Eve clung to Julian with all her might. She wasn’t dreaming; he was really here. He was here? She pulled back, brushing her tears away. “Julian, how did you find me? How did you get in here? I told you….”
“You told me not to look for you,” he remarked, his teary eyes boring into hers. “Did you really believe I wouldn’t?”

“Did Lexie call you?”

“Lexie? Your friend, Dr. Carver? No, she didn’t. Had she called me, I would have been here a lot sooner.” He shook his head and released a weary breath. “You have no idea how hard it was to locate you.”

“I do know. It was supposed to be impossible. I didn’t want you to find me. I never used any credit cards or anything.”

“So, your call from the airport was….”

“Just a call. I took a plane from Boston to Salem and I paid cash. I wasn’t flying off anywhere when I called you; I was arriving. I hung up because I didn’t want you to know I was at an airport. How did you find me?”

“Private detectives and computer hackers. You went to University Hospital yesterday and had a prescription filled at the hospital pharmacy. Your name and social security number were put into the computer and that’s how I found you.” His hand closed over her abdomen. “I know, Eve,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I know everything.”

Tears dripped from her eyes. She fled from the couch. “No.”

She felt his eyes on her as she rushed over to the window. The pitter-patter of raindrops against the windowpane had a calming effect. She pressed her forehead to the cool glass. If only she could run out into the rain and wash away the horrible memories of that night.

“Eve, please, don’t run away from me.” The heels of his Italian loafers clicked against the hardwood floors as he made his way to her. “I’ve been so scared for you. It’s okay now. I promise, nothing can hurt you anymore. Nothing will hurt your child. I won’t let it.”

His touch on her shoulder toppled her already overloaded emotions. More tears fell. She turned to him. “You can’t make that promise, Julian. I wish you could, but you can’t.” TC’s threat resonated in her head. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I should be wherever you are.”

“No, TC said he would….”

“Would what?! I’m not afraid of that bastard!”

She took his hand, leading him to the door. “You have to go.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Eve. I should have never let you confront TC without me. It’s my fault.” He covered his face with his hands. “It’s my fault he hurt you.”

“Julian, no.” She pulled his hands away and wiped his streaming tears. “Look, none of this is your fault. Please, don’t blame yourself.”

“Who else is there to blame?”

Her weeks of anguished tears, guilt, and shame came to a head at that moment. “TC,” she murmured, sinking against the wall until her bottom hit the floor. “This is all TC’s fault.” Julian sat next to her on the floor, securing her in his loving arms. “I can’t stop thinking about that night.”

“Shhh,” he whispered into her hair, soothing her with comforting strokes. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“Yes, I do.” She drew a deep breath, holding it in her lungs for several seconds before letting it go with a heavy sigh. “I came home, and TC was waiting for me at the door. He was behaving so strangely. I called him on it, but he just shrugged it off to wanting to greet his wife after her hard day at work. A long, hard, pounding day at work.” She chuckled humorlessly. “I should have known something then.”

“Eve.”

“Let me do this, Julian.”

He closed his eyes. “All right. All right.”

“He told me that Simone was spending the night with Kay and that Liz went to Boston overnight so we’d have the house to ourselves. I was going to tell him about us, so I thought this was good, we’d be alone to talk about everything. Then he said we could talk later, and he stroked my cheek. I flinched from his touch. He grabbed me. Julian, he held me so tight, and he said that as his wife there was certain duties I had to perform. I told him I was tired, and that’s when he said -- he said, and I quote, ‘Well, I imagine a marathon fu***ng session with Julian Crane will do that,’ end quote.”

“Oh, Eve,” he said a breath above a whisper. She took the handkerchief Julian offered and dabbed her tears.

“Take your time, my love. There’s no rush,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

“I know. I’m okay. I can do this.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“I tried to get away from him, but the more I tried the tighter his hold became.” Tears seeped from Julian’s eyes as he listened to her painful monologue. “TC’s face was different. He looked like a different person. Like a monster.” She fiddled with one corner of the handkerchief. “He threw me to the couch and called me a slut. He unloosened his belt buckle and said if I wanted to be a slut, he would treat me like one.”

Eve’s tears flowed faster and her sobs grew louder. But Julian was being her rock, as he’d proven himself to be time and again over the past months. He extended calming words, a strong shoulder, and a comforting hand to hold. “My darling, you don’t have to put yourself through this tonight. I’m not going anywhere. This is not good for you right now. You mustn’t exhaust yourself.”

