Listening to their exchange, Norah grew even more surprised. It seemed things weren't playing out the way she had expected.
Sara and Adrian walked over, joining the circle. "Stop beating around the bush," Sara demanded coldly. "What exactly is going on? Just say it! Lorelei lost something and thinks we stole it? Is that it?"
Caleb put on a show of righteous indignation. "Exactly. Lorelei's expensive watch is missing. It vanished right by the river, and whoever was down there knows exactly what happened!"
Adrian let out a scoff of pure disbelief. "So you're saying anyone who went to the river is a watch thief?"
Whitney strode over to back them up, her chin tilted up arrogantly as she glared coldly at Adrian's group. "Lorelei was washing her face at the river and left her watch on a rock. She didn't remember it until she got back to her tent, and when she went back to look, it was gone. Between then and now, only you and Gonzalez went down to the river. Isn't it obvious who took it?"
Outraged, Norah immediately fired back. "Adrian would never do something like that! It couldn't be him!"
Gonzalez turned his gaze to Norah, his eyes narrowing. "So you're saying it was me?"
His icy, furious stare sent a chill down Norah's spine. She hurriedly shook her head. "I mean neither of you would do something like that!"
But the fact that Norah had instinctively defended Adrian first filled Gonzalez with a potent mix of jealousy and anger. His expression turned as dark as a storm cloud, and he kept his mouth shut in frigid silence.
Whitney scoffed. "You all act like you're so rich, but behind closed doors, you're just petty thieves. How shameless!"
Furious, Sara looked ready to throw a punch. "Shut the hell up! Even if your watch was worth millions, we wouldn't look twice at it. For all we know, you hid it yourself just to frame us and extort some cash!"
Lorelei gasped, feigning exaggerated shock. She pointed at herself, looking at Caleb and Holly. "Me? Extort them? My dad gives me tens of thousands for my monthly allowance! Why would I need to scam them? If Caleb hadn't been so upset on my behalf, I wasn't even going to bring up the missing watch!"
"Of course a thief isn't going to admit to stealing!" Whitney chimed in.
Looking exasperated, Lorelei put on a magnanimous front. "Forget it. I'm really not going to pursue this. We all came out here to have a good time, and I don't want a watch ruining the mood."
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