Chapter 25: Chapter 25: The Pool Incident Five Years Ago
The call ended, and Warren Prescott noticed a missed call from Rosalind Lynch.
His eyes darkened slightly as he looked at Mr. Coleman.
"Mr. Coleman, are there surveillance cameras installed by the pool at home?"
Mr. Coleman didn’t know why Warren was suddenly asking this, but he quickly replied, "Yes, there are some safety hazards with the pool, so during the initial design, we installed cameras in all four corners."
"How long can the recordings be stored?"
"I believe it’s one year."
"Can we find ones from six years ago?"
Mr. Coleman thought for a moment and said, "I’m not sure if the memory cards update automatically or if they are the replaceable type. If they’re replaceable, Butler Ford should have kept them."
"Then please help me check when you get back."
"Yes..."
Mr. Coleman acknowledged the request but didn’t dare to ask Warren why he suddenly brought up the surveillance topic.
Today, Warren seemed particularly odd.
Or rather, ever since Miss Ashley left, something about Warren seemed a bit different.
He used to have some youthful mischief, but now he looks more steady, yet more inscrutable.
This change, for us as servants, is uncertain whether it’s good or bad.
Before long, it was the next day.
Warren returned from his morning run on the community’s tree-lined path and saw Mr. Coleman waiting for him at the door.
He pulled down the white towel around his neck to wipe his sweat and approached.
"Young Master, last night I asked about the matter you requested."
"Hmm."
Mr. Coleman handed over a clear bag containing several memory cards.
"The surveillance footage is of the replaceable type, and these are the memory cards from the past five years."
Warren freed a hand to take it.
"Thank you, go ahead and get busy."
"Okay."
Mr. Coleman agreed and watched Warren enter the house before he, following Mrs. Kimberly Jennings’s orders, drove to the Lynch Family.
Mrs. Jennings asked him to bring Miss Lynch back for dinner.
Honestly, he really disliked this Miss Lynch, even somewhat detested her.
Because around the Young Master, she behaves extremely differently depending on his presence.
She acts like two entirely different people.
For instance, last night, when the Young Master asked him to take Miss Lynch home first.
As soon as the car door closed, everything seemed fine, but once they drove a short distance, Miss Lynch began venting her anger on him.
Either complaining about his unstable driving or scolding him for not turning on the air conditioning.
After getting out of the car, she even told him to have a full car wash done, claiming there was a vile smell in the car.
He didn’t know what she meant by "vile smell," but it deeply discomforted him to hear it.
Such incidents never happened with Ashley Shaw.
Her attitude towards everyone was consistent, regardless of the situation.
She had been in the Prescott Family for six years, constantly like this, so much so that everyone except the Young Master, Mrs. Jennings, and the rarely at-home Mr. Prescott adored her.
But... Miss Ashley left.
Mr. Coleman sighed almost inaudibly.
He stepped on the gas, and the car sped away.
At the same time, Warren also returned to his room.
Placing the memory cards on the table, he didn’t rush to view them, instead, he headed for a cold shower.
Last night, for some reason, he dreamt of something... unspeakable.
The protagonist in the story was unexpectedly Ashley Shaw.
He chalked it up to not exercising enough recently, so he went running early in the morning to expend his excess "energy."
It was the second morning he had taken a shower that day.
After a cold shower, Warren felt much more refreshed in mind.
While drying his still-dripping hair with a towel, he opened his laptop with his other hand, located the memory card from five years ago, and inserted it into the laptop’s slot.
The computer immediately displayed the contents of the memory card.
Over three hundred video clips, documenting every day and night from five years ago.
Five years ago, that was when Ashley Shaw had not long been at the Prescott Family.
At that time, both he and Ashley were 13, and since they were about the same age, they initially played very well together.
He still remembers Ashley being brought into the house by Aunt Shaw when she first arrived.
Thirteen-year-old Ashley hadn’t started wearing glasses yet; her demeanor was lively but carried the timidity of someone from a small town.
She stood properly in front of his mom, like a new soldier waiting for inspection.
Watching from the second floor, he laughed.
A timid country bumpkin.
But Ashley, hearing the laughter, looked up and glared at him fiercely.
He realized right then that this bun only seemed timid but was actually hiding thorns.
In the following days, he intentionally teased her, like playing with a household cat or dog, deliberately ordering her around as his servant.
Initially, she was somewhat dissatisfied until she was bullied by other young masters in the community.
He considered Ashley as his belonging; nobody but him could bully her, so he stood up and gave them a thrashing.
Learning Taekwondo since the age of seven, handling kids his age was a breeze, causing the other side to beg for mercy.
Turning around, Ashley’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him.
From that point, no matter what he asked her to do, she complied willingly.
Thus, they became friends in a way.
Until the pool incident happened.
That day, Rosalind Lynch and Cillian Xavier came over to play, and he was playing the popular racing games with Cillian in the room when they suddenly heard splashing by the pool.
When they looked, they saw Rosalind struggling desperately in the water, crying for help.
By the time they rushed downstairs, they saw Ashley being scolded by his mom.
While being rescued, Rosalind was crying while also speaking up for Ashley.
"It’s not her fault; she didn’t push me. I fell in by myself. Aunt Prescott, please don’t scold Ashley. It was truly my fault."
At 13, he developed an aversion towards Ashley Shaw.
This aversion grew stronger with each similar incident.
Then Aunt Shaw passed away, and his grandfather received Aunt Shaw’s heart.
After being discharged, the old man insisted against all objections to have his mom arrange an adoption for Ashley Shaw.
This only made him loathe Ashley Shaw even more.
Yet now, staring at the computer, he suddenly remembered what happened at the cinema that day.
Rosalind Lynch’s words during the pool incident were almost identical.
Except, Ashley Shaw was no longer the little girl crying about not pushing anyone but was calmly reminding him that there was surveillance here.
"Click."
He clicked the left mouse button, accurately finding the video from the day of the pool incident.
Because that day was a good day—his birthday.
He was the one who invited Rosalind Lynch and Cillian Xavier to his house.
That day, Ashley had even boasted she would make a cake for him personally.
But the cake hadn’t been taken out of the oven when the pool incident occurred.
Aunt Shaw repeatedly bowed and apologized, which was the only reason his mom didn’t kick her out immediately.
As his mouse moved, the video’s progress bar quickly reached the time before Rosalind fell into the water.