Chapter 5 5

Elinor's chest heaved as her breathing slowed down. She stood up from the piano bench. She gathered her scattered Liszt sheet music and stacked the pages together.

Her fingers brushed against her collarbone. The skin was bare. For years, a heavy silver chain had rested there.

The missing weight triggered the final piece of the past. The day before high school graduation.

The alley behind a quiet coffee shop near the Northwood campus. A light rain fell from the grey sky.

Elinor held a large black umbrella. She stood perfectly still. She stared at Howell. He stood next to a green dumpster.

He looked sick. Dark circles hung under his eyes. But his jaw was set in an arrogant, defiant angle.

Deep in the shadows of the alley, Carrie hid behind a brick wall. She wore an oversized trench coat. She leaned out to watch.

Howell raised his voice over the rain. He announced that he refused to accept his family's plans. He said he would not waste his youth on Elinor.

Elinor nodded slowly. She told him she had already called her lawyers. The financial ties between their families were being severed.

Howell's face twisted. Her lack of tears infuriated him. He felt like she was looking down on him.

He grabbed the knot of his uniform tie and ripped it loose. He reached into his shirt pocket. He pulled out the Clemons family heirloom. The blue sapphire pendant.

Elinor's grandmother had given it to him when they were ten years old to hold as a promise. It was worth a fortune.

Howell held the thin silver chain. He dangled the glowing blue stone directly over a rusted iron sewer grate.

In the shadows, Carrie smiled. It was a vicious, ugly smile. She nodded her head at Howell.

Howell glared at Elinor. He gritted his teeth. He told her this was exactly what he thought of their fake relationship.

He opened his fingers. The sapphire dropped.

The metal hit the iron grate with a sharp clink. It slipped through the gap. A second later, a hollow splash echoed from the dark, rotting water below.

Howell lifted his chin. He waited for her to scream. He waited for her to fall apart. Then he turned around, grabbed Carrie's hand, and walked out of the alley.

Elinor stood in the rain. She watched them leave. Her face did not change. Her heart did not beat any faster.

She shifted the umbrella to her shoulder. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. She opened a highly encrypted, discreet application-the private concierge terminal exclusively used by the Clemons family. She typed a quick message to her family's executive assistant, detailing the exact street coordinates and the nature of the lost item. She authorized a five-thousand-dollar emergency dispatch fee from her trust account. Thirty minutes later, a professional retrieval team in an unmarked black van parked in the alley. Three men in thick rubber suits used heavy iron crowbars to lift the rusted grate.

A man climbed down. Ten minutes later, he climbed out. He handed her the sapphire. It was covered in black sludge.

Elinor pulled a pair of blue latex gloves from her pocket. She took the necklace. She used a medical-grade alcohol wipe to scrub the stone until it shined.

The next morning, she locked the necklace inside a steel safety deposit box at Chase Bank. She never looked at it again.

The memory vanished. Elinor shoved her sheet music into her canvas bag. She zipped it shut.

She felt nothing but pity for him. Howell thought he destroyed her pride, but he only threw away his own dignity.

She threw the bag over her shoulder. She pushed the practice room door open. She needed to go to the Student Health Center to get a stronger prescription for her allergy pills.

She walked out of the music building. She stayed close to the brick walls, walking in the shadows to avoid the crowds.

She turned the corner near the Art History building.

Suddenly, a loud, violent scraping sound echoed from the roof directly above her head.