Losing Eva (The Eva Series Book 2)

by Jennifer Sivec

  Carly smiled as she looked around the room. She had sewn the new curtains on the windows and repaired the tablecloth. She would do the laundry, clean the house, and had been cooking more and more of the meals. But she felt like she was missing something. She was happy, but she fought the feeling that she should be doing more.

  “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” Petey said, his mouth full of eggs. It pained him to think that Carly could be unhappy. “You do plenty. If you’re bored, then I can get you a dog or…”

  “I’m not bored,” Carly said quickly. “I’m happy. I’m just talking.”

  Lily and Petey exchanged quick glances, each looking away quickly. Carly knew they were cousins, she knew that they looked out for her, but she didn’t really know who they were, or that they lived in fear every day that she would find out. They both loved her. She fulfilled a need in them that neither recognized until Petey inadvertently moved her in with Lily.

  “Why don’t we do some online shopping when I get home?” Lily said, smiling. She knew how much Carly loved to shop online. She shopped for everything online with a small budget, and she enjoyed it.

  “Okay. Or…” Carly paused, “Or… we could go into town and shop there.”

  Carly didn’t miss the look that passed between the two people she loved the most. She had posed this question on numerous occasions, and every time she was denied.

  “You know what we’ve said, Carly. It’s just not safe,” Lily said slowly. “We don’t know who was after you or why. We don’t want anything bad to happen to you, or for anyone to know where you are.”

  “The men who were after you were bad men. We can’t protect you if they find out where you are,” Petey added.

  Carly nodded. She knew what they would say. She knew that it didn’t matter how many times she asked, she knew that the answer would still be the same. She wanted to be safe, but she didn’t feel like she was in danger. She couldn’t imagine who would ever try to hurt her, or why anyone would ever want to, but then again, she couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything, and she was trying to find happiness in her current state, but sometimes it was just too hard.

  “Okay,” Carly said with a small smile. “I’m ruining breakfast.”

  “I know it’s hard, but it will be okay. You’ll see,” Lily said getting up and hugging her tight. “I hate to see you sad. Try to be happy. You are with people who love you.”

  “I can stay with you for a while,” Petey said, wiping his mouth as he finished the last of his breakfast. “If you want.”

  Carly smiled. “I’d like that.”

  Lily went to work, and Carly and Petey sat on the couch, sitting close together in silence.

  “I wish I knew who I was, and where I came from,” Carly said after a little while. “I am happy with you and with Lily, but I feel like I’m missing something.”

  “I know.” Petey never knew what to say when she started talking like this. He didn’t want to discourage her, but he had never spent much time talking to girls before. He wasn’t much for talking. He was a better listener.

  “I wonder if I had a family. I wonder if…if…,” Carly hesitated.

  “If what?” Petey asked, not sure that he wanted to hear the question.

  “I wonder if I had any children. If I have any children,” Carly said, her voice barely audible. “I always dream of a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes. She’s holding out her arms to me and…”

  Petey felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. He knew that he didn’t want to hear the rest.

  “I just feel like I know her, and I can’t get her out of my mind.”

  Petey held her tight, pushing away his own fear. When she figures out who she is, she’ll hate me. I can’t let that happen.

  Carly snuggled up against his big, strong frame losing herself in the only comfort she knew.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Noah

  “LEE-UH,” Noah lifted his arms up begging to be picked up.

  “No, no, no. Noah sleep. Sleep!” Lisa ordered gently.

  “Lee-uh, Pick up!”

  “Noah. No. Sleep.” Lisa said firmly. “It’s naptime. Sleep.”

  They had driven for hours all through the night, and Lisa was exhausted. She wanted to sleep, and she knew that she couldn’t sleep until Dylan did. She didn’t want to lose patience with Noah, she knew that would just make it worse. He’s just a special little boy. He didn’t ask for this. He didn’t ask for his mother to be a complete and useless bitch. It’s not his fault. Patience, Lisa, patience.

