Something About Eve (An Eve Sumptor Book 1)

by Jourdyn Kelly

  “Just start,” she told Eve. “Whatever it is that’s hurting you inside, let it out. I’m here.” She saw a hint of a sad smile curve Eve’s lips. She doesn’t believe me, Lainey thought with a sadness of her own. I’ll prove you wrong, Lainey promised silently.

  Eve took her first sip of brandy and winced when the sting of it hit the back of her throat. “Now I remember why I don’t drink this stuff anymore,” she said, stalling for time. And yet why shouldn’t she just get it over with, she asked herself. The faster it was done, the faster she could overcome losing Lainey. The only problem with her theory was that she didn’t think she would be able to overcome that loss.

  “I was fourteen when my mother died.”

  It had been the worst day of her life and she remembered every detail vividly. That day at school she had felt ill. Something had told her that she needed to get home and so she had run the four miles from school as fast as she could.

  When she reached the house, she had called for her mother, needing to see her, needing her to tell her that everything was all right. But there was no answer. Exhausted, Eve went up to her bedroom. She wanted to just lie down, to rest. And there her mother was, lying on the floor, just inches from Eve’s bed. It was the one place she went where she could feel safe. When Eve’s father would get violent, Marie would lock them both in Eve’s room. Partly to keep Eve safe from him, but also to keep herself safe. They would move the dresser in front of the door and sit on the bed hugging each other tightly until he stopped banging on the door, and then fall asleep protected in each other’s arms.

  Eve had known immediately that her father was responsible for what happened to her mother. She never would’ve left her like that, never would have left her daughter alone with that man. Certainly, she wouldn’t have wanted Eve to find her like that. There had been a note, of course. ‘I can’t take anymore.’ Marie had apparently ‘overdosed’ on Pentobarbital. But Eve had known even then that it wasn’t from her mother.

  She had gone to the police and told them what she suspected, but being only fourteen, it had been a difficult task getting them to believe her. She had to get them to at least suspect foul play so they would investigate and find things out about her father that he wanted to keep hidden from the police. She had been invisible to Tony most of the time, unless he was drunk, which suited her just fine. But still she had heard things he hadn’t intended her to hear. Seen things she never should have seen. And she took everything that she knew, took documents that she didn’t understand then, to the police. It had been enough to start an investigation and find reason to suspect her father in her mother’s death.

  Eve’s father had never been a very smart man. He had made mistakes that brought him down. Further into the investigation, they found Tony’s fingerprints on the bottle of pills that killed her mother. Marie’s were never found on the bottle. Then Eve had found out that he killed her for money.

  About a month before her death, he had taken out a life insurance policy on Marie for one million dollars. He had needed it to pay off his gambling debts. After he was arrested, they had learned that Marie had had a hell of a lot more than that. She had millions. Neither Eve nor her father had ever expected that. Nor did they expect that every bit of it would be left to Eve. It had been like she knew what was going to happen to her and she wanted Eve to be taken care of.

  If her father hadn’t hated Eve before, he sure as hell did then. He was convicted of Marie’s murder, which meant that he didn’t get the million he had killed her for. Then, knowing Eve inherited everything pissed him off even more, and he threatened her. He told her that it didn’t matter how long he was in prison for, she would pay for what she had done to him. He let her know, in no uncertain terms, that he being in prison wouldn’t save her, because he could find someone to do the job for him. The authorities had brought in the FBI to keep Eve ‘safe’ from her father. They were going to put her in the witness protection program where she would have to change her name and stay with some foster family and never again be able to speak of her mother. It wasn’t what she wanted. They didn’t know her father the way she did. They didn’t know what kind of contacts he had. He would find her.

  The bureau assigned an agent to Eve to take her home and get a few things that they approved of, and then transport her somewhere ‘far away’ from danger. Unfortunately for them, they had assigned a rookie to Eve, never thinking that a fourteen year old would run from the FBI. They didn’t know just how good of a liar Eve was. She had told the agent to wait in the car while she ran in really quick. While inside, she had found her passport, and a stash of money she had been saving herself, and ran.

