Help Me Remember (COMPLETED)

Chapter 42 Part 1

Just somehow, I knew... even before being told, what this was about.

There was a pitying look as Elise dragged me away from all the attention.

"You haven't seen the student portal, have you?"

I was already feeling the oncoming migraine at her words.

I shook my head slowly, "No, I haven't." I was home, trying to comprehend what happened with Sarah, my supposed-to-be best friend.

Sienna whipped out her phone, tapped furiously over the screen. Elise took my things and gestured to Sienna who handed me her phone.

And there was an anonymous article with blurred out pictures which was obviously me. I think my eyes glazed over as the grip I had on the phone tightened. There were words there. Things I would not repeat, strung sentences that were a pack of lies. Things that I'd only ever heard from Sarah Wilson that one last argument that I knew ended our friendship. Only this time, they were written in journalism form, in that persuasive and pseudo-informative intention meant to sway people into a specific crooked mentality.

I looked up at the two ladies I'd worked with in the last two months. The worried expressions waiting for a reaction from me.

I felt sick to my stomach.

"B-but I don't understand," my words came out shakily, "H-how could something like this could get so big all of a sudden? I d-don't—"

"The Mag, ring a bell to you? Their site posted a blind item about a shipping magnate's daughter and nude painting event. I couldn't exactly explain, your name wasn't mentioned but who else had two paintings auctioned successfully this year? You were featured on print recently and everyone knows who your dad is!"

The panic, the confusion, I knew, was steadily replacing the blood on my face. My heart rate was soaring in spikes as I handed back Sienna's phone to her, "Show me the article."

There was immediate shaking of her head, "It went up Saturday morning but was deleted sometime in the afternoon."

The Mag?

"So it's deleted now?" I asked slowly.

"That doesn't matter, girl!" Elise shrieked, "The University is already under fire and the dean is trying to crowd-control. It's not just you, Scarlett, it's the whole department that's on blast!"

There was no condemnation on her part. I could understand that Elise wasn't blaming me, at least not completely. But somehow, as she raised her hands to emphasize her speech... it came back to me. Everything she said previously.

"And that whole better late than never thing people like to say? That's a lie. Sometimes, late is never."

I wanted to throw up the meager breakfast I had.

Sienna broke into my thoughts, "I don't understand it though," her forehead was wrinkled as she gazed at me in total confusion, "Why would The Mag suddenly focus on students from our Uni. I get that Scarlett's dad is a big name but you've never been much of a topic..."

I wasn't. Truly, I was never the most attractive topic. People wanted scandal and that was something I stayed away from. At the back of my head, green eyes flashed in warning.

I felt my hands turn to fists at my sides, "Seth. The Thompsons' multi-media owns The Mag. Seth did this."

There was a pause.

What did he want now? Why all of a sudden?

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Elise demanded.