Anna || HS

CHAPTER 22

~ November 2011- August 2012~
Anna- 17-18
Harry- 17-18

~December 2011~

Anna POV:

Harry and I had almost no contact after that day. I say 'almost' because he showed up at my doorstep in November and wanted to talk about what happened. What could he possibly say about cheating on me? NOTHING, that's what. To say it didn't go well was an understatement. I didn't want to hear what he had to say because no words would fix what he had done to me. Nothing would make me forgive him. Once he realized that, he left even more broken than when he arrived, but I felt closure, so for that I was thankful for his visit.

When I got back from the concert in the US, things were bad again, but manageable. After everything happened with Caroline Flack, however, it got so bad that I was called in to a meeting with the University Chancellor, who informed me that I had been moved to classes online, and that he believed I would 'greatly benefit from off-campus learning experiences'. In other words, they wanted me to keep the circus that followed me far away from the other students that were just trying to learn.

I finished the fall semester and decided to take the next semester off, considering that I had basically been told to stay off campus. I knew that staying in Greece was no longer an option for me. I needed a place that nobody knew who I was. The challenge was that my name, and my Google search infamy, also made getting into a different architecture program, or getting internships, or other opportunities, really difficult. It made meeting new people a nightmare, and I just wanted to become a different person. Someone that nobody could connect back to my past.

When I was in Norway with Oma and Papa for Christmas, they overheard me talking with mom about my frustrations with my loss of anonymity. Papa spoke up and made a suggestion that I hadn't even thought about.

"Anna, dear, why don't you change your last name to your mother's maiden name? It is perfectly legal in Norway, and you're a citizen."

"What?" I ask surprised. "I couldn't do that..." I say to start off with, but then paused to think a bit more. "Could I?" I ask looking at mom.

"I don't see why not?" she quickly replies.

It would solve a lot of my issues. No more Anna Campbell would mean that I cannot be recognized for the last couple years of my life. I could actually get a fresh start. "So," I say, "Do you think I can pull off the name Anna Berg?"

Berg is my mom's maiden name. It's also well known all over Europe from my Papa's Architecture firm that Erik is now part owner of. So, it would give me a different kind of recognition, being in school for Architecture, and maybe that isn't all bad.

"I like it, a lot," Sofie butts in to the conversation. "Anna Berg," she says, shaking her head in agreement, liking the sound of the name.

~January 2012~

Anna POV:

I easily completed the necessary paperwork for the name change in Norway. Once that all came through, I started the process for the same in the United States, needing to step through a few more hoops there. I actually contacted Jon (one of Harry's managers) for help with that. He reached out more than once after everything happened with Harry, offering any help that he could. I didn't need it then, but when I did, he was happy to connect me to their legal team without asking too many details.

They got my name change processed in a way that allowed no connection to my previous alias. They also assured me through the whole process that they were prohibited from sharing the information with anyone, especially Harry.