A Love Trap

Chapter 20 Snitch On Ashley

'This is the most efficient way to make Fiona shut up!' Ashley thought with a victorious smile visible on her lips.

Seeing the way Ashley treated Fiona, Ellie rolled her eyes at her disapprovingly.

However, Ashley just grinned back mischievously. 'Got a problem with that?' she thought.

The trio ran into Rita, and she was looking a lot less confident and much less cocky than she had been yesterday.

Ashley gave her a vague glance, thinking, 'It looks like the tides have turned, after just one day. But it's wrong to gloat over other's misfortune.'

Sensing Ashley's gaze on her, Rita looked at her with a blank expression on her face and then looked away.

'She must hate me very much.

But it's not my fault. She brought it all on herself!' Ashley thought.

The time had passed in the blink of an eye and it was already dusk. The three girls stood in front of the Luo Group's building preparing to bid each other goodbye.

"Ellie, Ashley, see you tomorrow," Fiona said cheerfully, waving to them.

Her house was in the opposite direction to where Ashley and Ellie lived. But since the girls were all good friends, they would always walk out of the company together and then go their separate ways.

"Bye. See you!" Ellie and Ashley replied in unison.

They watched Fiona for a brief moment as she walked down the street and then they too headed to their apartment.

Ashley and Ellie rented an apartment in close proximity to the company. It made it more convenient for them to walk to and from work every day. It would normally only take them around ten minutes to get home at strolling pace.

On the way home, they chatted happily with each other.

All of a sudden, Ellie stopped and asked, "Now, can you tell me how on earth you managed to pull that off?"

She gave her best friend a stern look and an expression that implied, that she wasn't going to give her any other choice but to answer her question.

Ashley knew that look. She had seen it many times before, so she didn't dare try to hide it from her any longer. Ashley heaved a heavy sigh.

"Remember that day when I visited the Star Asylum?" she asked.

"Yes, we agreed to go there together, but then I couldn't go because I had something else that I had to do. And you went there by yourself, I remember," Ellie said nodding.

"That's right. Well, when I came back. I ran into someone- a beggar," Ashley said.

"He had mud all over his clothes and he smelled terrible. But there was something about his eyes, they were so kind and shone so brightly and beautifully. I guessed that he would have been hungry, so I gave him something to eat. And then we exchanged contact information."

"Are you serious? You exchanged contact information with a vagabond?" Ellie raised her voice and stopped on the spot, while she held Ashley by the arm. She gaped at her and then frowned and said,

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Could you keep your voice down, Ellie?" Ashley said through clenched teeth as she glanced around embarrassed.

Since it was rush hour, Ellie's loud remark had drawn the attention of the many pedestrians.

Even though Ashley didn't care what other people thought of her, she felt self-conscious about being gawked at by passersby.

Ellie let out a deep breath to compose herself and after a few moments she said, "Okay, I'm ready now. Go ahead."

"Calm down. I only gave him my QQ account. Anyway, a long time has passed since that day that I ran into him and to be honest I even forgot about him. Then recently, he sent me a buddy request and I accepted. It turns out that he isn't a beggar after all.

Apparently, he came to J City to visit his relatives but got mugged. He lost everything and that was why he was in such a bad way. Later on, he managed to contact his relatives and recover some of his things. He thanked me for helping him and we would chat through QQ sometimes.

During one of our chats, he told me that he was really good with computers and offered his skills to me if I ever needed them. And that's pretty much it,"

Ashley said shrugging her shoulders.

'No wonder she locked herself in her room after work yesterday. And here I was thinking that she was upset because of the rumors, ' Ellie thought.

"Even so, you're still an idiot. What if he was a bad guy? Bah! He came to J City to visit his relatives and was mugged! Only you would believe a story like that," Ellie lectured, her face darkening with

anger.

'What if that guy had ill intentions and hurt Ashley? She really put herself in unnecessary risk. Thank goodness that nothing bad happened to her, ' she thought irritated.

"Well, I didn't think so. He looked like a really nice guy. I bet he isn't the evil person that you imagine him to be," Ashley responded in her own defense.

"You can't judge a book by its cover, just like you can't judge a person by his appearance. If there were no bad people in the world, then we wouldn't see policemen everywhere," Ellie snapped in a sulky tone.

"Come on, Ellie. Don't be mad at me. I've learnt my lesson," Ashley said in a pleading voice, as she shook Ellie's arm. 'I didn't have the heart to ignore him because he has the most beautiful eyes, ' she thought.

It usually only took ten minutes to get home, but since they kept stopping to talk about Ashley's new friend, it took them half an hour to finally reach their apartment.

The instant Ashley walked into the house, her phone started buzzing.

She wondered who could be calling her at this hour.

As she pulled out her cell phone from her pocket and glanced down at the caller ID on the screen, her good mood suddenly disappeared.

Ellie washed her hands and made her way into the kitchen to start cooking dinner for them. Whereas, Ashley sat on the couch to take the call in the living room.

"Hello?" she answered hesitantly. The instant she answered the phone, an irritated voice screeched back at her.

"Ashley Mu! Come home right now!" Peggy yelled.

Ashley pulled the phone away from her ear as Peggy barked at her on the other end of the line.

'Luckily I acted fast. Otherwise, I might have been deafened from all her shouting, ' she thought relieved.

"What's up? Can't you tell me over the phone?" Ashley asked leisurely.

Ashley knew that Peggy was angry with her and wanted her home because Lena had told her what had happened.

It wasn't something new to Ashley. Every time Lena tried to set her up and ended up backfiring in her face and getting her into trouble, she would complain to her mother and then Peggy would take it out on Ashley.

Ashley listened quietly while Peggy abused her and judged her unfairly.

The call had finally ended when Peggy was done cursing her and then rudely hung up. Ashley plodded to the kitchen with a resigned expression on her face.

She leaned her shoulder against the door frame and watched as Ellie cooked dinner. "Ellie, you only need to cook dinner for yourself," she said in a small, frustrated voice.

"What? What's up?" Ellie stopped what she was doing and turned around to face her with furrowed brows. Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

"I got a call from the Mu family. I have to go over there," Ashley explained.

"Are you serious? But, it's late," Ellie grumbled.

"They don't care about if I'm in danger or tired. All they care about is avenging their baby girl," Ashley sighed, rubbing her temples to relieve her headache.

"What? Lena snitched on you again?"

"Yup. Why should she stop now? She always does," Ashley replied.

"Well, then, good luck with that. I don't think they'll treat you to dinner, so I'll prepare something for you. Remember to eat when you come back," Ellie said.

"Okay, thanks. I've got to go. Bye!"

"Bye. Take care of yourself on the way."