Chapter Thirty-Three
The journey home was long and tedious, far worse than her journey there.
Especially when a curt text from Richie arrived while she was still bumping up and down on the speedboat, explaining that he’d had to put her in economy on the flight back to London to ensure she was on the next available flight.
But at least she’d got a window seat. She leaned against the window and turned away from the two other passengers in her row, hoping to avoid speaking to anyone for as long as possible – for ever, ideally.
She couldn’t sleep, but, when she’d looked at the films available, there’d been one starring Liam and Savannah. No doubt the notorious affair film. She’d switched it off and pretended to sleep for the remainder of the flight, occasionally rising for a long overdue loo break or a bag of crisps.
Back in London, she wearily collected her baggage and got into the first available taxi.
As soon as she was inside, she kicked herself for not calling Martin.
He would have charged her far less and driven far more safely.
Turning on her phone, which she’d had off the entire journey, she was depressed to see an influx of notifications.
Big mistake. She should have waited until she was in the safety of her own home.
There were several missed calls from her mother, which was to be expected. Her mum always seemed to forget about flights and phones. But there were also a lot of emails from her, which was unusual from her non-tech-savvy mum. She opened up the email app on her phone.
As well as the ones from her mum, there were some other names she didn’t recognise, all reporters from various magazines, papers and media outlets by the look of their email addresses. The subject lines were all variations of Tell your story. She groaned and moved on through the list.
There was one email address she did recognise: Hazel, her line manager. The air in her lungs froze and her heart jerked in her chest.
Ellie immediately clicked on the email. It was very professional – which was worrying in itself.
She scanned through it and then read it again in disbelief.
She’d been asked to take a voluntary leave of absence until the board could determine if recent events in her private life qualified as gross misconduct.
Hazel had been kind enough to comment that, as she had no previous cautions and a spotless record, she was ‘hopeful’ this would not lead to a suspension of her nursing licence.
But it would probably be ‘best’ for the hospital, and Ellie, if she took some time out while they investigated the complaints raised by members of the public.
They’d be in touch soon to determine a decision about her alleged alcohol and drug abuse. There was also mention of a possible police investigation, if her drug record-keeping showed any inconsistencies.
Ellie closed the email with trembling fingers. They were taking it seriously and, although she had nothing to hide, she felt as cornered as a rat in an ally.
Things were worse than she could ever have imagined.
She opened the emails from her mum, hoping for some sort of comfort or guidance, but was horrified to see several links that took her to pictures of her ‘mooning’ at the pool.
From this angle, and the way she was leaning forward to hold up her bikini at the front, it looked as if she was deliberately mooning a shocked and horrified Liam and Savannah.
Worse still, she was clutching a cocktail glass, which didn’t seem to help matters as the headline read, DRINK-FUELLED NURSE TURNS SAVANNAH AND LIAM’S ROMANTIC WEDDING INTO A NIGHTMARE!
There were several more images of her. Always with a drink in hand, occasionally with two. There was even a photo of her gleefully pulling apart a wilted bouquet, her head thrown back with almost manic laughter. Alex must have been cropped out of that photo – lucky for him.
Christ on a bike! It was horrendous; she looked crazy. She didn’t even remember half of these pictures. Who had taken them?
Amongst all of the pictures there were a few captioned quotes from a ‘reliable’ source. The quotes swirled in front of her eyes and she dipped lower into her seat, afraid of unseen enemies and cameras. The entire world hated her, and she could see why.
Alex met Ellie at his lowest point after his break-up with Savannah.
He’d produced and directed The Great Gatsby on the London stage, which at first had a lukewarm reception.
Life began to imitate art when he found himself falling into the arms of serial dater and party girl Eliza Dorothy Jones.
Witnesses say they left together after his opening-night party, with Alex heavily under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.
Close friends believe Miss Jones, a registered nurse, took advantage of Alex, possibly spiking his drink with strong medications.
There was a picture of her Tinder profile, as well as a quote from a previous ‘liaison’ who’d had to end his date with her early because she’d been ‘too intense – wanting to make plans for marriage and children within minutes of meeting with him’.
Presumably it was the same guy who’d bailed on her on their first date. Another reason to wish epic karma on that prick.
There was also a photo of David’s fiancée, including an interview, and of course a link to the damn TikTok of her being chased around the gym.
‘Eliza Jones tried to break up my relationship. She stalked my husband-to-be and trapped him with her lies. We almost split up because of it. She’s an obviously deeply troubled fantasist, who is desperate for an alpha-male boyfriend, despite the fact she’s probably a three at best.’
She glanced at the comments box at the bottom of the article. A never-ending litany of hate. So many angry and sick emojis that Ellie felt personally attacked by each hateful comment.
‘Ugly. Fat. Bitch! I thought it was sus that they were dating. She obviously blackmailed the poor guy.’
‘What a psycho!’
‘Nurse Ratched more like…’
‘She’s gross.’
‘What a crazy fat pig!’
‘Hope there’s a hog roast in hell for her!’
‘You couldn’t pay me to f*ck that.’
‘I knew it was all lies. What on earth would Alex see in THAT!’
She had hundreds of messages on her Facebook and Instagram profile, and, after a quick look at some of the hateful comments and threats, she clicked on each icon and deleted the apps completely.
Her eyes burned, awash with tears, and she was struggling to breathe. She tried to manage the panic attack with the breathing techniques she’d been taught to use with patients. But she couldn’t stop herself from catastrophising.
Life was hopeless. If she could get on a flight to Australia right now, she would do it gladly, but she suspected this vitriol would follow her there too.
This was confirmed when she spotted some panicked text messages from Hannah asking if she was okay. Ellie couldn’t face calling her, not yet; she didn’t want to ruin Hannah’s happiness with a misery of her own making.
What had Alex even seen in her? They looked ridiculous together.
All the carefully built confidence, all the body-positivity she’d spent years nurturing, evaporated, and her mother’s words of caution came flooding back.
Why you?
He’d wanted a distraction. A holiday from his crazy, glamorous life, and he’d found it with her. He would go back to LA and his bachelor life, and she’d be left to deal with the fallout.
This was all so unfair.
She’d be alone for the rest of her life, with no job, and her family’s business was probably ruined too. She’d foolishly put her life and her family business in someone else’s hands, and for what, a free holiday and a flat?
Unable to stop herself, she clicked back to the article and the ‘read more’ button with morbid curiosity. A car crash that she couldn’t seem to look away from.
She clutched her straw bag closer to her chest. The cheque within seemed to burn like a hot coal inside – her hush money. The money wouldn’t last five minutes if she needed to rebuild all of their lives from scratch.
The rest of the article loaded.
Alex, enthralled by the curvaceous seductress, made the mistake of taking her with him to his brother’s wedding.
Ellie then took it upon herself to spoil Savannah and Liam’s wedding in a twisted act of revenge.
According to our source, “Ellie left the wedding celebration early in disgrace. However, this incredibly difficult time has enabled the two brothers to overcome their previous difficulties and there are rumours they are due to start filming a multimillion-dollar franchise together soon with movie legend Francesca Tatiana.”
‘Fucking marvellous!’ spat Ellie, getting a curious look from her driver in the rear-view mirror. She ducked down in her seat and tucked her face into the pashmina wrapped around her neck.
All she needed was a taxi driver dishing the dirt on her next.