The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

9 9 | J U L I E T

"Are you done with your lame attempt at a prank?" I asked Pari as she finished retelling what she saw in the forest.

"I'm not lying," she shook her head, looking at me with serious eyes. "You have to believe me."

"Don't joke about this, Pari. I'm getting a little scared," Boonsri told her.

"Yeah, you're taking it a little too far," Nia agreed.

Colin was now openly frightened, not bothering to hide his worries. He placed Sloane on his lap and further pressed up to Boonsri.

"If this was a true story then that man is long dead now. This was hundreds of years ago. You must've...imagined it," Eli offered as an explanation.

"About something I didn't know until now?" Pari scoffed. "I'm telling you I saw that man. We must get off this island."

I studied her panicked form. "Funny how you only mentioned it after Eli told us the story."

She turned her sharp gaze to me. "I told you I thought it was just a creepy local. Look, if you don't believe me you can stay here but I'm leaving tomorrow as soon as Norman arrives."

"Maybe it was just someone celebrating an early Halloween," Aurelio suggested.

"Five months too early?" Pari deadpanned.

Frida, Abeo and Nova started to look uncomfortable.

"Fine. We'll leave tomorrow. Happy?" I asked.

Several heads nodded.

"Let's go inside now. I don't want to be out here." Pari said as she stared into the fire, looking creepy as fuck.

Naturally we all piled inside and went to sleep early. I stared out at the moon through the open window next to the couch I was occupying and wondered if there was really someone out there killing people for their skin. It made me not want to be on this island on my birthday the next day.

I didn't realize when my eyes closed and sleep took over me but once again I found myself woken up by someone screaming. I groaned and pressed into the couch but it did little to drown the screaming.

"Whoever is getting murdered, shut the fuck up," I mumbled, peeking an eye open to see what the fuss was about.

Nia stood hovering over me, looking down at me furiously. "That's not funny. Get up."

"Why? What happened?" I looked outside to see the sun wasn't even properly up yet. "It's my birthday. I should get to sleep for as long as I want."

"Pari is missing." She said, completely ignoring what I said.

"What?" I sat up, looking around. "Are you sure she's not just breaking into Braxton's house? She did seem like a crazy fangirl type."

"This is serious!" She snapped. "Abeo was the last to see her when she got up to go to the bathroom and this morning he noticed the front door was open."

"Nia, chill. I'm sure she's just gone out for a bit."

But Nia didn't seem to hear me. She paced back and forth in front of me, her hands fidgeting anxiously. "She looked so scared last night. I should've stopped Eli from telling us that scary story. And she told us that she saw that man." Nia stopped her pacing. "Do you think it's true? Did Nia really see this guy? But how? He must be dead...which means she must've seen his ghost. Was she taken by this ghost."

"Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Calm down. She must be fine. Where is everyone anyways?"

"Out looking for her. Being useful, unlike someone who's just sitting around doing nothing to help."