Page 50

Story: The Tenant

50

The next day, I meet Elijah in the park again.

It would be easier to talk on the phone, but he has always been paranoid about phones. Or at least that’s what he claims. Part of me thinks he just wants to see me.

Once again, he has arrived first. Unlike yesterday, he stands up when I arrive, grinning at the sight of me. “Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” I say flatly.

He frowns. “Everything okay?”

I haven’t told anyone what I found out last night. But I have a feeling that out of everyone I know, Elijah can keep a secret. “I found out that Blake is cheating on me.”

“Holy crap,” he blurts out. “What an idiot.”

“Yeah,” I mumble.

“How are you doing?”

I don’t entirely know how to answer that question. I am so hurt and disappointed, I can barely think straight.

But at least I have ensured that I will get something out of this. When I went downstairs to the living room last night, I found a flash drive that Blake keeps in his briefcase. He likes to keep a backup of all his files. He’s always so dependable. I copied all his clients’ records onto my own flash drive. I intend to sell everything I can to the competition. Not only will I make a pretty penny doing this, enough to rebuild my life, but when his boss catches wind of it, he will never work in this industry again.

I mean, it’s not as good as pushing him off the roof, but it’s something.

“I’ll be okay,” I finally say. “So…what did you find out about that waitress?”

“This information was not easy to find.” Elijah’s expression is grim. “But it turns out you were right. She’s using your name and your Social Security number.”

Even though I had suspected it, this news fills me with rage, even worse than when I found out Blake was cheating on me. She stole my identity. She stole my name. It wasn’t hers to take, but she took it anyway. That bitch .

“Her real name is Amanda Lenhart,” he goes on. “She was a PhD candidate in biology.”

She gave up a life as a biologist and now she’s waiting tables. Whatever prompted her to steal my name, it must have been really bad.

“Do you know why she needed a new identity?” I ask.

He shakes his head. It’s frustrating that he doesn’t know, because Elijah seems to know everything.

“There are no criminal charges against Amanda Lenhart,” he says. “So I’m guessing there was somebody after her. Somebody who might’ve hurt her if they found her.”

Somehow, it doesn’t matter to me at all that she might have had a good reason. The fact that she stole my identity feels like the worst kind of violation there is. Is it worse than what Blake did?

I don’t know. They both deserve to be punished.

I fiddle with my engagement ring, and a jab of sadness hits me. In the near future, I’ll be returning this beautiful ring to Blake permanently. And that’s when I get a brilliant idea. I had intended to tell Blake today that it was all over, but now I think I’ll wait. I think there’s a way to punish both of them and come off scot-free myself.

Plus, once Whitney/Amanda is dead, I can take my name back.

“Elijah,” I say. “I need your help with one more thing.”

He leans forward eagerly. “Anything.”

I am going to teach Blake a lesson. I’m going to teach both of them a lesson.