“Exhaust? She scoffed, shaking her head. “This is not exhausting. Exhausting was that night. That, Julian, was exhausting….”
 

~Flashback~
 

“TC, stop! Don’t do this.”

He unsnapped the button of his jeans, but left the zipper in tact. The full force of his body came down on hers. “I bet you don’t tell Crane stop. You just shut the hell up and be the whore you so enjoy being with Julian.” He covered her mouth with his, pressing his lips painfully against hers. He tugged at the buttons of her shirt while she struggled beneath him.

“Don’t. No, TC. Stop. Please, don’t.”

He glared down at her. There was no emotion in his eyes. Just complete darkness. She had never seen him so empty, so totally unfeeling. “I’m going to take what’s mine. What you gave to Julian Crane.” He pulled the shirt off her shoulder, ripping the material and popping the first three buttons in the process. The strap of her bra detached, exposing her left breast.

Eve continued to squirm. Tears blurred her vision, her heart threatened to burst out her chest. She couldn’t believe this. He was going to rape her. “TC, stop!” she begged.

He pressed her shoulder into the couch. “Stay the hell still!” he warned, his fingertips digging into the flesh at her shoulder. “When I’m ready for you to move, I’ll tell you.” His angry mouth clamped down on her breast. He was so rough. His tongue hard, his teeth gnawing.

“TC, you’re hurting me.”

“I don’t care! I want you to hurt like I hurt watching you with Julian.” He brought his lips down on hers again. She moved her face, causing him to direct his unwanted kisses wherever they would land. His hands slid to the apex of outstretched legs.

“Stop!” she yelled, scoring both sides of his face with her fingernails.

He withdrew slightly, enough for her to draw up her legs and pressed them closer together. His eyes flew to hers. “I bet you don’t do that with Crane when he goes for the goods.” He shoved her folded legs to one side. Hovering over her body, he pinned her hands above her head with his left hand. “Come on, Eve. Pretend I’m Julian. Spread your legs for me like you did for him today,” TC coaxed menacingly, using his right hand to separate her joined knees as she fought to keep them together.

Eve continued to plead with him. “No. Don’t, don’t do this,” she begged, but it was futile. After a while, she saved her breath. He would not stop, and she was growing so tired. Spasms shot up and down her legs, and her arms were stiff above her head. There was no talking to him. This was not the man she married. The father of her beautiful girls, the man she loved as a life partner and friend for over twenty years. No, this was a man she didn’t know, a man who would rape her. This couldn’t happen. This couldn’t happen!

She was on the loosing end of the battle to keep her legs together. A lecherous grin turned the corners of his lips. “That’s it. Open up for me.”

At the moment he attempted to slide between her partially spread thighs, she kneed him in the groin as hard as she could. He screamed in agony and fell to floor with a resounding thud. His body curled in a ball as he writhed in pain. Eve scurried to the far corner of the couch, hugging her legs against her body and praying that TC wouldn’t be able to finish what he tried to start.

~End Flashback~
 

“You, you kneed him?” Julian stammered.

“As hard as I could. It stopped him. He was still very angry. He unleashed an onslaught of hateful words my way, but he didn’t…he didn’t rape me, but not from lack of trying,” she said, hot tears branding her cheeks.

Julian released a relieved breath. “Oh, Eve,” he drew her close in his arms. “I’m so glad you were spared that horrible fate.”

She pulled away and looked him in the eyes. “I wonder if I was spared.”

Julian shook his head. “I don’t -- I don’t understand. How can you question that?”

“TC didn’t rape me physically, but emotionally…. Julian, he took everything from me. When I said I loved TC, I meant that. No, I don’t love him like I love you, but I shared a life with him for over twenty years.” She made no attempt to wipe away her tears, needing to feel them, needing to feel everything. “I trusted him. I always knew he had a temper, but I never thought for one second he would turn that temper on me. I was afraid in my own house. In my house, Julian. I had to fight my husband, in our home, to keep him from raping me.” Shaky hands covered her mouth as the full scope of that evening hit her head on. “Oh, my God. TC tried to rape me.”

Julian sniffled. “Oh, my love.” He cradled Eve in his arms as she dissolved in a mass of hysterical tears.