Chapter 19 Naomi #2
“Well, of course! You don’t think I would follow anything Team Will, would you?
I mean, okay, occasionally I check out their Facebook group to see what everyone is saying.
But I would never join anything Team Will-related—I don’t want to bump up their numbers, which, I have to admit, are always a bit higher than the TNs.
And sure, I was Will’s groomsman, so it’s likely I would be a celebrity among the TWs, but that hasn’t stopped me from being a TN all the way. ”
It hadn’t even been an entire minute after Will left her at the altar before the hate had started pouring in.
Any online avenue for communicating became an invitation for everyone and anyone to tell her exactly what they thought of her.
For her sanity, she had shut down all her social media and decided to stay off the internet.
Not that it had stopped the cruelty from leaking in other ways, whether it was seeing a magazine cover at the grocery store with a photo of her stumbling after Will in her wedding dress and the headline ‘Fiddler on the Run! Will abandons Naomi at the altar,’ or the death threat note that found its way into her parents’ mailbox.
So, she knew that people were talking about it but she hadn’t known that, exactly like her relationship, the Wilomi fandom had fractured and people were taking sides.
“I didn’t realize all that was going on,” Naomi said, her voice tired and hesitant. “After everything … happened, I started getting all these messages. Just vile stuff, and I didn’t know what to do, so I shut down my social media.”
“We don’t have to talk about this,” Abby said. “I didn’t come here to make you talk. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
As another wave of nausea rolled through her, she squeezed her fists closed and dug her nails into the palms of her hands to try and give her mind something else to focus on. “It’s okay. I’ve been trying not to think about it too much. But maybe it’s time I start.”
“Have you … heard from him?” Abby tiptoed her way through the question.
Naomi shook her head, a lump starting to form in her throat. “I can’t imagine he’d want to talk to me anyway. Not after what I did.”
“You can’t blame yourself.”
She willed her voice to remain steady even as she could feel the tears gathering in her eyes. “Sure, I can. This entire thing is my fault.”
Becca clicked her tongue. “You think you could have stopped some maniacal stalker from trying to frame you?”
“Maniacal stalker?” Abby shot Becca an annoyed glance. “Please, we all know who was responsible for this.”
Riley crossed their arms, apparently not counting themselves among the “we” in that sentence. “Here we go again. We were arguing about this the whole way over. I don’t see why it has to be Simon simply because he was in the pictures.”
“Yes, it does!” Abby said. She turned to Naomi, her gaze holding Naomi as if she had put her hands on her arms. “You know it’s him, don’t you? You heard him at Rosh Hashanah. He said he would do whatever it takes to get you back.”
“Whoa, hold on—” Riley said, putting up a hand. “Simon showed up at Rosh Hashanah? And you never told me?”
Becca gave a high-pitched cough. “Never told us!”
Naomi yanked her knees up to her chest, wishing she could hide from view. “Don’t be mad at Abby. I made her promise not to tell anyone. I didn’t want you guys to be upset.”
“He dropped by unannounced to try and win Naomi back. Said he had changed,” Abby told them, the incredulity ringing clearly on each word.
Riley’s laugh matched Abby’s tone. “Yeah, and the Pope is an atheist now.”
“But you don’t think he could have masterminded this whole thing, do you? I mean, what if he was framed too?” Naomi hugged herself tighter, trying to stave off the sickening chill creeping up her spine at the thought that Simon could have been behind this.
“It’s possible,” Abby admitted with a shrug. “But I think the real question you need to ask is who has the most to gain from breaking up your marriage? When you consider that and the fact that Simon was in the pictures, then the picture starts to get a little clearer.”
Riley sat up excitedly and pulled off their glasses. “Oh, try that again. Only this time, take the glasses off halfway through.”
“Not now, Riley.” But whatever else Abby was going to say was interrupted by her phone announcing an incoming text. Several texts. “Sorry.” She picked up her phone and glanced at the screen.
Naomi heard Abby breathe in sharply. At first, she thought something was wrong, but then she noticed a small smile peek out from the corners of Abby’s lips. As Abby typed out a response, she was careful to keep her phone out of view.
