Page 55 of The Weekend Getaway

“Isn’t it obvious what happened to Sarah?” Grace asked, pacing around the room. With each step, her gelatinous stomach wobbled and the fat around her back quivered. “Phil fucking beat her and raped her!”

“You think Phil raped Sarah?” Alex asked.

“What else could have happened?” Grace glared at him, breathing hard, her round, fleshy face flushed pink.

“That’s what we need to find out,” Alex said. “We can’t jump toconclusions.”

“Sarah has bruises all over her,” Grace said, pointing toward the bed. “And there’s blood everywhere.”

“But, Alex is right,” Mia said. “We don’t know what happened. We need to try to wake them up.”

“Wake them up?” Grace shrieked. “They are passed out cold!”

“And who’s fault is that?” Mia asked, staring pointedly at Grace.

“What the hell do you mean?” Grace demanded.

“Me, Alex, and Jason saw you helping Sarah up the stairs,” Mia said, her tone accusing.

“Because she wasn’t feeling well,” Grace said. “I brought her up here so she could lay down and feel better! Phil must have followed us. And when I left the room, he raped her!”

“And it’s your fault,” Mia said. “Phil raped Sarah because you left her alone when she wasn’t feeling well!”

Grace shook her head. “That’s not true!”

“If you had stayed with Sarah,” Mia said, “then Phil wouldn’t have been able to hurt her! This is all your fault, Grace!”

“I never wanted this to happen!” Grace moaned. “I never thought?—”

“That’s your problem,” Mia said. “You never think about anyone except yourself! And because of your selfishness, Sarah was raped and almost beaten to death!”

“Oh my God.” Grace gagged. “I’m going to get sick …”

As Grace sprinted from the room, Alex grabbed Mia’s arm and pulled her across the bedroom, stopping near the row of French doors, where they wouldn’t be overheard. “We need to figure out what to do.”

CHAPTER 52

MIA

Mia had known they wouldn’t find the speed boat.

Stomping along the dirt path through the sweltering jungle, she slapped at her arms and legs, irritated by the feeling of invisible insects landing on her skin. Tracking the boat down was a stupid idea. How had she let Chris convince her to help him search?

“We need to find the speed boat,” he’d insisted after Sarah claimed she’d seen Grace’s severed head on one of the bench seats in the watercraft. A preposterous claim Mia didn’t believe, despite Sarah’s haunted insistence. But Chris was adamant that Grace was in trouble, and that maybe she’d been kidnapped, thrown into the speed boat, and spirited away from the island against her will. Another ridiculous claim Mia didn’t believe.

But Chris had looked so pitiful, so heartbroken when he’d asked Mia to join him.

Mia had felt guilty. She’d been thinking of distancing herself from Grace because she’d claimed to have seen Alex’s severed head in the rainforest.

Wiping sweat from her face, Mia huffed as she walked faster, not giving a damn that Chris could barely keep up with her. The idea of severed heads angered her, made her feel like she was losing her mind. Why would Grace claim to have seen Alex’s head? Why would Sarah insist she’d seen Grace’s head? Mia wondered if Grace and Sarah were trying to play some trick on her. But what kind of trick? And for what reason?

Mia could only surmise that it might have something to do with?—

“I think Sarah was telling the truth…”

Startled by Chris’s labored breathing, Mia stumbled, losing her footing for a moment on dead leaves. “What?”

“I think Grace might be … dead.”

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