“It’s hard to say,” she replied. “Sometimes a week. Sometimes months. In the meantime, you’ll not be allowed to set foot on the premises until we call you back with our decision.”
I stood up. “With all due respect, Belinda, you have this all wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong. This is not fair at all.”
“If you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about,” she replied, in a feeble attempt to calm me down.
The only evidence they had was Caroline’s word against mine, and she was a master manipulator who could paint the most compelling case against me. I was toast.
“I’m sorry,” I said, apologizing for my outburst. My face grew hot as I blinked away my tears. “I was so looking forward to working here. I just moved here, and…”
Belinda stood, her face softening ever so slightly. “I understand, Evie. Again, if you didn’t do anything wrong, you shouldn’t get upset. We’ll call you, okay?”
I walked quickly out of Belinda’s office, my head hung low as I fished my phone from my pocket and headed to the nearest stairwell. My fingers trembled as I scrolled through my phone.
“Jude?” I said, my voice cracking as he answered my call. “I need you to come pick me up.”
25
JUDE
“Here’s your water. You want anything else?” I stared down at Evie, her blue eyes swollen and cheeks ruddy from crying. She tugged on my comforter bringing it just below her neck and rolled onto her side.
“Can you close the curtains? Make it dark in here,” she said meekly. “I just want to sleep.”
Less than an hour ago, I’d dropped her off at work. Now she was buried in my bed, a shell of the girl she was just a day ago. I wanted to tell her she didn’t need to worry about money. I wanted to tell her she was a fucking multi-millionaire, but I had to take care of a couple of things first. My plan was a row of carefully-placed dominoes.
I sat her water on the nightstand and closed the curtains shutting out every hint of daylight that attempted to break through. I stepped out of the room, shutting the door quietly, and headed to the sofa to get some work done.
“Is Evie here?” Carys said, sauntering out of Jax’s room. By the looks of her bedhead and oversized t-shirt, she’d stayed the night again. “I thought I heard her voice.”
“Yeah,” I said. “She lost her job today.”
“What do you mean she lost her job today?” Her jaw dropped as her hand flew to her hip.
“I think my mother might have filed a complaint against Evie,” I sighed, frustrated. “She’s trying to make it look like Evie had improper relations with Julian.”
“How’d your mom know Evie was working at Cedars?” Carys asked.
“Excellent question,” I said, being honest for once. “I have no idea.”
Carys dragged her feet to the kitchen fixing two bowls of fruity cereal and taking them back to Jax’s lair.
I returned my focus to my laptop and checked my ever-growing inbox. That thing buried me half the time. I’d take care of five emails, and ten more would show up. I scrolled through, deleting the junk and flagging the others as ones I’d deal with later until my cursor stopped on the email from my mother.
I thought I deleted that one?
I clicked on it. It was a new one from the night before.
I’LL BE IN TOWN TOMORROW.
-MOTHER
“Shit, shit, shit.” I raked my fingers through my hair and then dragged my hands down my face. I kicked myself for not seeing that sooner.
What the fuck was I going to do?
I spent the morning feverishly ensuring that my little plan was in place. Veronica needed to sign the papers my attorney had sent her selling off her shares of the company for a million. And then I could meet with a team of investors who were all bidding on J-Corp. I was going to sell it for seven million which would pay off my mother and give me enough of a cushion to start up a new company on my own.
A knock on the door told me that my entire plan was about to come crumbling down. I ignored it. I knew who it was.
But the knocking continued. Harder. Faster. Not going away anytime soon.
I moved to the door checking the peephole and confirming what I already knew. The Ice Queen had arrived, and she wasn’t going anywhere until she had her words with me. I pulled the heavy door open with reluctance as I forced ice water through my veins.
“What are you doing here?” I gritted.
She brushed past me squeezing her lithe frame between my obstructing position and the door frame. “I’m just checking on our little arrangement. You haven’t been returning my calls. Or my texts. Or my emails.”
She walked around my place like she’d been there before even though she hadn’t. It was a miracle she’d found the place. I had scrubbed my info from every search database I could years ago. She had to have rifled through Julian’s things to find my address.
“Look, things have changed,” I said, keeping my voice down. The vast ceilings and open plan carried every little sound, and the last thing I wanted was for Evie to wake up to this. “There is no arrangement anymore.”
“Ah, I see how it is,” Caroline snickered, placing one bony hand on her rail-thin hip, her blue eyes freezing on me. “She’s dug her little claws into you, too. I told you she’s nothing but a cheap whore. A gold digger.”
“I couldn’t disagree with you more, Mother.” I hated calling her that. She was never a mother—not to me—and I’d never forgot the day we found out Julian was sick. She cried into my father’s shoulder sobbing that it ‘should’ve been Jude’ and ‘why did it have to happen to her sweet baby boy?’
“She married Julian for his money, and now she’s after you,” she argued. “It’s plain as day. Why can’t you see that? Are you that big of an imbecile?”