From their place on the adjacent sofa, Riley must not have been close enough to catch Abby’s microexpressions. “I see how it is,” they said with a huff. “You can get your text on during this serious moment, but if I want to help you be a little more Perry Mason, I get yelled at.”
Abby locked her phone and set it face down beside her. “Okay, sorry. As I was saying. I don’t know if it was Simon. But we have to start somewhere, or we’ll never get any answers, and he seems like a good place to start.”
The prospect filled Naomi with a sadness so deep it felt like she had sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic and would be crushed under its heaviness.
“What’s the point in looking for answers?
” she asked them, feeling the sorrow pressing down on her chest until it was difficult to breathe.
“What’s done is done. Will is never going to talk to me ever again, and I’m going to die alone and hated by the entire world. ”
“No.” At first, Naomi thought it was Abby who had made the declaration.
It took her brain a few moments to process that it was Becca who had said it.
Becca sat straight, eyes locked onto Naomi.
“No way, Naomi. You’re not allowed to give up.
You’re one of the strongest, most amazing people I know, and I’m telling you that you’re simply not allowed to give up. Not because of a man.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Naomi could see Abby looking at Becca with an expression that mirrored her own disbelief.
“This may be the first time I’ve ever said this,” Abby said. “But Becca’s right. You have to keep fighting. You have to choose yourself so that in the end, no matter what, you know you did everything you could.”
Naomi’s vision blurred as tears began to well up. It sounded as incredible as it did impossible. As if they were telling her to escape the dark well she had been trapped in by simply growing wings and flying out. “How? How do I do that?”
Abby sighed thoughtfully and leaned back into the sofa. “You’re one hundred percent sure there’s no one who can verify your whereabouts?”
Naomi could only shake her head.
“Did you snap any photos that would show where you were?” Riley offered. “Preferably a selfie?”
“No.”
“Not one selfie the entire night?” Becca asked, back to her regular self. “How is that even possible?”
“Did you make a call? I’m sure they could, like, triangulate your whereabouts or something, right?” Riley said.
Under the barrage of questions, the room started to close in on Naomi, and she gripped the edge of the sofa until her knuckles were white.
They had arrived at the place she had tried so hard to keep them from.
She wanted to run, frantically, from the room.
She gave the impulse serious consideration but then inhaled deeply and forced herself to say the words she had dreaded saying aloud to anyone.
“I went out.” It felt like she was screaming at the top of her lungs as she said it, but the sound that came out of her mouth was barely audible.
She didn’t miss the rest of the group share a glance before Abby said, “Okay, where were you?”
Naomi felt herself sinking deeper into the cushions, wishing she could disappear.
“I can’t … tell you.” She dropped her head into her knees and for the first time since she arrived at her parents’ house, she burst into tears.
This time, there was no interrogation— just silence and Abby’s hand gently rubbing her back as she let the pain and grief of the last two weeks overtake her.
Only when the sobs began to subside did Abby finally say something. “You know you can tell us anything.”
Naomi lifted her head. “I know. I’ve been so afraid to tell you. Abby, I made such a mess of everything.”
“Yeah, join the club,” Abby said, comfortingly.
“As long as you don’t mind us making fun of you later,” Riley said.
Naomi's laugh was mingled with her tears. “That’s fine,” she said.
In fact, it was more than fine. It was the greatest thing they could do for her.
The people in this room gave her a safe place to fail over and over again and met her only with tenderness and laughter.
She let out a sigh, knowing it was time to trust-fall into their support again.
“So, tell us, sweetie,” Abby said. “Maybe we can help.”
The sobs overtook her like a tsunami as she tried to say the words.
“It was … Simon.” Even through the refracted light of her tears, she could see the look of dismay on everyone’s face.
She waved a hand, almost trying to dispel the thoughts they were having.
“No, no. Not like that. He called me a few days before the wedding.”
Abby leaned forward. “Called you? About what?”
Naomi looked at Abby. “Do you remember,” she said, fighting to get each word out, “a year after he and I got married, we bought that plot of land up here in Michigan?”
After a moment, Abby nodded. “Oh yeah! You were going to build a vacation home up there. I was still living off ramen noodles in that studio apartment and wondering where I had gone wrong in my life.”
“Simon was going to build the house by himself. But, no one will be shocked to hear, he never did.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”