All Chapters of Where the Past Ends: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

The messages urging me to be generous kept appearing in the group chat.Then Dr. Colin Reese, our faculty adviser at Bellwarren State University in Westerlyn, called me directly."Elliot, listen to your adviser. Today is important. Don't go over there and cause trouble."I tightened one fist and asked in a low voice, "Naomi and I were together for four years. What does that make me?"Dr. Reese sighed, sounding even more disapproving."Why do you have to be so stubborn?"Derek never even finished high school. He went straight to work so Naomi could stay in college. Do you have any idea how much he's suffered?"Your family's comfortable, your grades are excellent, and your future's wide open. You could meet any woman you wanted after graduation. Why fight over one with a man who's had nothing?"I'm asking you as your adviser. Show some maturity and stay away. A confrontation will humiliate everyone."My breathing began to shake."So all of you knew, and I was the only fool kept

Chapter 2

The moment I ended the call, my roommate Kevin Price sent me a photograph.Naomi, dressed in white, leaned happily against a stranger in a suit.Kevin followed it with a long voice message."Elliot, do you see it now? This is what real love looks like."You always act like some polished future executive who's better than everybody else. Naomi got tired of that years ago."Derek's gentle. He never pressures her. Other than controlling her, what have you ever given her?"Take the hint and get out of Naomi's life."I stared at the image as though someone had cut open my chest.I'd spent an entire year of scholarship money on that white dress as Naomi's graduation gift.Now she was wearing my gift while getting engaged to someone else.I dragged my suitcase out of the airport and took a cab straight to the Bellrose Hotel in Bellwarren.The moment I walked in, Owen Parker, our class representative, stepped in front of the head table."Elliot, did you seriously come here to wreck

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 fut

Chapter 4

I blocked Derek's number, then spent the day crossing Bellwarren and humiliating myself asking one friend after another for a loan.By evening I'd finally scraped together thirty thousand dollars.At least my grandmother's surgery could move forward.But just as I boarded the intercity train to Mossfield County, our neighbor Ruth Harlan called."Eli, come home. Something's happened to your grandmother."This afternoon a man called her and told her he and Naomi were engaged."He said Naomi had thrown you out but you wouldn't stop hounding her, and he told Eleanor to make you quit embarrassing yourself."Then he sent her picture after picture, and videos too."She passed out right there looking at them."She's at the county medical center now, but the doctors are saying she might not make it."A violent ringing filled my head.The phone slipped out of my hand and hit the floor.By the time I reached Mossfield County Medical Center, they had already stopped working on her.Th

Chapter 5

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 un

Chapter 6

The post kept picking up steam.My phone was useless under the flood of calls and messages.Former classmates piled into the comments to offer themselves up as witnesses.Owen Parker went first."I was in his class for four years."Elliot was unbelievably controlling. He made Naomi report where she was at all times and wouldn't let her near another guy."Kevin Price answered right behind him."I roomed with him for four years."He looked down on all of us because of his grades and his family money."He treated Derek like dirt."Even Dr. Reese sat down for an interview with an online news channel.He sighed into the camera."Elliot's grades were excellent, but his character was a concern."Right before graduation he disrupted a classmate's engagement and nearly got physical."The university tried to correct his behavior. He wouldn't hear it."They gave it just enough detail to sound credible, and the public swallowed all of it.I went downstairs for a bowl of soup, and t

Chapter 7

Naomi called the same day the legal notices went out.The second I answered, she came at me."Elliot, haven't you done enough?"Derek's so scared of you he won't leave his apartment."His health is already bad. Are you only going to be satisfied when he's dead?"You got your own grandmother killed, and now you want to drag the rest of us down with you?"Elliot, how did you turn into this?"I laughed coldly."You didn't understand a single page of that notice before you called to defend him, did you?"She cut me off."I don't need to read it."The screenshots are right there. You know what you sent him."Withdraw the notices and apologize to him publicly."Otherwise I'll put every message from our relationship online."Everyone can see how you made me check in and kept me away from other men."I was quiet for two seconds."Post them."Then everyone can see you calling me your future husband while you were seeing someone else for three years."She didn't have an answer

Chapter 8

The internet detonated when the voice message went up.Derek's supporters still wouldn't take it."Audio can be synthesized.""Elliot will manufacture anything to save his own reputation."Booth released the authenticated record and the examiner's summary right behind it.The date, the originating number, and the content of every message my grandmother received were laid out line by line.Ruth Harlan recorded a statement too."I'm the one who drove Eleanor to the hospital that day."Before she passed out, somebody was sending her message after message, tearing her grandson apart."Eli was already on a train, hours out of the county. He had no idea any of it was happening."The hospital admission times and the rail records matched her account exactly.That day, I was still trying to get to Mossfield.The claim that I'd sent her the videos myself was flatly impossible.Then the platform published the results of its own review.The conversation images Derek posted had been a

Chapter 9

After the truth came out, Ray Delgado called me himself."Elliot, letting you go was bad judgment on our part."You can come back any time you want."I closed my laptop."No, thank you."You don't need an employee. You need somebody whose name will never cause trouble."That isn't me."Diane Whitlock came by with a basket of fruit."I had someone come out and repaint the door."Stay. I'll cut your rent in half."I didn't hold any of it against her."Thank you, but I'm moving out.""Where are you headed?""Overseas."Back in college I'd applied to a program abroad.Dr. Anton Vessel, a professor there, saw what had happened online and emailed me again.He'd held my place and helped me put in for a scholarship.The last line read, "Your record and your ability shouldn't be buried under a campaign of lies."I accepted the offer from Tidewatch Institute in Noravia.Naomi found me the day before I left.She'd lost a lot of weight, and she was holding an old scarf my grand

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP