by Trisha Grace
Now, even though she didn’t want to admit it, the truth behind her silence was her hope to keep Dan from ever finding out what she had done.
She’d battled with the decision of telling Dan in order to end everything once and for all, but the resolve to do so always disappeared before it ever took root in her heart.
Each time she made up her mind to tell Dan, fear would creep in.
Fear, with its sneaky little voice, would tell her that Dan would never accept her after what she’d done, and he would be disgusted with her.
The little voice, which seemed ridiculous in the beginning, began to grow louder until she could no longer ignore it.
Soon, the voice in her mind dropped into her heart, and she was convinced that Dan would scorn her when he found out what had happened.
Though she was no longer seeing Dan, though they were never officially dating, she couldn’t bear the thought of Dan finding out her past. She couldn’t bear to see his reaction.
It didn’t take much for the fear to convince her that she was alone in this matter. No one, not Dan, not Kate, would want to be involved with her shady past.
Brusquely, she wiped the tears on the back of her hand and picked up her bag by the side of the table. Another trip to the bank was necessary.
Evelyn drove up the lone, single driveway that led to the mansion. Green, towering trees that stood throughout all seasons flanked both sides of the road. For a moment, her eyes flickered onto the trees. She forced herself to focus on the road and kept her eyes away from the never-ending woods.
Even after a year, Evelyn couldn’t get over how creepy and isolated the mansion was.
Whenever her eyes wandered to the trees, thoughts of someone or something suddenly appearing out of the forest to attack her would surface.
Even with her wild imagination aside, she hated the drive up to the mansion.
She wasn’t sure if it was the scenery of the impenetrable forest or the solitary drive, but a sense of melancholy always accompanied her on the drive.
If only Kate had chosen to live somewhere else, then she wouldn’t have to make this drive up every other day.
She tightened the grip on her steering wheel as she turned into the mansion and saw Dan’s car.
She hadn’t seen him for weeks, not since Kate went on her honeymoon, not since that day at the park. But that hadn’t stopped her from thinking about him.
She sighed, pushing the thoughts from her head.
They were no longer together, and for good reason.
Stepping out of the car, she strode up to the door and turned the knob. As expected, it wasn’t locked.
With so many people going in and out of the house, Marianne had made it a policy to leave the door unlocked during meal times.
Evelyn stepped through the doorway, and her entrance was immediately announced by the motion sensor alarm.
She didn’t understand why Tyler had bothered with that thing. The kitchen didn’t offer a direct view to the main door, so the alarm did nothing to indicate who was coming in. For all they knew, she could have been a burglar.
Strolling past the luggage in the living room, she headed straight into the kitchen.
She forced her lips into a wide grin. “Hey!”
Kate turned around with a blissful smile and gave her a hug. “Sit! I’m giving out the presents. These are yours,” Kate said, giving the two large paper bags on the oval dining table a slight nudge.
Without even looking, Evelyn knew it was probably two new branded bags.
Bags were her sole indulgence.
Having grown up with barely anything instilled some habits in her.
She always made sure she set aside more than half of her income in the bank. She didn’t go for expensive food and had been driving the same secondhand car for years.
But bags, she was always willing to cut back on other expenses for her bags.
She sat beside Kate and watched her dole out the presents to Dan and Marianne. It was strange to see so few people in the usually crowded kitchen.
Kate’s husband, Tyler, sat back against his chair with his arm draped lazily across Kate’s chair.
The past year had brought about many changes to all their lives.
A year ago, a will left behind by Tyler’s grandfather ended up bringing Kate and Tyler together. Along with Tyler, Dan, Ryan, and Joseph all tagged along. They had all become part of the regular people in her life now.
Besides Dan, she wasn’t close with any of the guys.
She wasn’t a sociable person in the first place. She was the sort who fared better at being alone than having to mingle with people. Having one friend was more than enough for her.
Her on and off relationship with Dan definitely didn’t help her score any points with the other guys as well.
Joseph, in particular, was exceptionally cold toward her. He never spoke to her directly unless necessary.
Even Ryan, the friendliest in the group, hadn’t warmed up to her.
But she did have to admit that everyone had been cordial with her for Kate’s sake. Even Marianne, Tyler’s housekeeper, who loved all the boys like her own children, never showed any disapproval of her despite the things she had going on with Dan.
Evelyn hadn’t meant to keep Dan in her craziness. Each time she had walked away from him, she’d promised herself that it was the last time and that she wouldn’t get involved with him again.
Logic and rationale told her that they weren’t meant to be. But each time she needed someone, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for her phone and calling Dan.
“How was the honeymoon?” Marianne asked.
As Kate launched into how perfect everything was, Evelyn stole a glance at Dan.
She hadn’t spoken to him since the whole blackmail began.
It was her decision, her own doing, but that didn’t stop her from missing him.
She smiled ruefully as Dan ran his hand through his blond hair, causing the sleeve of his shirt to inch up, revealing the muscles under it.
Though he wasn’t the largest guy in the group, his tendency to work alongside his men in his construction company had built quite a few sturdy muscles.
Dan hated folding up the long sleeves of his shirt. He hated having to pull the edge back down his elbow whenever he lifted his arms.
Her smile faded as the dull ache in her heart worsened.
All the details she remembered about him only reminded her of how happy she was whenever they were together.
But people like her didn’t get happily-ever-afters.
The blackmail she had been receiving was a reinforcement of the different world they belonged in.
Dan grew up in a complete family. They weren’t perfect, but at least he grew up safe.
The horrors she had gone through and the things she had done were beyond the worst nightmares that someone like Dan could ever imagine.
Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she reached into one of the paper bags on the table and took out the leather bag within. She twirled the new handbag, pretending to be examining it while her thoughts were consumed by the payment due later that night.
Money was draining out of her bank account faster than before. Just two days ago, she had paid off her blackmailer. Now, she was to prepare another three thousand dollars.
It had started out with a few hundred dollars. Within two weeks, her blackmailer had quickly upgraded the demands. Besides demanding more money, her blackmailer was increasing the frequency of the demands as well.
“You don’t like them?”
Kate’s voice broke her thoughts. Evelyn looked up and quickly gave her a small, pleasant smile. “You know I love them. I was just thinking about some stuff at work. Speaking of which, I brought some new projects that you might be interested in. They’re in my car, I’ll get them.”
Before anyone else could say another word, she was up from her chair and out of the kitchen, heading toward the main door.
Eve
lyn knew she wasn’t acting like her usual self very well. Before driving up to the mansion, she’d reminded herself to behave as normally as she could. Kate was particularly astute at picking up emotional disturbances in people, and Evelyn knew she had to be careful or Kate would be all over her.
She tried; she genuinely did. But it was difficult to keep up her smile with the apprehension of meeting a ghost that had latched onto her.
Halfway through the living room, she heard the familiar ringtone she had grown to dread.
Crap. She spun around and sprinted back toward the kitchen.
Why did she put down her phone to play with her new bag?
The moment she got back to the kitchen, she saw her phone in Kate’s hand.
Without thinking, Kate tapped on the screen and answered the call. “Hello?”
Evelyn’s eyes widened, and she snatched the phone from Kate’s hand. “Don’t pick up my calls.”
She could see the confusion on Kate’s face and felt the stares directed at her. She knew her strong reaction would appear to border along temporary insanity, especially when they all knew how close she was to Kate.
“I always answer your phone when you’re not around,” Kate stated hesitantly while Evelyn checked who the caller was.
“Stop doing that,” she hissed and headed out of the kitchen with the phone in her hand.
Hastening her steps, she exited the mansion. Once the door was closed behind her, she lifted the phone to her ear. “What do you want? I know I’m supposed to hand you three thousand dollars tonight.”
“Is that your friend?”
“What do you want?” Evelyn repeated, irate at the situation she was in and at how senseless she was behaving toward the only person who gave a damn about her.
“I changed my mind. I need five.”
“Don’t push it,” she said through clenched jaws.
“No, Evelyn, don’t push me. I’m sure you don’t want the-one-who-always-answers-your-calls-when-you-are-not-around to know what’s going on, right?”
Evelyn ended the call and clenched her phone. Boiling, but with nowhere to vent, she got into her car and began to beat up her steering wheel.
She slammed her arms against the steering wheel while jolts of pain shot up her arm. Though her hands became the eventual victims, her anger was slightly appeased.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she forced herself to take in a few deep breaths while her arms burnt with a dull pain.
After a minute, she rearranged her features into a carefully placed smile and got out of the car.
As she entered the kitchen, everyone kept their eyes on the food that was on the table, and no one said a word to her. Although they had all been polite to her, they had never been overly concerned about her.
Evelyn didn’t blame them. She was the one who kept everything to herself, and that had the tendency to keep everyone out.
In fact, she rather enjoyed people staying out of her business. It saved a lot of time and effort from explaining things that she’d rather not talk about.
Kate looked up from the table and smiled at her; a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
Behave normally. Evelyn sat and slotted her phone into her back pocket.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Kate staring at her arms, which were red and slightly purple at certain areas where bruises were beginning to form. She quickly pulled her hands back and placed them on her legs. She was certain that if she refused to speak about it, Kate wouldn’t pry it out of her, not right now anyway.
And she was right.
After a moment, Kate turned away from her and casually asked, “Where’s the work you mentioned?”
“Oh, right.” She got up, shaking her head at her absentmindedness. “I’ll get it.”
She turned and left the kitchen again. This time, she cast a brief glance over her shoulder; a glance long enough to see Dan staring at her. Their gaze held for a moment before she tore her eyes from him.
It pained her to see the questions, or maybe they were accusations, in his eyes.
Each time, she had only turned from Dan when he tried pushing her into a serious, committed relationship.
