Chapter Four

Frozen with fear and nearly asphyxiating from a lack of oxygen, Eve stood rooted to the spot, silently watching as Julian’s father disappeared back into the dark foliage that lined her home. She tried to call out. Tried desperately to form a coherent thought that would stall his brash movements. But none came. Nothing except the mind-numbing me left in evil’s wake.

Alive?

It wasn’t possible. She held her son’s lifeless body in her arms. Felt his passing in the deepest, most fragile part of her soul. She would know if he were alive. She would feel it. Sense it.

Wouldn’t she?

Of course she would, her mind answered. A mother knows when her child is in danger. And if Alistair kidnapped her son from the maternity ward and replaced him with another baby, a dead baby, she would have known. She would have felt it. Not even a man as evil and twisted as Alistair could kill a connection between a mother and her child. Yet…

Hadn’t she sworn to anyone that would listen that her son wasn’t dead? That she still felt him inside of her? Crying for her? Begging her to hold him, comfort him? She even walked the long hospital corridors looking for him. Doing everything she could to deny what the doctors told her. Knowing in her heart it had to be a mistake. A cruel misunderstanding that no new mother should have to know.

She had done everything she could to deny the truth back then. But eventually, she had to accept the facts. Her son was gone. Dead shortly after birth. And she had grieved for him until every tear she carried fell from her eyes. His funeral had been small, short and one of the most painful experiences she ever went through. And she had done it all alone. Praying that somehow, someway, it was all just a horrible nightmare. A big mistake that someone would soon realize and correct.

She didn’t expect that person to be Alistair Crane. And she never would have guessed her prayer would be answered over twenty-five years later. If what Alistair said could be believed, that is. And at this point, she wasn’t sure that it could. Except something in his eyes--some long-denied gratification—raised a warning flag within her. A flag her heart wouldn’t let her ignore.

She had to know the truth. She had to—

“Eve?” His gentle voice erupted from the edge of the backyard, its quiet tone both hesitant and… regretful? “My father, he…” She turned to look at him. His somber eyes held the same mournful ache she felt churning inside. “I’m too late,” he said, his words more statement than question.

She nodded, not trusting her voice enough to speak. The tears she’d been holding back since his father told her the news broke the surface, trickled down her cheek to land on the manicured grass at her feet.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, closing the gap between them. He took her into his arms, his body’s unexpected heat warming the icicles forming in her blood. “I thought I would make it in time.” His hand gently stroked the back of her head, his voice dropping to an angry whisper as he said, “Damn him, I swear I’ll make him pay for this.”

Eve frowned, startled by the ferocity in his tone, and pulled back to search his eyes for the answer her heart already gave. “You knew,” she accused. “You knew what he planned to tell me.” At his remorseful nod, she shoved hard against his chest, breaking his hold on her arms. “You bastard. How long? How long have you known our child, our son, was alive?”

“Just a few days,” he rushed out. His eyes held more pain than regret. “I didn’t believe him. I thought it was a trick. Another way to get me to do what he wanted.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know anything for sure, but…”

His voice trailed off as her left hand connected with his right cheek. He staggered back a step, his gaze never leaving her face. “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew something for sure,” he explained. “I couldn’t take the chance on being wrong. Not about this.” He thrust his hands into the pockets on his slacks, his fingers playing with something she couldn’t see, and admitted, “I’ve had a private detective working to find the man my father said he hired that night, and…”

“What is it?” she asked stepping forward. “Did the detective find him? What did he say?”

“That’s just it, Eve. He couldn’t say anything.”

Julian blew out a frustrated breath and looked away; his gaze landed on the open kitchen window, its inviting warmth a strong contrast to the anger and resentment building beneath his skin. “The man my father hired died six months ago. In a boating accident. Off the coast of Bermuda.”

At her sharp gasp, his gaze shot back to her face. He wasn’t surprised to see tears gathering at the corners of both eyes. She wanted something more to go on. A glimmer of hope to let her know that maybe, just maybe, what his father said was true. That their son was alive.

“The detective said no foul play was suspected,” he continued. “The police said the man owned a faulty fishing boat, and that his wife had been begging him for weeks to get the engine worked on. Apparently, she’d been worried about his being out on the boat for long periods of time.”

“So, that’s it then?” Eve whispered softly, her lower lip trembling. “We have no way to prove whether our son is really dead, or if…he’s out there somewhere, waiting for us to find him, to save him from your father?”

He wondered how much to tell her. She deserved to know everything, he knew. But at the same time, he didn’t want to get her hopes up any higher. She buried their son once. He couldn’t live with himself if he were responsible for her having to do it a second time. Besides, how much more did he really know at this point? Nothing that came with evidence to back it up, that was for sure.

“What else did my father say to you?” he asked, changing the subject.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and sighed. “Not much,” she said. “Just that I was a fool to believe our son was dead, and that I had an hour to convince you to give up this plan to destroy him or...”

Her voice trailed off but Julian didn’t need to hear the rest. He knew how his father operated. If his son was alive, and he went through with his plan to give Sam the evidence he had on Alistair, his first born, Eve’s first born, was as good as dead.