  Eve hadn’t had a plan. She just knew she had to get out of there. She had been scared that the ticket agents wouldn’t let her on a plane, scared that the authorities would find her before she could get out, so she paid a cab driver to go inside the airport and buy her a ticket. Not knowing why then, she chose Paris as her destination.

  It hadn’t been her first time to Paris. She remembered when Tony had taken them once when he was on a gambling high. They had stayed with a woman named Madame Bussiere who was hosting a high stakes game he had wanted in on. Bussiere had hated Eve’s father almost as much as Eve did. She also did illegal business at her cafe, so it was the safest place she could think of to go to without anyone going to the authorities.

  Eve had shown up on Bussiere’s doorstep with nothing but the clothes on her back and three thousand dollars in her pocket. And the money was the first thing Bussiere took from her. The old woman had told her that if she wanted to be kept away from the authorities and her father, then she would do as she was told. Eve was to do chores, serve Bussiere, and in return she would get room and board and a hiding place. Not knowing what else to do, Eve had agreed. She would finish the things Bussiere had her do, and then go up to her tiny room and escape from it all.

  Fortunate enough to have a balcony outside her window, Eve would take paper and a pencil out there each night and draw. It was the only thing that kept her sane. Paris had been so beautiful at night, and she would draw everything in sight. The people, the trees, the cars. Eve remembered that she had wanted paints so badly to be able to catch the colors and character of everything that surrounded her. Something a pencil couldn’t do, but she had no money to buy the things she needed, so she settled.

  Until one day, when Madame Bussiere came into her room – as she regularly did to make sure Eve hadn’t stolen anything from her – and she found the drawings Eve had done. Eve recalled Madam Bussiere not believing that Eve had drawn them at first, and demanding that she draw her. Seeing it as an opportunity to get the supplies she needed, Eve told her that if she had paints and a canvas, she could paint her portrait. The next thing Eve knew, Bussiere had bought one canvas and the cheapest paints she could find.

  She sat for Eve, and all Eve could think at the time was the woman had been the worst subject she had ever had to paint. Not only because she was overweight, missing most of her teeth and hardly showered. But she was also a horrible, horrible person. Eve painted her nonetheless and did her best, thinking that maybe she would keep getting paints if she pleased her. It had been one of Eve’s biggest mistakes. Bussiere had found a way for Eve to make her money. She started advertising Eve to her patrons and they would pay her five hundred francs to go up to Eve’s room and have her paint for them. At first, it hadn’t bothered Eve, because she got to do something that she loved to do. Of course, she never saw a cent, but the paints got better and she got all of the canvases she needed. As far as the patrons went, some would want straightforward portraits, some portraits of their families or pets, and some wanted Eve to paint them in the nude.

  She did whatever she was asked to do, until she started to get tired. She would be doing four, five or six paintings a night without a break, but if she dared complain or refuse to do a painting, Madame would hit her until she changed her mind. Although she didn’t hit as hard as Eve’s father, Eve learned
not to refuse her.

  It was when Eve was sixteen that everything changed. Her body started to change no matter how hard she tried to stop it from doing the things it was doing. She hadn’t wanted her breasts to grow, hadn’t wanted to be attractive and have people look at her differently. The way they had her mother. She had known what sex was, and she didn’t want it. She wouldn’t wear make-up, wore her hair up in a ponytail all the time, but no matter what she did, her body betrayed her. When her body changed, so did the clientele. They came in now, not to see the young artist, but to see the young woman. Then one of her regulars had come in, after already having four portraits done. She remembered thinking it was odd that he would come in so many times, but Eve was naïve enough at the time to think it was because of her work, not her. But then she had heard him talking to Madame one day.

