Where the Past Ends Chapter 05
On my third day in Port Aurell, Caelmont, I got hired at Brightpath Learning Services.
Ray Delgado, the supervisor, read my resume and nodded right away.
“Elliot, your academic record’s strong. We’ll start you on a one-month probation.”
I took the employee badge.
“Thank you. I’ll work hard.”
It was the first kind thing anyone had said to me since my grandmother died.
I rented a small room and set her urn beside the bed.
“Grandma, once I’ve got solid ground under me, I’ll take you to see the ocean.”
I’d been there two days when Ray called me in.
He pushed a termination form across the desk.
“Don’t come in tomorrow.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“The company doesn’t want the controversy.”
He set his phone on the desk.
“Read it yourself.”
A post with over a hundred thousand likes filled the screen.
The headline read, “ELITE UNIVERSITY GRAD CRASHES EX’S ENGAGEMENT, DELIBERATELY DRIVES OWN
GRANDMOTHER TO HER DEATH”
My photo, my full name, and my university were sitting right underneath it.
In the video, Derek held Naomi against him and faced the camera with a dark expression.
“Naomi and I have known each other for years. Elliot came from money and dated her for a while, so he kept pressuring her to drop me.
“He stormed into our engagement and threatened to hit me.
“Then he deliberately sent the engagement video to his own grandmother because he wanted Naomi to feel guilty.
“The shock killed her. And he’s blamed the whole thing on me.’
The comments were nothing but abuse.
“And this guy wants to teach kids?”
“Using his grandmother’s death to control his girlfriend. That’s disgusting.”
“If that company keeps him on, I’ll file a complaint every single day.”
My hands slowly went cold.
“None of it’s true.”
Ray took his phone back.
“Whether it’s true doesn’t matter to this company anymore. We can’t take an online campaign.
“We’ll pay out what you’ve earned. You need to go.”
I carried the termination form downstairs.
Naomi was waiting outside.
She grabbed my wrist.
“Elliot, do you have any conscience left at all?”
I pulled free.
“You saw Derek’s post.”
She looked at me with a loathing I’d never seen on her before.
“Derek was up all night blaming himself.
“He says you keep messaging him, demanding he leave me.
“You’re using your grandmother’s death to torture him so he’ll feel guilty the rest of his life.”
I stared at her and laughed coldly.
“He’s the one who sent her those pictures.
“Ruth Harlan told me herself.
“Her phone was full of his messages and his videos the day she died.
“She could have had the surgery. You took the money without asking me.
“And Derek put her in the emergency room.
“The two of you killed her between you.”
I nearly screamed the last words.
Naomi froze.
Maybe my collapse looked too real to dismiss, because uncertainty finally crossed her face.
My grandmother had adored her.
Every time Naomi came out to Mossfield, Eleanor cooked a full Sunday dinner for her.
When Naomi ran a fever, Eleanor sat up with her all night.
When she couldn’t afford her course materials, Eleanor quietly slipped her the money.
Eleanor once held Naomi’s hand and said, “Naomi, honey, make a good life with my Eli.”
Naomi had knelt down and made a promise.
“I’ll take care of him for the rest of my life. I swear it.”
Now Eleanor was gone.
Naomi’s lips started trembling.
“Did Derek really send those things?”
Before she finished the question, Derek came out from somewhere behind her.
“Naomi, don’t believe him.”
He opened his phone and held it up in front of her.
“These are messages Elliot sent me.”
Several lines sat beneath a copy of my profile photo.
“Good. The old woman’s dead.
“I’m going to use her death to force Naomi back to me.
“You can’t beat me.”
Derek pressed a hand to his chest and looked at me in pain.
“You said it yourself. Once she died, Naomi would feel guilty forever.
“I only posted the story because I was scared you’d hurt somebody else.
“Why are you still trying to frame me?”
Naomi stared at the screenshots, and every last trace of doubt vanished.
She threw the phone down at my feet.
“Elliot, I almost fell for it again.”
I looked at the crude fabrications on the screen.
“I never sent those.”
“Enough.”
She pointed at me, her eyes full of disappointment and disgust.
“I used to think you were just controlling.
“Now I know there’s something rotten in you.
“You used your own grandmother’s death as a play to get me back.
“You make me sick.”
I bent down, picked up the phone, and photographed every screenshot on it.
“Naomi. Remember exactly what you said to me today.”
She stepped in front of Derek.
“Don’t ever come near us again.”
I nodded.
“Don’t worry.
“The next time you see me, I’ll be making you pay for this.”