This time, she had simply shut him out of her life for what would appear to him as no apparent reason.
It was difficult to be so near to him and yet be so clearly separated that they might as well be a thousand miles apart. She wanted so badly to let him understand why she pulled away from him, but she could never find the words and didn’t know where to begin.
Taking the files from her car, she ran her finger down one side of the files while she kicked the door close.
This was exactly what she needed—work.
With Kate being on honeymoon for the past few weeks, as her business partner, Evelyn should have been free as a bird. Instead, she scoured through the projects handled by the different teams they had and insisted on custom making pieces of furniture that were readily available in stores.
She had even begun trying her hands at keeping a good set of accounts, something she’d always avoided at all cost.
Her work was the one escape that kept her from thinking how screwed up the other aspects of her life were.
“Here are the few I thought you might be interested in. If you don’t want them, we can assign them to the teams. Let me know,” she said the moment she got back to the kitchen. “I have to go.”
“Where are you going?” Kate asked as she took the files, her eyes staring intently at Evelyn.
Pausing by the chair, Evelyn hesitated a moment. A moment that turned the curiosity on Kate’s face into suspicion.
“Nowhere,” Evelyn quickly said. “I just need to run some errands.”
Be casual, Evelyn reminded herself.
She smiled and gave Kate a pat on her shoulders. “See you tomorrow.”
Not giving Kate a chance to ask another question, Evelyn grabbed her bag and presents, made sure she kept a smile on her face, then left without saying goodbye.
Chapter 2
Dan forced himself to keep his eyes on his plate instead of looking up at Evelyn’s disappearing figure.
“What’s wrong with her?” Kate asked. “You haven’t gone out with her since we went on our honeymoon?”
He pushed the food around on his plate as he looked up at Kate. “Something like that.” He tried to speak as nonchalantly as possible, but when he saw Kate’s lips thinning, he realized he wasn’t doing a terrific job of concealing his feelings.
Months before the wedding, someone had set fire to Kate’s house; a fire that almost killed both Kate and Evelyn. Immediately after, Evelyn retreated into her shell, barely speaking to him.
He’d thought that experiencing a life and death situation would bring about the epiphany of living life to the fullest and treasuring people she loved. Either that was a whole load of crap or Evelyn just wasn’t like normal people.
Evelyn’s cold-shoulder treatment toward him continued until the preparations for Kate and Tyler’s wedding kicked into high gear. The planning for the wedding and the renovation of the mansion forced them to work together.
It was clear that whenever they were together, they couldn’t get enough of each other.
It was undeniable that they had terrific chemistry.
Whenever they were working together or going out on a date, they would spend half the night laughing away, and time always flew by way too quickly.
But despite all the laughter they shared, there was always an invisible barrier between them—the past she refused to speak of.
He didn’t mind. He believed that with time she would trust him enough to tell him what happened, and he was willing to wait.
When Evelyn wasn’t busy pulling away from him or being all mysterious, she had a genuinely open and candid personality. He had never met anyone like her before.
He hadn’t been with many women in his life. The two most prominent ones were already too much for him to handle. Throughout his li
fe, his dramatic mother never spoke her mind and loved resorting to theatrics to instill guilt in him. Guilt was his mother’s sole weapon of manipulating him into doing things her way.
Unfortunately, that unbearable characteristic had passed down to his sister as well.
Evelyn’s frankness was a refreshing change. She had no problem telling the truth about anything, and they could chat about everything under the sun; everything except relationships and her past.
Each time he spoke of something that had happened when he was young, she’d laugh at his anecdote but never reveal any of hers. On the occasions when Dan asked about her childhood, she would clam up and simply state that there wasn’t much to talk about.
Though they weren’t officially in a relationship, they spent all their time together and didn’t date anyone else.
But Dan wasn’t satisfied with their ambiguous status.
He knew what he wanted in life. He wasn’t one of those who had flings and left a trail of broken hearts behind. He took each relationship he had seriously.
With Evelyn, he didn’t even know if what they had qualified to be considered a relationship.
They always had a great time, and he couldn’t think of any reason why they shouldn’t be together.
But whenever he tried to push Evelyn into a relationship, she’d push as well; she would push him away. All communications would cease to exist between them, and she would treat him as if he never existed.
Initially, everyone assumed they had a fight and were in a cold war. Dan never explained to them either. How was he supposed to explain when he had no idea what was going on?
A week later, sometimes longer sometimes shorter, she would call in the middle of the night and ask to meet up for supper. They would then begin to talk and go out again until Dan took another shot at pushing her into a relationship.
After so many cycles of the ridiculous routine, he thought he would have gotten used to it.
He tapped his fork against the plate, then pushed it away.
Everyone, especially Marianne, had been asking him about the situation between Evelyn and him. To get himself out from the need to answer the questions, he had adopted Tyler’s classic style of shrugging then keeping his lips locked.