Chapter 287 Almost Drowned
When Anastasia turned her head around, she saw two middle-aged female guests standing by the pool. Their attention was drawn to Hayley, who was struggling in the water and appeared to be drowning.
“H-Help, I can’t swim…” Hayley cried for help in a faint voice.
“Miss, how can you push someone into the water?!” One of the guests glared at Anastasia accusingly. “You should get down there and save her!” she commanded.
At that moment, Anastasia’s heart sank. She realized that she had jumped into a trap set up by Hayley and Erica. Now that Hayley had deliberately fallen into the water while Erica’s two witnesses were there, Anastasia was painted as the bad guy.
The situation became critical as Hayley bobbed up and down in the six-foot-deep pool.
Meanwhile, the two female guests paced along the edge of the swimming pool frantically, for they didn’t know how to swim.
There was no doubt that Anastasia despised Hayley to the core, but she couldn’t ruin someone else’s life at Old Madam Presgrave’s birthday party.
Hence, she removed her heels and dove into the water. She swam toward Hayley and tried to pull her to the surface.
Hayley was surprised to see Anastasia jumping in to save her. As she flailed about in the water, a murderous intent began to develop in her eyes. Just as Anastasia reached out to grab Hayley’s arm, the latter yanked Anastasia forcefully and pressed her head deeper into the pool.
There will be no one to blame if Anastasia drowns while trying to save me. In fact, people will only blame her stupidity for trying to save someone’s life when she can’t even swim herself!
Hayley only dared to jump into the pool because she was confident she wouldn’t drown. She had recently taken up swimming for fitness purposes, and she was doing well under the guidance of her private coach.
As Anastasia sank deeper into the pool, she felt the pressure of death.
Hayley is trying to kill me!
Anastasia realized Hayley could swim by how she was treading water, but she couldn’t react as the air in her lungs was being exhausted. It went without saying that Hayley was going to take this chance to drown her.
Moreover, she could vaguely hear the sound of the two guests yelling for help. “Help! Somebody needs help over here!”
“Goodness! Why would she get into the water if she can’t swim? This will put her life in jeopardy!” the women said frantically.
They couldn’t see how Hayley was holding Anastasia down under the water, so they thought she couldn’t swim.
On the other hand, Hayley seemed to be struggling as she flapped her hands in the water and even choked, but her hand was firmly pressed on Anastasia’s back, burying her beneath the water so that she couldn’t catch her breath.
Right then, a tall figure rushed out from the banquet hall. Erica had called Elliot over to help, and he immediately noticed the two women in the water, especially the floating gray evening gown that belonged to Anastasia. “Quick! Go and save them,” Elliot instructed Rey as he hurried toward the pool and removed his coat.
By the time both men jumped into the water and swam toward Anastasia and Hayley, Anastasia was already in a semi-conscious state. When Hayley saw that Elliot was coming to save them, she choked a mouthful of water and pretended to be drowning as she sank deeper into the water.
As soon as Hayley sensed a strong arm holding her, she forced her eyes open underwater to find that Rey was the one who had saved her, not Elliot. In the meantime, Elliot had carried Anastasia in his arms and was swimming toward the surface.
With the help of the crowd who came later, Anastasia and Hayley were both brought up to the poolside. Elliot went down on one knee in front of Anastasia and performed rescue breathing as soon as they reached the surface. First, he applied chest compressions before giving the woman CPR.
On the other hand, Rey had also rescued Hayley from the pool, but he did not dare to perform CPR on her. Hayley didn’t want it from Rey either, not when she was right in front of Elliot.
As such, she pretended to cough out a mouthful of water and feebly opened her eyes.
“Miss Seymour is awake,” Rey reported.
However, Elliot didn’t seem to hear Rey’s words, and he was busy rescuing Anastasia next to them. He continued to perform CPR on her while frantically calling out her name, “Anastasia… Anastasia, wake up! Please don’t scare me.”
Hayley’s eyes flashed with hatred as she saw that. According to her original plan, she was supposed to be the only one who fell into the pool so that Erica could get Elliot to rescue her. She never anticipated Anastasia to save her, which was why she decided to drown that woman. However, Elliot had arrived too soon.
