I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 06

I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 06

Chloe charged forward, mascara streaming down her cheeks. A bodyguard stepped in and stopped her

before she could reach me.

She went down screaming. “You ruined my life, Eleanor!”

“You came back and took everything from me! I’m the Thorne daughter! I’m Preston’s fiancée!”

“Why aren’t you dead yet?”

Chloe’s mom didn’t flinch at that. She just rushed to help her daughter up.

“Chloe, calm down, baby.” She pulled Chloe close, then lifted that tear-streaked face toward me.

“Eleanor, she doesn’t know what she’s saying. You’ve already married into money. Why can’t you just leave

her alone?”

I looked at her. Unbelievable.

Her daughter had just told me to die, and somehow, she hadn’t heard that part. But me standing here doing

nothing? That was ruining a marriage.

Alexander’s mother came over. She’d just stepped off the plane, and her expression could’ve iced over glass.

She took my hand, turned it over, and her eyes locked on the red scratches Chloe’s mom had left across my

knuckles.

“Is this your idea of parenting?”

Chloe’s mom opened her mouth to argue. Alexander’s mother didn’t let her.

“You threw your own flesh and blood into the street for all those years without a second thought. And the adopted one? She hurts people, and you act like she walks on water.”

“Blind and heartless – and you still have the nerve to stand here calling yourself a mother?”

Alexander’s dad moved forward and told his secretary to get their lawyer on the line.

“What Chloe just did was attempted assault. Airport security cameras caught all of it.”

Chloe’s head snapped up. “No! I didn’t touch her!”

Alexander’s dad didn’t blink. “The bodyguards stopped you. That doesn’t mean you didn’t try

Julian finally spoke. “Eleanor, please. Don’t press charges against Chloe.”

I looked at him. “Of course. Here you go again.”

His eyes went red at the rims. “She’s already lost her engagement.”

“The family’s about to lose everything. I’m begging you, Eleanor.”

Eleanor. He said my name like it was the last card he had, and it hit the ground with nothing behind it.

I passed Toby to Alexander. Then I rolled up my sleeves.

A line of old scars ran along the inside of my left arm. Faded, but impossible to miss.

They were cigarette burns.

I was just a teenager when Chloe said her sheet music had gone missing.

Julian was convinced I’d taken it out of jealousy. He put a cigarette out on my arm.

“I’ll stop when you admit what you did,” he said.

The sheet music turned up in Chloe’s bookcase a week later.

She cried, said she’d forgotten she’d put it there. Julian bought her a bracelet to make her feel better.

No one apologized to me.

I pushed the sleeves all the way up and held my arms out for the crowd.

The murmurs around us changed.

Julian stared at the scars until there was nothing left in his face at all.

“Are those-”

“You burned me.”

“The day you held that cigarette to my skin, Julian, you stopped being my brother.”

He backed up and stumbled over a suitcase behind him.

Chloe’s mom scrambled for something to say. “That was years ago! You’re really going to hold on to that?”

Whatever warmth was left in Alexander’s face disappeared. He draped his jacket over my shoulders.

“Enough.” He turned to the bodyguards.

“Take them to airport security.” Chloe’s dad lurched forward.

“Mr. Sterling, there’s no need to take it that far-”

Alexander lifted Toby onto his hip and took my hand.

“My wife doesn’t like noise. You can take the rest up with my lawyers.”

We walked away. Behind us, Chloe was still screaming.

Chloe’s mom was shouting something about me being heartless. Her dad was on his phone, begging anyone

who’d pick up

Julian kept calling my name.

Toby rested his chin on Alexander’s shoulder and whispered to me.

“Mommy, are the bad people going away?” I smoothed his hair.

“They are.” He was quiet for a moment, thinking.

“But if a flower dies, can it come back?”

I let a breath pass.

“Some can’t. But we can always grow new ones.”