My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 7 - Graduation

**** Elodie's Point of View - Graduation Day ****

"Now that all the diplomas have been handed out, you may stand and move your tassel from one side of your cap to the other."

I stood up and my eyes burned as I moved my tassel to the other side of my cap and looked down at the certificate in my hand tied with a red ribbon that showed I had a business degree now. I had never had to work so hard for something in my life and I felt so proud that I actually did it and didn't give up. There were so many times I was tempted to. 

"Washington University is proud to announce the graduating class of twenty twenty two! Congratulations! You did it!" the Dean announced, standing at the podium and the sea of students wearing caps and gowns started cheering and throwing their caps high up in the air. I threw mine too as tears ran down my face and then I looked in the crowd of white gowns and spotted Keisha, before running over and giving her a tight hug. 

"We did it! We actually did the damn thing," Keisha said with a sniffle and tears streaming down her cheeks too. 

"Yes we did! I'm so freakin' proud of us," I said with the biggest smile ever, wiping my tears away and hugging her again. 

My Mom and Keisha's whole family came over to us and took what felt like a thousand pictures, gave a million hugs and told us how proud they were of us about ten thousand times. It was obvious they were just as happy as we were.

My Mom cried the most out of everyone though, with tears streaming down her face the whole time and a Kleenex held at her nose. Seeing her cry like that made me cry again and my Mom gave me the tightest hug she ever had and then cupped my face in her hands and looked into my eyes and said, "I am SO proud of you. I don't know how you did it, with juggling all those classes and working so many hours but you did it. You're such an amazing woman and I want you to know that you can do anything you set your mind to. You hear me?" 

I gave her a slight smile and said, "I know Mama," with a sniffle. "But I couldn't have done any of this without you. I feel so bad about you having to work so much and taking on a second job to put me through school. That meant so much to me. I love you so much," I said, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into a hug.  

Keisha's Mom, Debbie, said, "Isn't it incredible that Elodie was able to juggle work, school and helping the detective try to catch the person that stole her identity on top of all that? It's just crazy." 

Keisha's eyes got wide and she gave her Mom a look that said, "Be quiet" and her Mom looked confused. 

My Mom, turned and looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. 

"What are they talking about? Your identity was stolen?" she asked with her brows scrunched. 

I took a deep breath in and let it out before saying, "Yeah. I didn't say anything because I didn't want you to worry Ma. How about we all go out to dinner and I can tell you the whole story? It's probably gonna take a while." 

Keisha's Mom Debbie said, "That's a great idea Elle. Then afterwards we can help you girls get all your stuff moved into your new apartment."

I smiled and said, "Sounds like a plan."

 We all went out to dinner just like we had planned and I told my Mom the entire story, starting from the very beginning. She took it a lot harder than I thought she would, crying a few times while I was telling it and getting upset that they still hadn't found this woman and stopped her. 

"There's gotta be something they can do. It isn't right that she's hurt so many people and gotten away with it," she said angrily. 

"Well they're trying. There's a cyber detective named Knox Hendrix that's working on solving the case, but she's a really hard one to catch. She's sneaky and covers her trail really well. If anybody can catch her though it's him. He's pretty amazing."