would have never hurt Morgan or Marissa.
She loved them like sisters.
    She threw herself on the bed and began to cry. She
was so confused. Why did Marissa have to fall overboard? Why was
she even on the balcony and where did the blood on the bracelet
come from? Why did Orman feel it was better to throw the bracelet
overboard? Was he trying to prevent a scandal? A girl murdered at
sea would be a sensational story... Or was Marissa’s disappearance
merely an accident?
    Hours passed, but Brenna remained in her room. She
refused to share the same space as any of the people she once
called her friends. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t
know her friends at all. She had a glimpse at the real person
within each of them, and in that instant, their true colors were
apparent to her. They blamed her...
    They blamed her misfortune. They blamed her for
Morgan all along. They never trusted her. They only waited for the
right opportunity to destroy her life, and she never saw it before.
Were they making up Marissa’s disappearance to mess with her mind?
Or to force her to confess to Morgan’s accident?
    She had never heard of any rivalry with Marissa. She
had never heard of any bad blood existing between them and Marissa.
The idea that any of them disliked Marissa was a new one. In her
suspicious mind, any of them could have knocked her off balance and
thrown her over the railing. Or, at least, faked it to drive Brenna
insane. The ship was huge. Marissa could have been hiding anywhere,
and Brenna didn’t join the others in searching the ship.
    Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
    Brenna didn’t respond, remaining quiet and hoping her
visitor would go away.
    After a short while, Dylan stepped into the room
without being invited.
    “We couldn’t find Marissa. The coast guard gave the
captain the okay to dock at the nearest port,” he informed her
sadly. “The authorities are going to inspect the ship thoroughly
there. They want to go through her things. Orman said she was
pretty drunk last night so it should be cited as an accident.”
    “Is there a reason you are telling me this?” Brenna
questioned, sitting up in bed.
    “We are going to dock in Miami for a few hours. The
rest of us decided to cut this trip short and head back