Stained Glass Shards

24.

ELYCE

It was good to be back on the East Coast. I didn't care if the commute to my apartment took as long as the flight from California—I was on familiar soil. I had sorely missed the vibrancy of the city. And I'd already started forgetting the whole debacle with Griffin.

If I thought too much about it, though, my mind was wracked with guilt for how I treated him. I had blamed him for so much of my own undoing. I was jealous of his confidence and good looks. He was a chameleon in both his art and real life.

But it was over. I sighed in relief as I sat in the backseat of the hired car. I was home, safely away from him.

I remembered to turn on my phone, finding several voicemails and text messages. Dread filled me as I read messages from Bruna.

Article on you and Griffin Bellanger.

Elyce Fielding also known as Claire Lark.

You dated? In college?

Your roommate gave an account of your relationship which started when you lived together.

Pics of you two while in school.

His mother confirms you have been together for years?

His former assistant said he used to leave tickets for you to movie openings or premieres in Boston and New York.

Pics at previous movie premieres where you sat together.

They compare pictures from then and now.

Scandal—an old boyfriend who suspected you cheated on him with Griffin.

Pics of you two in LA. Kissing him. Massaging him. Holding hands.

Accounts from sources at the restaurant and party claimed you two were flirty and close the whole night.

Ritter also had left a succession of text messages, but they weren't about the tabloid's article on my love life.

Urgent: CALL ME when you land.

We need to discuss your book.

Is your book fiction? Autobiographical?

A libel lawsuit filed in New York served on the publisher, Bruna, and me.

An injunction to stop filming is requested in New York and California.

$50 million demand with damages.

Allegations of defamation, use of likeness, invasion of privacy, and unauthorized autobiography, amongst others, are alleged.

Griffin Bellanger? Really?

CALL ME!!!

The voicemails were worse. Hearing Ritter's voice, angry and accusatory about my lying about my book—about us—made me ill. The urge to vomit the acids produced from guilt and shame made me hold my stomach, searching out the window of the private car for a place to purge it all away.

"Miss, we're here," the driver announced. As I exited the car, he pulled out my suitcase from the trunk. He walked ahead to the entrance of my apartment building.

My mouth was so dry, I couldn't speak as I walked in a daze. After giving him a tip, I took the handle of my suitcase, pulling the rolling bag beside me as I walked like a zombie toward the elevator. To my empty apartment. To a life without Ritter.

After I unpacked the last item from my tote bag, I looked around my beautiful apartment, knowing I was about to lose it all. This was my punishment for lying to everyone. Pretending that Stained Glass Shards was a book of fiction when it was the reality of my life, would be my ruin. I'd used it as an escape from my own melancholy, but it proved to bring me the worst sorrow I could ever imagine.