  The door to the hotel room opened. Dylan walked in—tall, lean, and handsome, breathtakingly so...

  “He’s not asleep yet?” Dylan asked, his voice tired and aggravated.

  “No, not yet,” Lisa said trying not to cry.

  “Lay him on the bed.” Dylan said sharply.

  Lisa picked Noah up out of the pack and play she was trying to get him to sleep in. She laid him carefully in the middle of the bed. At three he was getting heavy, almost too heavy for Lisa to pick him up.

  Noah looked at her with big brown eyes. His brow was furrowed and he was confused. Lisa looked at his little face, at his eyes that were too close together and his forehead that seemed oddly large for his size, and she thought that he was beautiful.

  “Lay next to him.” Dylan said gesturing to the bed. “He can’t sleep when he’s alone.”

  Lisa lay down next to Noah, covering Noah gently with the blanket. She smoothed his dark brown hair over his brow and watched him close his eyes. He fell asleep instantaneously, and Lisa sighed with relief.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Dylan smiled at Lisa. “We have each other. We are away from that bitch, and we can start over. We can start a family without her.”

  Lisa smiled sleepily. She loved Noah and wanted him to be happy. She had been dreaming of the three of them being a family for a long time. She just never believed it could happen. Finally, after three years of flirting, and talking, and pretending like they weren’t in love, they decided that they couldn’t deny it anymore.

  And now here she was.

  She drifted off to sleep with her arm protectively wrapped around Noah. “Goodnight, Noah bug,” she whispered as she did every night.

  Dylan watched them sleeping, his whole world wrapped up in them. I thought that Ellie would make me happy, but she’s nothing but a selfish, drug-addicted whore. I can’t let Noah know who his mother really is.

  Dylan imagined a world where the three of them could be happy, but he knew they would have to get further away. He knew that as soon as Ellie realized they were gone, she would call John, and that they would call the police.

  He drifted off in the chair, watching over them.

  The next thing he knew, the world sounded as if it were crashing in, and he jumped up as the door flew open. He then found himself staring down the barrel of several guns in his face, and he was being thrown to the ground.

  “Police! Don’t move! Don’t move!” Dylan felt a boot on the back of his neck and the sound of Lisa’s screams.

  Noah was moaning, and Dylan felt tears running down his face. “Noah! Noah!” He cried out.

  “Don’t move, I said!” A strong angry voice was shouting down at him. “You’re under arrest for kidnapping.”

  “He’s my son!” Dylan screamed. “He’s my son!”

  “We’ll see what the court says,” the voice said hand cuffing him roughly and picking him up. He looked around desperately for Lisa, but she was already gone. All he caught was a glimpse of Noah on the bed.

  My poor baby boy. Daddy loves you! Daddy loves you!

  Chapter Twenty

  Brynn and Adam’s Meeting

  THE TABLE WAS LARGE. Dark. Cherry.

  The room was massive. Cold. A place where hopes were dashed and dreams were destroyed. It was a large room that didn’t care about the tears that were shed, or the hearts that were broken. It was created for sadness and misery and devastation.


  Brynn stepped into the room first.

  She was ushered into the room by the secretary, a young, serious woman with black rimmed glasses who gestured toward one of the large leather chairs. “Mr. Black will be right with you,” she said in a no-nonsense tone. Her tone was very business-like, and lacked any warmth or compassion.

  Brynn sat down, the chair swallowing her instantly, making her feel very small. She shifted in the chair trying to get comfortable. Her feet barely touched the floor, and she immediately questioned whether she should be there.

  A few moments later, a heavyset man in his late fifties entered the room carrying a heavy leather bag filled with files, and sweating profusely. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Michael, traffic was terrible and…”

  Brynn wasn’t listening. Her eyes were large and panicked as she looked around the room. She kept smoothing her dark hair behind her ears as she squirmed in her chair.

