“I love how you set up this place.”
Eve smiled at her mother and then drank a sip of her coffee so she wouldn’t give herself away. She had nothing to do with this house but all night she’d had to listen to her parents tell her how much they loved it.
Her father had settled into a comfortable one-seater near the fire and had already dozed off in the middle of watching his TV shows. The more she had seen how independent he had become in this house the harder it was for her to admit to them that she didn’t know if this would be forever.
Was Roman really giving them this house? Or was this another of his tricks? Was he going to pull the rug out from under her parents because she had left him again?
“We haven’t signed the paperwork yet. Your lawyers said they will be back tomorrow after we have read through everything,” Tessa continued. “Are you sure about this, Evie? I mean you know we loved this house before all this work was done on it, but it should stay in your name.”
She set her mug down and hugged her mother.
“You and dad deserve this house,” she said, swallowing her tears.
“I was so scared for you, Eve. The way you spoke about Roman before, and what he had done to you. I was scared he would hurt you more this time,” Tessa whispered. “After I read what Pam said, maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he’s not a no-good bastard. But my opinion of him doesn’t count so I’m going to stay out of it. Maybe he’ll be the one you grow old with.”
Her mother looked at her dad with a smile on her face as she said that last part, and she felt the pain well up in her chest. That would never happen for her. She would die single than to ever risk feeling like that again. Vivian and Esther were welcome to Roman and all his lies.
“Maybe,” she whispered.
“Just be careful, okay?”
It was too late.
Before she broke down again, she kissed her mother’s cheek and stood up. She was struggling to hold everything in.
“I’m going to sleep. I have an early start tomorrow, you’ll probably still be sleeping.”
“You can’t stay for breakfast?”
“Sorry, mum. I’ll be back soon to check on you guys.”
“Okay. There’s a spare set of keys in one of the kitchen drawers. You can let yourself out,” her mother said with a smile.
Eve held her tears in as she walked up the stairs. And maybe she was a glutton for punishment because she went to the main bedroom where she had woken up in Roman’s arms on their last morning here. Before Pam’s story had hit the papers and set the course of their relationship down this road.
She lay down on the bed fully dressed and the sobs wrenched out of her as if she hadn’t already cried her weight in tears.
Fucking Roman Ashfield.
Why did he think it was still okay to push into her life like this after what he had done? Did he really have no consideration for other people’s feelings?
She didn’t know what time she fell asleep but it was still dark when she opened her eyes and dragged herself to the shower to get ready to leave. She didn’t want her mother to see her if she decided to get up and make her some food, anyway. Her eyes were swollen and her face felt puffy. Her mother would know straight away that everything she had said before was bullshit.
She looked through the kitchen drawers for the keys and then walked out of the house quietly without being seen. She had already fished her car keys out of her bag when she remembered Phillip had removed the number plates so she couldn’t get tracked down. She had no idea where he had put them.
She huffed as she wrapped her coat tighter around herself and walked down the driveway. So now she had access to two cars but couldn’t use them. By the time the first bus came down the road she was frozen and cursing Roman’s name. Like her tears, her anger was on and off and would probably be like that for a while. But she had walked back into Roman’s life with her eyes wide open. She had known she would walk away when things calmed down in the papers. So why was she hurting as if she hadn’t seen this coming? Roman was who he was, nothing would ever change that.
While sitting with her head against the cold window on the bus, she pulled her phone out. Something her mother had said had been playing on her mind since last night. She’d read the article that Pam had sold? And that had somehow made her believe the lies that Roman had sold to the world?
Maybe it was time she read it, too, so she wouldn’t have to always wonder why her betrayal had been worth so much money.
Pam’s article was one of the top searches when she typed her name.
From Waitress To Princess…
The lies started from the very first sentence with the statement that she and Pam were best friends. And then Pam recalled the first night Roman had come to the restaurant, and she lied that she had been the one to serve him. And then Roman had told her he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish her shift so he could take her home.
All lies. Why had Pam said all of this? Just to get her name in the paper?
She shook her head as she scrolled down the article. And then her finger stopped on one sentence.
‘I love her. I hope she’ll take pity on me and become my wife because I’m nothing without her.’
Her heart squeezed in her chest as she put the phone back into her pocket without reading any more.
Why would Roman have allowed this to be printed? So he could get her hopes up that he finally felt the same way? So that she would do whatever he wanted in the name of love? How could anyone be such a callous bastard to dangle something like this in her face when he knew… he knew how much she loved him?
Like she would ever believe that he would say anything like that. She wasn’t even his girlfriend and the article made it seem as if they were on the brink of an engagement.
Instead of going home when she got off the bus, she waited until the employment agencies opened up so she could look for a temporary job. She would keep herself busy until she went back to university. She would keep Roman out of her life no matter what.
She had just come from filling in an application form when her phone rang.
“Hi, mum. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, we’re fine. Your dad and I were just talking and we think that, if Roman wants to be a part of your life, maybe it’s time we met him face to face,” Tessa said.
What?
“Um… You know he’s very busy_”
“Yes, but we think you should bring him here for Christmas.”