But how could he destroy the only evidence capable of putting his father behind bars? If he didn’t hand it over to the police, his father would continue to wreck havoc on all those around him, including his sister and the cop that loved her. And he could always decide to go after Eve in retaliation for Julian’s so-called betrayal.

Julian couldn’t let that happen. Not when it was finally within his power to stop him. He frowned. “I can’t let him get away with this, Eve. I can’t sit back and watch him hurt the people I care about anymore. I just…can’t.”

“You can’t turn him in, Julian. Our son’s life depends on it.”

Did it? “What if my father is lying, Eve? What if he’s using this as an excuse to avoid prosecution? I don’t have any real proof that what he says is true. And as much as I wish otherwise, neither do you.”

Julian knew firsthand that Alistair Crane would go as far as he had to go in order to get what he wanted. And what he wanted now was to hurt Julian as much as he possibly could. Going after Eve, making her believe their son was alive when he wasn’t, was exactly the type of game his father loved to construct.

But was it only a game? Or was it the truth? That he didn’t know. He did, however, have his suspicions, and right now, they outweighed his father’s word.

“I’m supposed to meet Sam soon,” he said taking another step back. “I promised to give him the files I have on my father.”

“You can’t do that!” Her fingers curved around his upper arm, halting his escape. “Your father said—“

Julian shook his head, pulling his arm free from her hold. “My father no longer calls the shots, Eve. I do, and I refuse to let him intimidate me, any of us, any longer.”

“Please,” she begged. “Don’t do this. He could be telling us the truth. If you go against him, he’ll kill our son. You know he will.”

He couldn’t kill someone that was already dead. “I’m sorry. I wish things were different. But without the proof to back up his claims, I can’t take the chance on his using our grief for our child to control me. He’s hurt too many people already, Eve. I can’t let him hurt anyone else.”

He turned to leave but her panicky voice stopped him cold. “I’ll do anything you want,” she pleaded. “I’ll give you anything you want. Just, please, Julian, stop this. Now”

He swung around to face her. “You know I can’t. You know how he operates, Eve. You know what he did to us all those years ago. What he made me believe about you.”

“What if he’s doing the same thing now?” he asked. “What if he’s feeding us lies all over again? This time it’s not just you or me that will be hurt. If goes free, a lot of people will be hurt. People we both care a great deal about.”

“I know that,” she cried. “But is any one of them more important than our son? Our child? If you can tell me they are, Julian, then I won’t stop you. I won’t ask you to change your mind. Because I’ll know that you’re the same man you always were. That you only care about yourself and what will benefit you.”

Julian sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not fair, Eve. You know how much I care about you. How much I’ve always cared about you. And about our son. I may not have known you were pregnant with him until years too late, but don’t think I didn’t grieve for him. Or for you.

“Because I did. I grieved every day for both of you. Drowned myself in booze so I wouldn’t have to remember what it was like to feel your hair on my skin. So I wouldn’t have to recall how your brown eyes used to glaze with desire as they looked at me. How I wouldn’t have to dream about what it would be like to see your belly swollen with my child.”

He shook his head. “I know what a bastard you thought I was for abandoning you when you needed me the most, and I don’t blame you for thinking it. But the truth is I would have never walked away from you if my father hadn’t kept your pregnancy a secret, and convinced me you were only after my money.”

Julian took a step forward, lifting his hand, and gently wiped the moisture from her cheek. “He’s the reason we lost our dreams, Eve, our future, our son, everything we were to each other. He stole that from us. I can’t stand back and let him do that to someone else now. Can you honestly tell me you can?”

“But he said he’d kill our son, and I believed him, Julian. In my heart, in my soul, I know he’s telling us the truth. Our son is alive…and he’ll kill him if you don’t do what he wants.

“Please,” she whispered reaching up to cover his hand with hers. “If you ever loved me at all, if I ever meant anything to you, call Sam. Tell him you changed your mind. That you can’t give him the information he wants. Before its too late.”

A shrill ring came from inside the house. Julian froze, listening as the deep baritone of Eve’s husband called out from somewhere beyond the kitchen, a potent reminder that life was no longer just about the two of them. And hadn’t been for a very long time.

“I should go,” he said pulling his hand from beneath her strong grip, his eyes trailing over her tear stained cheeks. “You don’t want T.C. to catch me here. He wouldn’t understand, and neither would your girls.”

She lowered her voice but the determination in her eyes didn’t waver. “What do you plan to do?” she asked. “I deserve to know. I need to know. Are you still going to meet Sam?”

“Yes,” he answered. “I still plan to meet him.”

She didn’t so much as blink at his response. “And the files on your father? Will you give him those?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about those yet. A lot of lives depend on the decision I make.” Including, quite possibly, their son’s. His frown deepened. “I haven’t forgotten what my father threatened, Eve. I’m just not convinced he told us the truth.”

“The best liars stick as close to the truth as possible. You should know that by now.”

He did. But he also knew the greatest liars never get caught telling the lie. And that especially included his father.   He just wished he knew if the old man were lying now. Because if he knew that, it would make whatever decision he made tonight a whole lot easier to live with.