Hey everybody, it's been a long time since I uploaded another chapter so it's time for another one! Things take a turn for the dramatic…

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In the days following Mark's betrayal, Chelsea was left to tend to a large field of crops that needed to be watered and harvested. It would take her most of the morning to finish with the plants, and another hour or so to feed and brush the livestock. She knew that during the next season she would have to plant less crops.

Besides the extra workload, she also discovered that she was missing some extra ore she kept in a chest in her house for upgrading things or for giving to Charlie for him to make a "magical" necklace. With some rough calculations, Chelsea could safely assume that Mark had taken more than he needed to pay his debt.

After doing the morning's work, Chelsea needed some human interaction. It was eerily quiet on the ranch in the early hours of the morning. Lucky was trained well enough not to bark randomly. It was nearly noon, meaning that Natalie was either tormenting her brother or eating lunch. Julia was probably with Elliot or taking a nap.

Oddly enough, Verdure Island was completely silent.

However, there was some noise from across the bridge on Sprout Island. It looked like a small cluster of people had formed and some arms were moving quite animatedly.

Chelsea picked up her pace and jogged to the group around Regis' mansion.

"What's going on?" Chelsea asked quietly, to no one in particular. Her question was answered by what unfolded.

"Sabrina, you cannot possibly be leaving!" Will was next to his cousin, all but pleading with her to stay.

Sabrina looked as if she had been crying for quite some time. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, as was her nose. The way she appeared was definitely not the image of a socialite Chelsea knew. Sure Sabrina was shy and soft-spoken, but she was a tidy person by nature.

"I must go, William, I can't bear to stay here any longer."

"Yes, Sabrina, please reconsider." Lily said, standing beside Will.

"It's too shameful," Sabrina seemed like she was about to break down any second, "the memory haunts me everyday I am on these islands."

For some reason, Chelsea felt totally responsible for Sabrina's plight. But why should she feel so guilty? She hadn't known about it at all. That's a lie, her conscience said. Chelsea knew something was wrong, maybe not at the beginning, but at one point, there was suspicion. She felt bad because she didn't do anything to allay or confirm her fears. No, she went on, telling herself it was all fine and dandy when it wasn't.

It was absolutely sickening.

"Don't leave!" Chelsea's voice cut through the others' questions.

Sabrina's eyes went anywhere but Chelsea's face.

"Sabrina, it's not worth it to throw away the life you've built here," the rancher realized that all the attention was focused on her, "we're your friends. You can't let one little thing uproot what you care about."

The bespectacled girl actually glared. "You don't know what it's like to be in my position."

The island's inhabitants were staring, bewildered, at Sabrina's show of anger, no matter how small it was.

Chelsea was taken aback. "Your position?"

"I was to be married off to the son of another mining company! It was for father's business," Regis took a step to the side, head down, "then I met Mark. He was the only man that didn't seem like he was only interested in my father's money." She took a steadying breath. "I was willing to elope with him, but he said he wanted to be honorable and ask my father's permission for my hand, but I was wrong." Everyone could fill in the story from there.

There was a pregnant silence, people exchanging glances, communicating wordlessly about the situation.

Lanna was the first to speak up. "That doesn't mean it's over for you!"

Sabrina apparently decided to forget that she had any composure left. "It is! I'm a soiled harlot! No one will marry me now!"

There was yet another silence, except for Natalie grumbling something about arranged marriage and "old-fashioned".

The heiress wasn't done yet. "And the worst part was that he still loved you!" she shrieked at Chelsea, shoving past her and running to the docks, jumping off at the end.

Chelsea caught herself before bumping into Julia. Denny dashed after Sabrina and dove into the water.

The group waited by the water's edge with their breaths held.

Denny resurfaced, gasping as he towed a kicking and screaming Sabrina with him.

"Let me die! Let me die!" she shouted.

"No chance, man." The fisherman said as his powerful strokes took the both of them to shore.

Sabrina lay spluttering on the sand, everyone looking down at her, worry on all of their faces.

"Are you crazy?" Natalie was quick to get right into Sabrina's face.

Lanna sighed and pulled the redhead back. "I think was Nat means to say is: why are you so broken up about this? Mark was a bad guy, okay? He was a real jerk, so you should be upset but it's no reason to run away or try to kill yourself."

"That's not what I meant, Lanna. What I mean is: who the hell does that?"

"Nat!"

"Actually, I think Nat's right." Chelsea said.

"Thanks. Back to what I was saying – Sabrina, don't you see that all of us care about you? How can you be so self-centered?"

The angry expression on Sabrina's face ebbed away. She looked so hopeless but gained her composure. "It's for the best. I've done nothing to benefit these islands, nor have I contributed to any of your lives in a positive way – please don't lie to me." She gathered her bags. "The ferry will be arriving soon, and I'd like to collect my thoughts in peace." When the villagers gave her a wary glance, she sighed, "I'm not going to try and throw myself into the ocean again. You can keep an eye on me if you want – just give me space."

It was obvious Sabrina was not going to stay, no matter how much anyone pleaded with her. Regis seemed reluctant to leave since his mining company benefitted from ores found on Volcano Island, but he wouldn't be able to let his precious daughter go without him.

Most of the inhabitants clumped into groups as they acquiesced to Sabrina's will, mumbling all the way about the abruptness of her decision. When someone left the islands, if anyone ever dreamed of it, their absence mixed up the community. Even though Sabrina was never really close to any one person, she would be missed.

Chelsea kept looking back as she, Julia, and Natalie walked towards the bridge. Denny and Lanna stayed behind to keep an eye on Sabrina. Will was still pleading with his uncle to stay.

The huge ship that would carry Sabrina and her father away was coming closer. Still, Chelsea felt responsible for the unhappiness the other woman felt. Maybe if Chelsea had been honest with herself, Sabrina could have gotten married to Mark and then have paid the ransom for Mark's sister.

"Something wrong?" Julia's voice cut through Chelsea's thoughts.

"I'm just stunned that one lie can ruin lives."

Natalie snorted. "Seriously? Wow, I'm sorry, I guess you were pretty lucky as a kid." Her grin faded. "You wanna know how much a lie can screw a life over? Ask Lanna. She says she's living here to work on her singing away from the public eye, but in reality, she's running from the paparazzi."

"Why?"

"It's not our place to tell," Julia cut in, giving Natalie a pointed glare.

"All right, all right – I won't say it, although I'm kinda surprised you don't know…but it was real nasty."

"Oh."

"Today's…surprise aside, Chelsea, would you mind taking in a cat? I know it's a random question, but I forgot to ask you earlier. Vaughn got stuck with some cats and needs to find homes for them." Julia laughed awkwardly.

The weird part was, Chelsea honed in the second Vaughn's name came up. She took a moment to register the request. "Uh, sure! I'll take one of those little cuties! I hope he or she will get along with Lucky."

The blonde gave Chelsea a strange look. "Okay, I'll send him to your ranch tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow's Monday, remember?"

Chelsea smacked herself on the forehead. "That's right! Silly me, how can I forget stuff like that?" Except she hadn't forgotten. Chelsea found that she would anticipate Mondays for quite some time now.

The girls laughed, despite the drama that reared its ugly head just minutes before. Everything would settle down and return to normal, come Monday.

/

I consider this a very dramatic chapter, though not the most dramatic one I've read… I know to some it's like "wow, this is such a weenie attempt at drama" but I hope you enjoyed it. I don't mean this as a Sabrina-bashing thing, but she seems the most likely to snap. See you next chapter!