I Signed Away Eight Million To Leave Him Chapter 07
“Eli?”
He smiled.
It wasn’t the polite smile of a stranger, or the searching look of someone trying to place a long-lost acquaintance.
There was only uncomplicated joy in his eyes.
“It really is you.”
Eli’s father used to be the driver for Vale Estate.
Years ago, their family lived in the staff cottage next to ours.
Back then, my father was still around.
When he got drunk, he smashed things and hit people. I often went to school with bruises on my arms, lying to my teachers that I’d fallen down the stairs.
The local kids knew what happened in our house.
They’d corner me, mimic my father’s drunken stagger, and call me a poor little reject no one wanted.
The first time someone threw my schoolbag into a muddy ditch, Eli stood in front of me.
He was a few years older and much taller.
“Pick it up.”
The boys laughed at him for meddling.
He didn’t say another word. He just stood there, waiting, until they went back, fished my bag out of the mud, and wiped it clean.
After that, he waited for me outside the staff cottages every morning and walked that stretch of road with me.
If I had no lunch, he would break his sandwich in half and offer me a piece.
I always refused.
So he’d say, on purpose, “My mom makes these way too big. I can’t finish it myself. You’d be doing me a favor.”