“She didn’t marry him for his money,” I said, fists clenched. I lowered my voice even more. “She doesn’t know about the bank account. She thinks she’s destitute right now.”
“It’s all an act, Jude!” my mother practically yelled.
“Keep your voice down!” I growled at her. “She thinks all she has is the house. She actually found a job out here until you ruined it.”
“What are you talking about?” Caroline sneered, her eyes scanning me up and down like I was a crazy person. “I didn’t even know she lived out here.”
“Don’t lie. God, it’s just one lie after another with you,” I said, letting my head fall back in frustration.
“Do not call me a liar,” she said, walking up and slapping her cold hand across my cheek leaving a raw sting across my flesh that forced me to believe her. “I was going to tell you she was shacking up with some new young man in the house that Julian bought her back home.”
I scratched my five o’clock shadow, the bristles tickling my fingertips. If she thought Evie was shacking up with a new man, she couldn’t have known she was living in LA and working at Cedars. “That’s her renter.”
“Renter?” Caroline drew the word out, giving it thought. “Such a little opportunist. Can’t say I’m surprised.”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” I said.
“You’re naïve,” Caroline sneered. “And it makes me sick, Jude.”
“You’re just mad that you’re wrong.”
“I’m never wrong about anyone,” Caroline said. “You forget, I’ve been around a lot longer than you. I’ve seen what money does to people.”
“Exactly,” I muttered under my breath. “It brings out the worst in them.”
“Oh, God,” Caroline sighed, leaning against the marble kitchen island as if she didn’t have the strength to stand any longer. “This poor little mongrel has swooped into our family taking our millions. And what am I left with? A dead son and another who thinks that wench is a perfect little angel.”
“No one’s perfect.” I eyed my bedroom door praying Evie wasn’t awake and listening. “But she’s not what you’re making her out to be. She’s just a nice gi
rl.”
“She’s an opportunist, Jude,” she said curtly. “Wake up. Don’t be such a damn moron.”
“She’s not.” I wasn’t budging.
“Since you’re failing our little project miserably, I have no other choice but to cut you off financially,” Caroline said. “I’m selling my shares for pennies on the dollar, effective immediately. You’ll need to find a new investor.”
“What’s going on?” a soft voice interrupted us from the hallway.
“Evie,” I said, rushing to her side.
Caroline stood firm not backing down in Evie’s presence and showing that she meant every word.
“I heard everything,” Evie said, her lips trembling as her blue eyes burned into Caroline. I reached over, touching Evie’s arm, but she jerked away. “You disgust me. Both of you.” She wouldn’t look at me.
“Evie,” I said, reaching for her again. “It’s not how it looks.”
I turned to Caroline who stood frozen in place watching our interactions and desperately trying to prove herself right.
“You need to leave,” I said to Caroline, a boom in my voice leaving an unspoken or else.
She spun on her pointed heels showing herself out as she kept her head high, forever in the right in her mind. The door slammed behind her echoing through the open space and letting us know the witch was gone.
“Jude,” Evie said, tears pooling in her big blue eyes. Life had dealt her blow after blow after blow, the latest one being me. “How could you?”
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in close, though my embrace was one-sided. She kept her arms at her side, her cheek pressed against my chest. She could probably feel my heart thumping. The idea of losing her scared the hell out of me.
“Let me explain,” I said softly, burying my face in her soft, dark hair. I slid my arms down her side clasping my hand in her limp hand and pulling her back to my room.
She sat on the edge of my bed, crossing her arms, still refusing to look at me.
“You lied to me, Jude,” she said, her voice breaking. “You said you’d never hurt me.” She peered up at me through her dark lashes, tears trailing down her soft cheeks. “You’ve hurt me more than anyone else has in the entire world.”
I took a seat next to her wanting more than anything to hold her and assure her that it was all a misunderstanding. But it wasn’t. She saw the real me. She saw the truth. There was no going back now.
“You want the truth?” I said, manning up.
She nodded, wiping her eyes. “Please.”
“The truth,” I said, drawing in a deep breath. “The truth is, Julian did email me and asked me to take care of you. He wanted me to tell you he had a will. Evie, his entire trust fund was left to you.”
“What?” Evie asked, almost in disbelief.
“Caroline called me the day he died,” I said. “That’s how I knew. And she asked me to come home and do a little digging on you. She told me not to tell you about the trust fund. She bribed me with millions, Evie, and I agreed like a goddamn idiot.”
“Why?”
“Does it even matter at this point?” Nothing I could say would change what I’d done. None of my reasons would justify anything to her. I knew that.
Evie shook her head, turning her face from me and wiping her eyes as the tears continued to fall.
“You let me fall in love with you,” she said, her voice barely audible. “You did all these things. You saved me from myself. From my shitty Haverford, Kansas life. You brought me here and swept me off my feet. And it was all one big fucking lie after another.”
She stood to leave, but I grabbed her wrist, pulling her back into the bed.
