I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 07

I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 07

Back at the Vance estate, the Vances and the Sterlings had dinner waiting for me. Toby claimed the chair next to mine and piled my plate with food.

For every piece Toby put on my plate, Alexander added another. Grandpa watched from the head of the table, eyes glistening.

“Eleanor, anyone who wants to come for you is going to have to get through me first. And I’m not as old as I look.”

Alexander’s mother raised her glass. “And me.”

Alexander’s father cleared his throat. “Count me in, too.”

Toby shot his hand up. “And me! I can bite people!”

The whole table burst out laughing, and so did I.

Something that had been knotted tight in my chest for years eased, just a little.

The Thornes, meanwhile, were falling apart.

The paparazzi had caught the whole airport scene on video. The headlines practically wrote themselves.

[THORNE FAMILY SHOWDOWN AT AIRPORT – ENGAGEMENT CALLED OFF IN REAL TIME]

[PLOT TWIST: THORNE’S DISOWNED DAUGHTER IS MRS. ALEXANDER STERLING]

[THORNE ENTERPRISES CASH CRISIS EXPOSED – BANKRUPTCY LOOMING]

Thorne Enterprises’ stock cratered. Partners pulled their money overnight.

Chloe’s dad started digging into what had really happened seven years ago – not for my sake, but to save

himself. He wasn’t looking for the truth. He was looking for leverage.

But what he found buried all of them.

Chloe had never been pregnant.

She’d bought the medical records. The miscarriage was staged – she’d bribed the nurses ahead of time.

On the recovered security footage, Chloe paused at the top of the stairs, glanced back at me, and threw herself down. I was ten feet away.

When the evidence reached the Thorne house, Chloe’s mom collapsed. Julian went up to the attic where I’d

once slept.

It had been a storage room for years. He found my old diary in a cardboard box.

On the first page: [I came home today. Mom didn’t hug me, but she gave me a room. That’s a start.]

On the second page: [Julian likes piano. I want to get him something.]

On the third page: [Chloe says I stole her home. I didn’t.]

The entries got shorter after that. [I took the fall again today.]

[Dad says I’m evil.] [Mom says it would’ve been better if I never came back.]

[Julian burned me. It hurts so bad.]

The handwriting on the last page was barely legible.

[If I died in the rain, would they be sorry?]

Julian sat in that attic, holding my diary, crying until he couldn’t make a sound.

My assistant called late that night. “Ma’am, the Thornes are camped out outside the flower shop.”

She sent a photo. Chloe’s dad, Chloe’s mom, and Julian – all three of them standing out there in the pouring rain, looking desperate.

Chloe wasn’t there. She was smarter than the rest of them.

She knew I wouldn’t forgive them.

Alexander looked at me. “Do you want to go?”

I thought about it. “Let’s go take a look.”

A while later, the car pulled up across the street from the shop.

Chloe’s mom was swaying on her feet, hair plastered to her face.

Chloe’s dad was holding up a piece of cardboard. The ink was bleeding in the rain: [Eleanor, Mom and Dad

were wrong. Please come home.]

Julian was clutching my diary to his chest. The second he saw the car, he scrambled to his feet and ran

toward us.

“Eleanor!” The driver glanced at me in the mirror. “Should I stop?”

I lowered the window.

Julian was drenched, and something desperate and hopeful flickered across his face.

“Eleanor, I was wrong. We were all wrong. Just come out for a second. Please Let me talk to you.”

Over his shoulder, I could see the flower shop sign. I’d painted it myself, letter by letter.

I’d built a good life all these years. On my own.

“Keep driving.” The driver hesitated, then did as he was told.

The tires hit the puddle in front of them.

Dirty water sprayed across all three of them. Chloe’s mom shrieked.

Chloe’s dad wiped his face with the back of his hand.

Julian just stood there. The diary was dissolving in his hands.

I raised the window. “Take me home.”