  “Si doué.” ‘So talented’, he would say. “Elle est ahurissante.” ‘She is breathtaking’.” “Regardez ce beau jeune corps.” ‘Look at that beautiful, young body.’ She didn’t realize that what she heard in the man’s voice was a craving for the young girl.

  She never knew how much he offered Madame that day. All she knew was that he didn’t pay her for a painting this time. This time he paid to fuck Eve.

  She hadn’t known what to do. She’d begged Madame not to make her do it, but the older woman threatened her, telling her that if she didn’t give the man what he wanted, she would tell the authorities where Eve was. Or, maybe she would just tell her father, and see how much he was willing to pay to get rid of Eve and maybe she would do it herself. Eve remembered actually contemplating her choices. She honestly couldn’t decide which she would be better off choosing. Death or giving herself to this man.

  She had made her decision. She hadn’t known what else to do, had nowhere to go. Eve thought that if she just got it over with, everything would go back to being the way it was. So, she just laid there as he did whatever he wanted to her. What he’d paid for. He was in his forties, married with children, and she couldn’t believe he was doing this to her. But he wasn’t the only one. There were others that paid to have Eve, and each night she had to endure what these men did to her.

  There had been nights that Madame would give Eve time to be alone. But they were very few and far between. When Eve was to have her seventeenth birthday off, she had been grateful. She had planned to use that time to make plans on how she would get out of this miserable life she was living. Eve would sit out on the balcony, even if it were freezing out there, because she couldn’t bring herself to sleep in that bed. She couldn’t sleep anymore anyway since every time she closed her eyes she would see those men hurting her. She had to get out, but she just didn’t know how without any money. She would leave no matter what she had to do and she would take her night off to figure out how.

  But she didn’t get the night off. Perhaps what Eve would always remember most was the night a very prominent, very influential man had come in demanding that she service him – that was what they called it - right away. It turned out that he had learned about her from the streets and wanted to sample the goods for himself. He paid Madame a very large sum to forget that she had ever seen him and to be deaf to anything that went on upstairs and she agreed.

  “Then,” Eve said quietly. “He and a few of his friends, decided to take turns with me...”

  “Stop!” Lainey couldn’t listen anymore. Weeping openly, she stood to pace the floor. She felt sick to her stomach. “I can’t...I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  Eve’s heart shattered. She should have been prepared for this. She should have known that Lainey wouldn’t be able to bear to hear the truth about her. And, as much as she tried to fight the anger, the hurt, to try to understand, she couldn’t.

  “No!” she said severely. “You wanted to hear this, Lainey! You’re going to hear all of it! Do you have any idea what they did to me? Do you?”

  “Please, Eve! I can’t!”

  “They tore me apart, Lainey!” Eve said roughly, ignoring Lainey’s plea. “Every bit of hope, every bit of emotion that I had inside me, died that night!” She rose and turned Lainey to face her. “You wanted to know why I’m not good enough for you or for Adam. That’s why! You never expected to hear that I was a whore did you?”

  “Stop it!” Lainey tried to free her arms from Eve’s grip, but found she couldn’t budge.

  “Stop what? Isn’t this what you wanted? To know everything about me? Well, now you know. I’m a whore! Everything that you thought you saw in me was a lie!”

  “You’re not a whore, Eve! Stop saying that!” Lainey cried. She took a breath to calm herself. “What happened to you was not your fault. Please, you’re hurting me.”

  “I’m sorry.” Eve sank to her knees there in front of Lainey and buried her face in her hands. “I never should have told you. Your illusion of me was far better than my reality. I should have let you keep believing I’m who you thought I was.”

  “Eve.” Lainey got down on her knees with Eve. “Please, look at me.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Do you think I’m ashamed of you? Do you think I could judge you for what those bastards did to you? My God, Eve, do you honestly think I would blame you for what happened to you?”

  “I’m a whore.”

  “No, baby, you’re not.” Lainey wrapped her arms around Eve tenderly.