  He could tell that she was nervous, and she looked like she was going to throw up. He had warned her that it wasn’t going to be easy. He warned her that this was going to be a difficult day. “You can back out any time you want. This isn’t going to be pleasant,” he told her at their last meeting. “If you aren’t sure you want to go through with it, then maybe you’re just not ready. You have to be sure that this is what you want to do. This is permanent.”

  Brynn had nodded at him. She was sure. She knew that this is what she wanted to do. She knew that there was no other choice.

  Mr. Black unloaded his bag. He set the files on the table and poured himself a big glass of water from the crystal pitcher on the table.

  “Would you like some?” he asked, gesturing to Brynn.

  Brynn shook her head. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth she would vomit all over the beautifully polished table.

  “You should have some,” Mr. Black said pouring her a glass of water and setting it clumsily in front of her, some of it spilling out onto the table.

  Brynn watched the water spilling on the table and looked around for a napkin. She didn’t want water all over the table in front of her. She grabbed a tissue from the box in front of her and wiped the table down.

  “Are you sure you want to do this? Is this what you really want?” he said, some of the redness from his face disappearing, the sweat still dripping from his double chin.

  “Yes.” Brynn said, offering nothing else.

  Mr. Black busied himself with pulling out his papers and his legal pad, making notes as he thumbed through the pages. Brynn could see her bank statements, papers from the restaurant, and various pages that she had given him over the past few months. It made her sad to see her entire life reduced to pages in a manila folder in the hands of a balding, middle-aged stranger, who she was going to owe a lot of money to when it was all said and done.

  The big glass door to the room opened and a masculine looking woman who must have been at least six feet tall entered the room with Adam trailing behind her. Brynn’s breath caught in her throat.

  She hadn’t seen Adam in months, and now here he was walking around the large table avoiding her eyes. It had been so long since she had seen him, even longer since she had touched him. She suddenly fought a strong urge to run up to him and grab him, but after Sophie’s death, things between them had steadily declined. He wanted nothing to do with her now.

  Oh, God. What are we doing? Brynn suddenly realized that she had been holding her breath.

  Adam and his lawyer sat down on the other side of the table, neither of them saying a word.

  “Mr. Black,” the mannish looking woman said curtly, her voice oddly deep.

  “Ms. St. George,” Mr. Black said with a trace of contempt.

  Brynn sensed that this wasn’t their first meeting, and it made her uneasy.

  She tried to catch Adam’s eye, but he refused to look at her. She finally gave up and looked down at the table, fighting the tears that threatened to spring up.

  “Well,” Ms. St. George said, her low voice resonating in the large room. “I think we know why we are all here.”

  “Yes,” Brynn and Adam said at the same time. Adam glanced up quickly, his blue eyes flashing toward Brynn and then looking away.

  “It would be nice if we could get through this quickly, civilly. If anyone needs a break, please say so. We will try to get through the division of property as quickly as possible.” Ms. St. George wasted no time getting to the point. “There will simply be the matter of going to court to stand in front of the judge after this, and then everything will be final.”

  Adam nodded, and Brynn felt the lump in her throat getting bigger. She had been dreading this meeting all week, and now that it was finally here, she couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t spoken to Adam in months, and she longed just to hear the sound of his voice. She wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him. It doesn’t matter now.

  The lawyers started talking, dividing assets as Brynn and Adam nodded in agreement. There was nothing that either of them wanted to fight over. The beautiful Victorian was going to be put on the market, with the profit of the sale being divided equally; the dishes, the cars, even the candle holders they had received for a wedding gift, everything. The only thing left to determine was the fate of the restaurant.

  “I want her to have it. She can have it all,” Adam said looking directly at Brynn for the first time.

  “Are you sure that you want to do that?” Ms. St. George said skeptically. The profit of the restaurant had quadrupled over the past few years.

