Eve lay awake quietly with her eyes closed as she thought of a way to escape Carlo. From what she could tell, a few days had passed since the night he kissed her and it looked like he wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get her to the hospital. No matter what he did to try to get her well, whatever she had wasn’t going away and that frightened her. Kellen and William had gotten sick around same time she did, and yet, she didn’t know if they were fine or not. No matter what happened to her, she had to find out if her children were okay.

Carlo sat patiently in his living room listening to the nurse, he paid off at Harmony General, explain Eve’s condition to him. From what he heard so far, Eve’s sons had high levels of mercury in their systems and that it was likely that Eve had it as well. He also learned that her oldest son William was doing much better but that her youngest son Kellen was still touch and go.

‘So that’s why Eve has been in so much pain as of lately.’ He thought.

Once the nurse told him everything he needed to know, he told her to bring him back everything he would need to get Eve feeling better and that he would double the amount of money he had already paid her. The nurse greedily accepted and told him that when she returned, she would teach him how to do everything correctly as well.

Getting up from his chair, he stretched his stiff back then walked out of the living room, through the hallway and straight to the room that Eve was staying in. But once he opened the door, he got the shock of his life…

Eve wasn’t there.

For the next few days, the disappearances of Julian and Eve Crane were all over the news stations as well the conditions of the two Crane boys. To say Ivy was concerned about Eve and Julian would be an understatement; she was beyond concerned, she was down right panicky! Eve was seriously ill and they couldn’t find her and Julian was being held hostage by that crazy ass Rebecca Osborne. Marco tried to reassure her that he would find them both, but Ivy wasn’t listening.

Marco on the other hand was just as concerned as Ivy was, but he needed to stay focus on the matter at hand. He knew for a fact that Rebecca Osborne had Julian and he knew for a fact that Carlo was involved in whatever happened to Eve.

The day before he went to visit Carlo and asked him a few questions about Eve’s disappearance. From the first words Carlo spoke, Marco knew he was lying. Carlo tried his best to deny Marco the truth, but Marco wasn’t having that. That day, for the first ever, was the day that Marco beat the living hell out of his younger brother. He literally beat Carlo to within an inch of his miserable life. This time Carlo had went too far and Marco wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. The first time he got away with what he did to Eve, but this second time…oh hell no! He told Carlo that if anything bad happened to Eve while she was in her state of condition, he would finish what he started.

Now he knew that Carlo had taken Eve, but somehow in her weakened condition she managed to escape. With this bit of new information, he gave his men new instructions. Before the end of the week, he would find Eve but until then he prayed to God that she was alright.

Thinking that he could handle Rebecca quick and easy had been Julian’s downfall. How was he to know that, while he was unconscious, she had chained one of his feet to the foot of the bed? The moment he tried to run up on her, he was met hard face first by the floor below him. That had been two days ago and he was still trying to grab hold of her.

“Damn it Rebecca, you let me loose this instant!” Julian shouted as he pulled on the chain.

“No.” she simply said.

“Eve needs me. Our children need me.”

“The b*tch and those bastard children of hers can die for all I care.” She scoffed. “And when they do, then we can start a family of our own.”

“You sick, twisted tramp.”

“Sticks and stones Julian.”

“Let me go now!” Julian shouted again.

“The answer is still the same…no.”

“When I free myself from this chain, you’re gonna wish you were never born.” He sneered.

The first thing Eve noticed when she had awakened this time was that she wasn’t in Carlo’s apartment anymore. The second thing she noticed was that the clothes she was wearing had rips in them, exposing some of her skin. And the last thing she noticed…well actually felt was every muscle in her body still hurt.

“Oh God…” she moaned out painfully and closed up eyes as tears started falling down her face.

The pain had gotten to the point where it almost felt as if her body was completely numb. Taking a deep breath, Eve opened her eyes once more then slowly and somewhat painfully sat up straight. Once she was up, Eve looked around and realized that she was in the park across the street from Ivy’s house. Standing up carefully on wobbly legs, Eve slowly began walking towards Ivy’s house. With every step she took, it felt like her legs would crumble beneath her, but she had to suck up it up and move on.

Ivy was lying down on the couch in her living room looking like a total disaster. Her eyes were bloodshot from all of the crying she had been doing and her hair looked like a tornado wrecked havoc on it. Fifteen minutes ago, she was on the phone talking to Dr. Samuels about Kellen’s condition. He told her that Kellen had taken a turn for the worst and that he wasn’t sure if the boy would make through the night. It felt like she had been hit by a freight train. If or when Julian and Eve were found, how was she…how was she going to tell them that their youngest son was going to die?

