Chapter 3

I was too sick to my stomach to eat anything that night.

Early the next morning, Dr. Reese called me into his office.

He pointed at my accelerated graduate-admission application and my distinguished-graduate recommendation with open hostility.

"Elliot, what you did at that engagement yesterday caused a serious disturbance.

"Naomi's one of the best students this department has, and she's about to start an internship with one of the biggest public agencies in Bellwarren.

"If you go around spreading damaging accusations now, you'll destroy her future.

"The department may have to take another look at your graduate recommendation."

My hands closed into fists.

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm teaching you how an adult behaves."

Dr. Reese raised his mug and drank slowly.

"I've met Derek. He's honest and he's respectful. When you've got this much more than he does, you should be big enough to let go.

"A man can't make his whole life about one relationship.

"Don't throw away your future over a woman."

I pulled the application off his desk and looked at him coldly.

"My future isn't for sale, and my dignity isn't the price."

I thought that was the worst thing they were capable of.

Then, as I reached the greenway across campus, my bank sent a transfer alert.

The money came out of the joint account Naomi and I had opened together.

It held fifty thousand dollars I'd earned working part-time all through college.

My grandmother, Eleanor Fraser, had taken a bad turn and was in the hospital back in Mossfield County.

That money was for her surgery.

I called Naomi immediately.

"Why is the account empty?"

She answered as though the decision needed no defending at all.

"Derek's little sister needed her tuition. I lent it to him for the emergency.

"Eli, you don't need that much right now. What's wrong with helping his family out?"

My whole body started shaking.

"That's my grandmother's surgery money. What gave you the right to touch it?"

I expected at least a second of hesitation.

Instead, she sounded annoyed.

"Stop using your grandmother as an excuse for everything.

"She's been sick for years. What difference does putting the operation off a few days make?

"If Derek's sister can't pay her tuition, they'll drop her. That's her whole life.

"Can you stop being so selfish?"

I closed my eyes and forced myself to stay calm.

"Naomi. Put the money back. Now."

She sighed as though I were the unreasonable one.

"It's already gone through. I can't pull it back.

"I'll cover it after my first internship paycheck next month.

"Stop making trouble. I'm busy today."

The call ended, and I sat down on a bench and breathed hard.

A new post went up a few minutes later.

Owen had put up a whole photo dump.

Naomi and Derek were wrapped around each other in every shot, smiling like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong.

The caption read, "True love always wins. Congratulations to the couple who finally found their way to each other."

The comments were nothing but praise from our classmates.

While I was reading them, an unfamiliar number sent me a message.

"Naomi said that watch you gave her was too cheap to wear, so she passed it on to me.

"You don't mind, right?"

I'd given her that watch for her eighteenth birthday.

Of course I didn't mind anymore.

I didn't want the woman who'd accepted it either.