Chapter 609:
“Relax. It’s not the end of the world.” Freya felt better once she pieced the situation together.
She’d been terrified of being exposed. If that happened, bringing that man to justice would be a thousand times harder.
“Check the phone you used to talk to him. He probably called.” Freya’s mind was laser sharp now.
Ashley’s report wasn’t the problem. Her panic, her fear—it all felt understandable.
The only odd part was the sudden shutdown of her new phone. With that in mind, Freya powered up her new laptop and dove into the work.
After confirming that their call hadn’t been picked up by any surveillance, she edited the audio, tweaking it to sound like Ashley had been chatting with a telemarketer.
“He… he called me three times,” Ashley stammered, hands shaking. “What do I do now?”
Freya stayed calm. “Call him back. If he asks why you didn’t pick up, say your main phone suddenly shut down and you had to go buy another one.”
“You think he’ll buy that?” Ashley asked, clearly doubtful.
“He will,” Freya assured her. “If he asks who you called after getting the new phone, say it was a telemarketer. If he asks why it was off, say the battery died.”
As she talked, Freya hooked Ashley’s phone to the laptop with a data cable, draining the battery fast.
She waited until it hit five percent, then started charging it again.
𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺: ⳑ𝗮𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⸬𝖼𝗈𝗺
Every little detail mattered.
Ashley’s new phone wasn’t online, so they couldn’t monitor it. Fortunately, Freya had the foresight to bring a new laptop and a data cable. Otherwise, they’d be in trouble.
“He won’t find any record of our call,” Freya explained carefully, walking Ashley through every step. “And don’t forget—you lost your phone for a day when you came back from abroad.”
Ashley looked confused, caught off guard, but didn’t press for answers. Heart pounding, she dialed that man’s number, dread rising with every ring.
“Why did it take you so long to answer?” The man’s voice was cold, flat.
“My main phone blacked out,” Ashley replied, sticking to the plan. “I went out to get a new one and forgot to bring the old one along.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
“Why was the new one off?” the man asked sharply. “Who called you before it shut down?”
Ever since he attacked her last phone, he’d been tracking her usual number. When a signal finally popped up, he sent someone to investigate. But there was no connection—nothing useful.
So he called the number again, only to find it was busy.
That little detail—making a call right after getting a new phone—made him suspicious.
Ashley’s heart nearly stopped.
She looked at Freya in disbelief.
.
.
.