Page 134 of Vacation Friends

The Ring? Another movie reference? Maddie could only assume the sender was talking about her engagement ring.

That jewelry meant nothing to her in comparison to Adrienne’s life, however.

Maddie’s heart raced.

Going to the cliffs would be stupid. Most likely a death wish. Especially since the sun would disappear beneath the horizon at any time.

But if she didn’t go then Adrienne would die.

She couldn’t let anything happen to Adrienne because of her either.

She glanced at the ceiling before closing her eyes. What should I do? Tell Detective Kalani?

It seemed the only smart thing to do.

Then, almost as if the perpetrator of these crimes had read her mind, her phone buzzed again.

If you don’t come, the detective will see this after Adrienne dies. Check your earlier messages.

Her earlier messages? What did that even mean?

Maddie scrolled down, and a gasp escaped.

Text messages had shown up on her phone between her and Adrienne.

Texts that made it appear the two had a fight. That made it appear Maddie had asked her to meet on the cliffs.

That made it look like Maddie was behind all of this.

Who had done this? These messages hadn’t been there earlier.

Even if she deleted them, she had a feeling whoever was responsible could make these magically reappear.

This person was forcing her hand. And if the sender was capable of making messages appear on her phone, what else was this person capable of?

Maddie had no choice but to do this. Or maybe she did have other choices but none she could conjure at the moment.

If she went to the cliffs, maybe she could save Adrienne. If she didn’t go, Adrienne could die, and Maddie might be blamed for her death.

If Maddie told the police . . . there was no guarantee Detective Kalani wouldn’t think she was guilty anyway. Especially now that Kalani knew she had a record from her juvenile days.

She knew what she had to do.

Instead of leaving through the main exit, Maddie followed the hallway down to the opposite end of the resort and took the door leading to the parking lot. From there, she could skirt along the edge of the resort and hopefully avoid running into anyone.

Was everyone still at the gala? What had happened after that video played? Had they tried to wrap things up and somehow place a nice pretty bow on it, pretending like it wasn’t a big deal? Had the board members realized Josh’s character and decided they’d made the wrong decision?

What a disaster. An utter disaster.

It was getting dark as she reached the cliffs near Shipwreck Beach.

When she’d first met Bree and Fowler, the two of them had been hiking these cliffs early in the morning. They knew this area better than most.

Could they be behind this? As far as Maddie knew, Fowler hadn’t been found yet. Was that because he had disappeared on his own and set all of this up?

So much still didn’t make sense.

These cliffs covered a large area. Exactly where was she supposed to find Adrienne?

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