  “I do. I want her to have it. She’s worked for it. It’s hers.” Adam’s tone was firm. He had given it a lot of thought. He didn’t feel as though he was owed anything from the restaurant.

  “No. No,” Brynn said, shaking her head. “He deserves half. He should get half.”

  Mr. Black and Ms. St. George looked at each other.

  Nobody spoke as the lawyers communicated silently with one another.

  “If that is what you want, Adam, but I strongly advise against it,” Ms. St. George said finally.

  “That is what I want,” Adam said never taking his eyes off Brynn.

  Brynn’s eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t stop it. Adam knew how much the restaurant meant to her, but she didn’t expect him to leave it to her completely. Not after he had blamed her for everything else. Not after he had blamed her for Sophie. She blamed herself for losing Sophie, so they at least agreed upon that.

  His words came back to her. “You never wanted a child! You never even wanted to be a mother! Your selfishness is the reason Sophie is dead. If you had wanted her more, if you had loved her more, maybe she would still be here!” Brynn felt the venom of his words cutting through her like they did the first time that he said them. He blamed her for the loss of their beautiful daughter, and nothing that she could say or do could make him think differently.

  She didn’t want him to think differently.

  But she resented him for forcing her to decide to get pregnant in the first place. Even after he knew how afraid she was to be a mother, he still wanted to have a baby, and she knew that in order to keep him, she would have to concede.

  And now Sophie was gone, dead, buried over a year ago. And here they were, dividing their lives together as though it never even existed, as though it never mattered.

  Brynn agreed to everything that Ms. St. George proposed after that, and within an hour and a half, they were done.

  “Thank you, Ms. Michael. I know how difficult this must be for you.” Ms. St. George said smiling sympathetically. It was the first show of emotion that Brynn had seen from her.

  Mr. Black stood up, pushing his chair back from the table, and Brynn stood up next to him. Ms. St. George stood up and, even though they were some distance apart, Brynn could tell that she towered over her. Adam stood up slowly, his shoulders slumped, his eyes red from lack of sleep. Brynn knew that he was miserable, but there was nothing she could do for him anymore.

  “Mr. Black,” Ms. St. Georg
e said, nodding to him respectfully and putting her hand on Adam’s shoulder.

  “Ms. St. George, Mr. Michael.” Mr. Black nodded back.

  Adam looked slowly at Brynn. He missed her. But he couldn’t look at her any longer. She reminded him too much of Sophie, and he knew that if he stayed married to her that she would continue to remind him of his precious daughter that he lost, every day.

  They locked eyes for a moment, both of them fighting back tears. The sorrow in the room was evident. The room was use to hatred, anger, and resentment, but sorrow and love in this room were rare. Even the lawyers, who orchestrated these deals daily, squirmed. They could tell that there was still a great deal of love between Brynn and Adam, even if they were completely unaware.

  Adam and Ms. St. George walked out of the room slowly. Brynn avoided his eyes. She looked down at the floor and knew that she would only see him once more, in court. She realized that after that, she might never see her beautiful Adam ever again. There were no children to tie them together, and they just divided everything that had ever been between them.

  At least they were trying to keep it civil between them. The last night before Brynn left, Adam agreed to let her keep Maxie before the lawyers got involved. He had gotten Maxie for Brynn as a gift, and he wasn’t going to take him now. He knew that Brynn would need him for security since Adam was no longer going to be sleeping next to her.

  She had protested as he had expected her to. “I can’t keep Maxie. He’s our dog. Can’t we just… I don’t know, share custody of him?”

  “No. He’s yours. He was a gift.” Adam said in that strange monotone voice he had been using for months now. Brynn hadn’t grown accustomed to his lack of emotion, and it still cut her deeply.

  “But you love him, too. He loves you. He needs both of us.” Brynn argued.

  “He’s just a dog, Brynn. He’ll be fine,” Adam said as a matter of fact. “He’ll be fine. And besides…”

  Adam stopped.

  “Besides what?” Brynn said, prodding gently.