Carlo had just checked himself out of the hospital a few minutes ago. He just couldn’t get over the fact that his own brother had almost killed him yesterday…and that he didn’t even feel any remorse for what he almost did! When he recovered, Marco would just have to be dealt with. It pained him severely because he knew that he would have to kill his own brother. He couldn’t just sit back and let Marco get away with what he almost did…Marco was going to pay very, very soon.

Julian sat quietly with his left hand behind his back and his legs tucked painfully in front of him in the right-hand corner on the room beside the bed. He had waited nearly four hours for Rebecca to finally dose off and when she did, he made his move. He removed his left hand from behind his back and looked at the nail file in front of him. Now it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this little bitty object looked useless. In fact Julian knew it might look useless to some people, but to him it was his one shot at freedom.

He would never ever admit this to anyone but once when he and Eve were sneaking around back then, he used her nail file to pick the lock to one of the empty janitors room in the school building and from then on, they used that room to have some quality time together.

Looking over at Rebecca once more, Julian set his eyes on the nail file and broke it in half. Next, he used the broken piece in his right hand to sharpen the tip of the other end in his left hand. As he worked get the tip of the file just right, his right hand slipped and he nixed his left hand. And the cut on his left hand only seemed to get bigger as he continued sharpening the other end of the nail file.

Once he was sure that it was sharp enough, he grabbed the part of the chain that had the keyhole and jammed the sharpened piece of the nail file into it, then began to move it back and forth to dull the inside.

Twenty minutes later, bloody and sweaty, Julian was finally free of his chain. The whole time there, Rebecca never gave him anything to wear, and because he was so worried about getting to Eve and the boys, he just not realized how cold he felt.

“I hope you had nice time staring at me these last few days Rebecca because you’re never gonna see it again.” Julian growled.

Walking over to the dresser next the door, he looked inside and found a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt to cover up the blood he got on this chest. Now all he needed was some shoes but as he looked around he noticed that there were none. Once he was finished, he walked back over to where the chain lay, picked it up then walked over to Rebecca and straddled her by waist.

“What the hell?” Rebecca mumbled as she opened her eyes and found Julian on top of her.

“I told you that I was going to be free.” Julian sneered viciously then proceeded to place both of her arms above her head and shackle her up to the bedpost with the chain.

“You let me go this instant Julian!” Rebecca shrieked.

“No.” Julian grinned devilishly.

Finally! Eve had somehow made it across the street to the front door of Ivy’s house. She slumped against the door then slowly slid all the way down to the ground, trying to catch her breath. Rising her right arm, she trailed her hand across the door until she found the doorbell then pushed it.

Ivy was just coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hand when she heard the doorbell. Sitting her coffee down on the table in the living room, Ivy walked to the front door and looked out the peephole.

‘That’s strange, no one’s there.’ Ivy thought.

She was just about to turn around and walk back into the living room, when she heard someone faintly calling her name. Unlocking the door, as soon as Ivy pulled the door open, she shrieked in utter surprise as Eve fell to the floor in front of her.

“Eve!” Ivy shouted as she dropped down next to her.

“Ivy…” Eve mumbled then drifted off into unconsciousness.

Julian had left Rebecca alone an hour ago tied up to her bedpost nude as he ran all the way over to Carlo’s. He called the authorities before he left, so he knew that she was being taken care of. He knew that bastard had Eve, and he was going there to get his wife. As he ran, he began thinking about his boys, he knew they needed him but they needed their mother too.

Marco was at the hospital visiting the boys again. Ivy had told him earlier that Dr. Samuels didn’t think that Kellen would make it through the night, so he came over to look in on the boy once more. William was doing a whole lot better then he was before. He was even playing with the nurses and Dr. Samuels whenever they came in and checked on him. He was sitting down in a chair next to Kellen’s bed when Dr. Samuels walked in.

“Mr. Luciano?” Dr. Samuels said.

“Hey Doc.” Marco looked up.

“I see that Ms. Winthrop isn’t here.”

“No, it’s just me.”

“Well since you are close to Eve and Julian, I wanted to let you know that I did some more additional test on Kellen.”

“Is there any change in his condition Dr. Samuels?” Marco asked.

Before Dr. Samuels had the chance to answer, his pager went off. He excused himself then walked over to the door. Once he saw that it was an emergency, he turned back to Marco.

“Doctor?”

“I have to go, but as soon as I’m finished with this situation, I’ll come back so we talk.”

Marco nodded and watched as Dr. Samuels ran from the room.

Ten minutes later, Dr. Samuels arrived as soon as Eve was brought in on a gurney with Ivy close behind. Ivy, who was looking on as the paramedics worked on Eve, noticed Dr. Samuels standing by, ran over to him.

“Dr. Samuels!”

“Ms. Winthrop….”

“I found…I found her at my doorstep. Is she going to be alright?” Ivy stuttered frantically.

“I won’t know until she’s properly looked at.” He said then walked over to Eve and placed his stethoscope on her chest.