“I’m not done, Evie.” I reached across turning her face to meet mine, though the sight of her pretty blue eyes dripping with tears cut me like a knife. “I’m going to fight for us. I’m going to make this right.”
“I loved you, Jude,” she said. “I loved you when you couldn’t even love yourself.”
“I know.”
“I always wondered why there was so much self-loathing and self-hatred behind your eyes,” she said. “And now I know. And I think a small part of you hates me for making you feel something your icebox heart didn’t know how to feel.”
I grimaced, my heart heavy and flooded with decades worth of emotions I’d always shoved away.
“I hate that you’re more patient than me. I hate that you’re more forgiving. I hate that you’re a better person than me, Evie.” I stared her straight in her beautifully broken eyes. “And I hate that you love me when I know I don’t deserve you. But I don’t hate you, Evie. I never could.”
She closed her eyes letting my words wash over her.
“I hate that I can’t control the way I feel about you,” I said. The words didn’t come easy, but they came from my heart. I knew they were real. I knew this was real love. If Evie walked out my door and I never saw her again, I’d die. That was how I knew. I’d never felt that way about any girl before.
“Show me the letter,” she said, drying her eyes and sticking out her hand. I pulled it from my wallet where it had been folded and refolded a hundred times. She didn’t look at it. She just shoved it in her pocket and stood up to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“Home,” she said.
“Wait, so that’s it?”
“I need some space, Jude.” She averted her eyes, wrapping her arms around her waist. “Can you give me some space right now?”
“Fair enough,” I lamented. “Can I drive you home?”
“I need to walk,” she said, lingering in my presence for a moment before softly padding out the door. The click of the front door a minute later told me she was gone.
26
EVIE
I held it in on my walk home past the honking cars, past the Chinese takeout restaurants, past the bikers and dog walkers, and past all the people out and about, living their lives as if everything was fine and dandy.
I lost it the second I turned the door handle to my condo. My knees hit the floor, the carpet burning into them as I fell into a fractured heap on the ground. I missed Julian. I missed being loved. I missed being happy and looking forward to the future. I missed knowing my place in the world and not fluttering around like a paper sack in the wind desperately hoping for something solid to catch me.
I crawled across the floor, my body nearly too weak to move, and climbed up to the sofa grabbing the throw blanket and dragging it across me. Julian’s letter practically burned a hole in my pocket, but for some reason, I was afraid to read it. Afraid of what it may or may not say.
I reached into my pocket, my fingers tracing the creases of the soft, worn paper, and pulled it out. I took a deep breath and squinted, my blurry eyes trying to make out the faded words printed on the paper.
Dear Jude,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to tell you that I have recently married the love of my life, Evelyn Grace Cawthorn. She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and she’s made me happier than I could have ever imagined. She has given me a second chance at life, she has shown me what unconditional love is, and she has been my angel here on earth.
As you know, the twilight of my life is upon us, and my time is almost done. Evie takes great care of me, but there are things beyond her control—beyond everyone’s control. If it is God’s will that I leave her soon, I have some final requests.
Please make sure that she is well cared for and looked after. Please make sure she never has to want for a single thing in her life. And above all else, please make sure she is loved. I trust you will be able to handle these things for me.
Lastly, I need you to tell her that my last will and testament is at the Stone, Mutcher, and Beatty Law Firm in Haverford.
Your brother,
Julian
My fingers traced over the ink on the paper. I could practically hear his voice. His words were so vivid and clear. The love he had for me, undeniable
and unwavering, floated from every sentence and dried my tears.
I tucked the letter under my pillow, never letting it slip from my hand, and shut my eyes.
“I miss you, Julian,” I sighed, letting the sadness swallow me whole. It was the only thing I was sure of at that moment—that I missed him. I missed every damn thing about him.
The click of the front door indicated Carys was home. I popped up from the sofa, the warm orange sunset spilling in from the window telling me I’d slept most of the day away.
“You’re home,” I said. “Not staying with Jax tonight?”
“I wanted to check on you,” Carys said, slipping her shoes off and taking a seat next to me on the couch. “You okay?”
I sat up, shaking my head. “Not really.”
She slipped a comforting arm around me. She’d always been more than a best friend. She was the big sister I’d never had and always needed.
“I’m going back home for a bit,” I said. I never thought I’d be saying those words so soon. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Don’t worry about the rent. I’ll still take care of everything.”
Carys cocked her head to the side, her baby blue eyes sympathetic yet confused. “If I book some modeling jobs, you won’t need to worry about it, okay? I’ll figure something out. How long are you planning to be gone?”
I shrugged, taking in a deep breath. The chilled air both refreshed me and filled me with stark loneliness all at the same time. “I have some things to take care of. I’ll let you know.”
“You going to tell Jude?” Carys asked with a wince.
I nodded. “Of course.”
“We heard everything,” she admitted, rolling her eyes. “His mother is evil.”
“You don’t think he did anything wrong?”
The End of Everything - Garner-Willoughby Brothers Duet Book Two Page 13