Meredith slowly opened her eyes when she felt someone shaking her awake. Rubbing at her eyelids, she realized it was Bonnie. She sat up in bed with a smile, happy as always to see her little sister.

“Hey, I didn’t know you would be back from your trip today,” she murmured then yawned, pressing a hand over her mouth.

“Yeah, well. The election's in a few days and Brittany's father said she had to be back by today and she was the one driving, so…”

Meredith groaned.

“Jesus! You’re right. I wish I could just… sleep until it’s all over,” she grumbled, pulling a pillow over her face.

She didn’t want to hear anything about the election. She was so fucking nervous about the results. If only they could just fast forward to the end already.

“Well, you’d better check out today’s news. You feature prominently in the headline,” Bonnie mumbled, flipping the pages of the paper deliberately for her to hear.

Jumping out of bed, she raced over to Bonnie and snatched the copy of the paper out of her hands before flopping back onto her bed. Meredith's eyes widened when she saw a photo of Eli splashed across the front page, along with her senior photo from her high school yearbook in the corner. The headline read, WANNABE PREZ HAS AFFAIR WITH YOUNG REPORTER.

She felt like she'd been doused with ice cold water.

Not really knowing how to react, Meredith placed a hand over her mouth, looking at Bonnie – asking for help. What was she supposed to do?

“Oh my god…” she whispered as her heart thudded painfully against her ribcage.

Her parents were going to kill her.

“Mom and Dad haven’t found out yet, but they will soon,” Bonnie said with an apologetic expression on her face.

“Oh, god,” she whispered again, still at a loss for words.

“Yeah. I thought I should wake you up before they did… give you a chance to sneak out.” Bonnie shot her a worried look, then nodded her head as if she completely understood her situation.

Instantly, Meredith found herself pulling her sister close for a tight hug. She then kissed her on the cheek before getting to her feet.

“Thank you,” she muttered gratefully before quickly grabbing a bag and throwing the essentials inside - a couple of changes of clothes, her laptop, cellphone and wallet. She splashed her face with water and hurriedly got dressed, making sure to grab a pair of oversized sunglasses and a ball cap.

She had to make sure nobody recognized her, or she'd be mobbed by the press before she could even think properly.

After saying goodbye to Bonnie, she slipped out of the mansion and drove away in her car, taking an alternate route only her family and the staff knew about. She managed to avoid the press entirely, but she wanted to vomit when she saw how many people were already camped out in front of her house.

When she was out of the subdivision, she pulled into a parking garage and checked her phone, only to find missed calls from Eli, Lily, Sosie, and all the other reporters from the campaign. Cursing, she dialed Eli first. She wanted to know who'd broken the story to the media.

And she wanted to know how he was handling the scandal.

After a few rings, he picked up, which made her feel relieved at least.

“Meredith,” she heard Sosie say instead, making her heart sink. Why was Sosie answering Eli's phone?

She felt a surge of jealousy as she was suddenly reminded of what she had seen between them the other night. But that wasn't the point. She had to talk to Eli.

“Umm… Hi, Sosie,” she said awkwardly.

“You shouldn’t be calling this number,” Sosie replied, and her dislike was obvious by her tone.

“I… It’s Eli’s phone. Why are you answering it?” she questioned, unable to hold back any longer. She was really getting on her nerves.

“He called me when this shitstorm hit the internet last night. Someone needs to handle this mess,” Sosie responded flatly.

Meredith breathed in to control her temper, her grip on the steering wheel growing tighter. She swore she’d really give Sosie a piece of her mind when everything was over. She'd just been holding back until now because they were working together on the campaign with her.

“Can I talk to him?”

Sosie scoffed, and she could picture the disdainful look on the woman’s stern face.

“You cannot even begin to understand how far away from him you need to stay away. Like, permanently,” Sosie answered in a warning tone.

But she wasn't going to let it end like that. She needed to talk to him.

“If I could just talk to him—“

“Yeah, no. He does not want to talk to you. He wants nothing to do with his dirty little secret. And a little piece of advice? Don’t talk to the press. You should know – you’re one of them. You guys are like vultures,” Sosie said disgustedly.

“Sosie, please—“

“Gotta go, Meredith. CNN is calling.”

With that, the line went dead, leaving Meredith to stare blankly at her phone.

Her face was in the paper, and now she was laying low as if she was a criminal. Worse, she wasn't even allowed to talk to Elijah! Just what the hell was happening?

Punching her dashboard, she screamed, letting out her frustrations before she got back on the road. She'd missed her chance to make things right with Eli. Now it was too late.

Everything was ruined.

Gripping the wheel, she decided that finding a place to stay was her first priority. She needed to head somewhere far from the city – where people would barely recognize her.

She would deal with things once her mind cleared up.