Colleen Sherman

Colleen Sherman is an elite beach-volleyball player, expert sailor, and Willa Ashford’s closest friend. Presumed drowned after disappearing from her boat, she is later revealed to have survived an abduction and two years of captivity. Her apparent death drives Willa’s grief and return to competition; her rescue turns that absence into a difficult reunion and a future neither woman can simply resume as before.

Identity and Background

Colleen had been Willa’s teammate and best friend for ten years by the time Willa considered a comeback. Willa came to beach volleyball after winning an indoor gold medal, while Colleen was already a veteran of the beach circuit and taught her new partner its demands. Their partnership grew into a bond Willa understood as sister-like: after both women lost their parents in a plane crash in Croatia over the Adriatic Sea, they became each other’s only family. Neither had siblings, and the shared bereavement deepened a friendship that was already built on the sand.

Colleen was also a skilled sailor. Her father taught her when she was young, and she kept sailing; Willa believed she might have been good enough for the Olympic sailing team had she chosen that path instead of volleyball. The boat on which she vanished was familiar territory, and her competence later became one reason the disappearance seemed wrong to those who knew her. She was not simply a teammate lost at sea, but an experienced sailor whose unexplained absence left an enduring question.

Athletic Partnership and Legacy

Colleen’s volleyball achievements were inseparable from her partnership with Willa. The two won a beach-volleyball gold medal and defended their title, becoming two-time winners. Their success was not just a record of victories: Colleen had taught Willa the beach game, and the pair’s shared athletic identity rested on years of playing and understanding one another. Willa later described Colleen as the best in the world and recalled that Colleen had coached her through two Olympic Games.

When Colleen disappeared and was believed dead, Willa could not imagine replacing her. The loss was especially devastating because Colleen had been the person Willa turned to when life became unbearable. Willa initially wanted nothing more to do with volleyball and retired, then found satisfaction teaching the sport as a high-school assistant coach. She eventually agreed to return for the final qualifying tournament that could secure a United States place at the next Olympics. The decision followed soul-searching and conversations with their coach, Victor Bello: Willa felt she could not let her and Colleen’s legacy die. Colleen’s absence therefore remains active in the story even while Willa plays with a new partner, shaping both the reason for her comeback and the grief against which it is measured.

Disappearance and Abduction

For years, the public explanation was that Colleen had been thrown overboard during a storm. She and her fiancé, Corey Baxter, had taken her boat out when the weather worsened. Corey later woke with a severe headache and a baseball-sized lump on the back of his head; Colleen was gone. The authorities searched for three days. Willa spent hours looking for her, but no trace was found, and officials concluded that Colleen had been knocked unconscious and drowned. Because Colleen was a skilled swimmer, that conclusion never fully resolved the mystery for those closest to her.

The truth emerges when Willa encounters Colleen alive after being kidnapped herself. Willa first suspects that an injection has caused a hallucination; then she reaches for Colleen, expecting the embrace to pass through a dream, and instead finds her friend’s real but frail body. Colleen clarifies that Drew Black was not the man with whom she had had an affair: the relationship was with Oskar Latu. She had intended to tell Corey about it during their sailing trip. A man hidden in the boat’s storage compartment attacked Corey, striking him hard enough that Colleen thought he was dead. Before she could reach him, another boat pulled alongside and its occupants abducted her. Oskar had a private plane ready to smuggle her out of the country, and she was taken to Serenidad.

This account recasts the supposed accident as a deliberate disappearance. It also explains why a threat mentioning Colleen unsettled Victor Bello: her body had never been found, and the circumstances did not add up. Willa had accepted that Colleen was dead, while the evidence available to those around her left room for doubt. The revelation does not undo the years of mourning; it exposes how little the survivors knew about what had happened.

Captivity and Coercion

Colleen had been held for two years. Oskar’s motive was bound up with his daughter, Pua Latu. He had wanted a world-class player to coach her and had considered both Willa and Colleen; only Colleen accepted his invitation to the island. He pursued an affair with her and asked her to marry him so that she could become Pua’s mother and teach her volleyball. Colleen broke off the relationship and planned to return to Corey. Oskar refused to accept that choice.

He kept Colleen as Pua’s coach even though she would not be his wife. Pua flourished under her instruction, but she did not know that the guidance came directly from Colleen. Oskar paid another woman to receive Colleen’s instructions and carry them out, concealing the true coach’s identity. Colleen’s expertise continued to shape a young player’s development, even as her own freedom and authorship were hidden.

Her material circumstances made the confinement less visibly harsh, not less coercive. Oskar provided an expensive suite, fine furnishings and linens, electronics, chef-prepared meals, clothes, and jewelry. Colleen had a computer but no internet, and she could not leave. Oskar contemplated what to do once Pua had reached her goal, knowing that he could not simply release Colleen without risking arrest for holding her captive. The contrast between luxury and imprisonment is central to her situation: comfort could not restore her autonomy or make the captivity voluntary.

Return and Uncertain Future

Colleen’s reunion with Willa is both a reversal of presumed death and an encounter with its lasting consequences. Willa had mourned her as the person she could always rely on; Colleen returns physically weakened after two years away, while Willa has already reorganized her life around grief, retirement, and a return to play. Their bond survives, but neither woman treats survival as an instant restoration of the past.

After her rescue, Colleen is unsure whether she will play volleyball again and says she needs time to adjust to life. She considers finishing the book she worked on during her forced absence and says she enjoyed writing. Willa, by contrast, says she intends to start coaching, a direction Colleen warmly supports. Their exchange returns them to familiar ground—the game they shared and the knowledge they once gave each other—without requiring Colleen to resume her old athletic role. Her ending is therefore not a simple return to competition: it is the beginning of a life after captivity, with the choice of what comes next still open.