  “You didn’t want to hear...”

  “I didn’t want to hear because I couldn’t stand hearing how those bastards hurt you,” Lainey interrupted. “You’re right, I never expected this. I never expected that you would have gone through so much, been hurt so badly and yet still turn out to be the wonderful woman you are today. I never expected to hate this much. Not you, baby. Them. Everyone that ever hurt you. I’ve never been a violent person. But, I would give anything to see them burn in hell for what they did to you, and I would give anything to be the one to put them there.”

  Eve still saw in Lainey the trust and affection she thought she would surely lose. The tears that fell from Lainey’s eyes were for her. No one had ever cried for Eve. She touched her fingertip to one of the falling tears. “Why can’t I do that?” she asked softly. “Why can’t I cry?”

  “You’ve closed yourself up for so long, Eve,” Lainey told her, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “You’re afraid to have emotions, because you’re afraid of being hurt again. But I won’t hurt you. I swear.”

  It was Eve who deepened the kiss when Lainey touched her lips to hers. She had needed it. Needed to know that nothing had changed for Lainey. But, Eve felt in the kiss that things had changed. For both of them. Her heart pounded almost painfully at the realization. “There’s more,” she whispered reluctantly.

  “We have all the time in the world for you to tell me everything, Eve,” Lainey said and brushed her lips to Eve’s. “But, let’s leave the rest for later. I think you’ve been through enough tonight.” She knew Eve had a headache, saw the fatigue in her eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that all of these horrible memories are in your mind now.”

  Eve shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I live with this every day of my life. It doesn’t matter how hard I try to forget it and move on. It will forever be there.”

  She felt the sting of tears in her eyes, willed them to fall. Just once she wanted to cry. She wanted to release this pain that was trapped inside her.

  “I have to finish, Lainey,” she said insistently. “I don’t know if I could ever do this again, so I need to do it now while I can.” She studied Lainey for a moment. “Are you okay?”

  The question was so absurd that Lainey laughed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “There’s nothing funny about any of this. It’s just that I should be the one asking you that. How about we get comfortable? I’ll make us some tea and you can finish.”

  When they were standing, Lainey pulled her close. “Look at me, Eve,” she said. “Look me in the eye. Things have changed for me. I thought that no matter what you said, my feeli
ngs for you wouldn’t change. But, they did.”

  Eve nodded. She had expected things to change, but not in the way they had. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweating and all she wanted to do was sit down and weep.

  “I didn’t believe it was possible for me to respect you any more than I did,” Lainey told her. “I didn’t realize just how strong you really were. Now I do. I know you were expecting me to run away from you or make judgments about you because of these awful things that have happened to you. Well, I hope this doesn’t disappoint you, but I’m not going anywhere. I love you.”

  Eve sat at the island in the kitchen, silently watching Lainey move about the kitchen, preparing tea for them both. She was trying to gather her senses and wrap her mind around everything that Lainey had said to her. She had heard the words ‘I love you’ many times in her life, mostly spoken by men who knew nothing about her and ‘loved’ her body. Her mother had told her that she had loved her of course, but in the years that had passed since the words had lost their meaning for Eve. Then, Adam had told her that he loved her and she had believed him, seen in his eyes that he meant what he was saying. But, he didn’t know her either. Not the real Eve but her image and she had never dared having him see her as she really was.

  She reminded herself that she had thought the same thing about Lainey, certain that when she came clean about her past, Lainey would run. But, she hadn’t. She was standing here in Eve’s kitchen, making Eve tea, telling Eve that she loved her. Now that she knew everything – or nearly everything - she was still here.

  The object of Eve’s innermost thoughts turned to her then, as if she could hear Eve thinking. Lainey poured the tea into two porcelain cups. “Can I ask you something?” she said. “You said that your mother had left you an inheritance.” She hesitated for a moment, not wanting to upset Eve. “Why didn’t you...”