Chapter 6
Riley denied Luke’s accusation vehemently. Not convinced, Luke sent his men to check the surveillance tapes. The truth came to light after that. Luke’s eyes reddened from anger as he shouted, “So it was you!”
He snatched Riley’s phone out of her hands and scrolled through it in a frenzy. When he came across the pictures that she had sent to me, he couldn’t control himself anymore and slapped Riley hard across her face.
The ship sped toward the vast ocean, leaving the dock behind in its wake. The waters that had been a murky brown slowly turned into a crystal clear cerulean. I had cut myself off from my past and was heading toward a future that belonged solely to me.
The cell signal on the ship got progressively weaker. After settling my work arrangements, I sat on the deck and quietly looked through the manual I had downloaded on my phone. The manual detailed how to repair a broken bracelet.
My body trembled lightly as the ocean breeze blew past. Suddenly, a person blocked out the sun that was shining overhead, casting a long shadow over me. I lifted my head to meet eyes with someone who I hadn’t seen in a long time–Caleb Manzana, a senior who attended the same school as me.
“Long time no see, Summer. Why are you looking at a repair manual?”
I pulled out the broken pieces of the bracelet and showed it to him. “Mom left this for me before she passed away. I want to try fixing it.”
Caleb examined the bracelet and said, “Some of the emerald pieces are too small to be inserted back into the bracelet. But we can
try looking for other gems of similar size to replace them. Do you mind if I give it a shot?”
I raised my head with a surprised expression. “How do you know how to do this, Caleb?”
“My ancestors were inherently talented with handicrafts,” Caleb replied with a light smile.
Caleb sat down by my side. He pulled out a piece of paper and started sketching some designs on it.
After two weeks of being at sea, the ship docked at a supply station. My phone chimed endlessly with notifications as it connected
to the cell service again. There were over dozens of missed calls, and all of them were from Luke.
For the last two weeks, Luke had turned Seacrest upside down looking for me. But he had failed to find me anywhere in the city.
He had questioned all my friends, but no one knew where I had gone.
