Stranger In My House -Chapter 18
by lala02


Chapter eighteen

Eve was enjoying the feel of the hot water against her skin as she arched her head back slowly and let the water flow freely down her body. She stayed in the shower for about fifteen minutes, and when she stepped out she gasped, for she was standing face to face with Alistair.

“Well, no wonder you had my son begging to stay with you. With a body like yours who wouldn’t want to be with you.” He licked his lips, and then proceeded to look her body up and down.

“You pig! What the hell are you doing in here?!” Eve shouted as she hurried over to the where her robe was.

“Eve is that anyway to talk to your future father-in-law?”

“You’ll never be anything to me but a sick, racist sonofab*tch! Now I asked you a damn question, what the hell are you doing in here?” Eve spat.

“I got what I came here for. See you around.” Alistair smirked, then walked slowly out of the bathroom.

A chill of absolute disgust ran down Eve’s spine after Alistair left. He had saw her naked and then just stared at her. ‘Those eyes…’ Eve thought then shuddered a bit. The events of today just didn’t want her to forget and now Alistair too. Eve shook her head a bit, then walked into her room to change.

Devin struggled to sit up a bit despite Julian telling him to rest and lie back down. After he was comfortable enough, he took a deep breath and began telling Julian what he knew.

“After I turned eighteen, I moved here to Harmony from Virginia to look for my mother. I wanted to know why she left my father and I. I had many pictures of her, but no memories. I had been here nine years, not once did I come into contact with her until a couple of weeks ago.”

“When you bumped her into the water at the wharf.” Julian said.

“Yeah. At first, I was hurt that she didn’t recognize me, but after talking to her for a while, I saw for the first time that she truly didn’t know who I was. And then that got me thinking about some things. After we had lunch the next day, I went home and found my father there. I hadn’t seen him in nine years and was kind of surprised to see him in my home. He asked what had I been up to. He then assumed nothing, so I asked him to leave, but he didn’t. Then suddenly I blurted out that I had lunch with my mother and you. I guess it shocked him because he told to stay away from you both. That’s when things started getting interesting.”

Liz was back at the Russell residence sitting on the couch with an icepack over her eye left and holding onto her ribs tightly. Her fight with Eve didn’t turn out the way she had intended. After she came to, she stumbled over to her car and drove back home somehow. She then went upstairs to the bathroom to look at the damage. What she saw in the mirror made her grab onto the sink to steady herself from falling. She had a busted lip, the left side of her jaw was black and blue and her left eye was black also. She had definitely got her ass kicked. She had been sitting on the couch for about four hours when her cell phone began to ring.

“Hello…”

“Liz it’s me.” The female voice said.

“How did you get my number?! What do you want?” She said then winced in pain as her jaw started throbbing.

“I make it my business to know everything about our boss employees. Are you alright? You sound awful.”

“I’m fine.” Liz growled.

“Good. The boss wants to see us.”

“What?! Why now after all these years?”

“Because of what went down recently with your brother, Duke and… your nephew.”

“What are you…” She stopped then spoke “Devin knows everything huh?” Liz asked calmly.

“Yep. And if he knows, it’s only a matter of time before your sister and Julian Crane know too. He wants to meet us in one hour at the docks. You know what to wear. Don’t be late.”

“I won’t.” Liz closed her phone, then got up slowly from the couch and walked upstairs to change clothes. “Damn it!” The phone call she had just received had come completely out of the blue. This was bad. She hadn’t heard from the person that called in over twenty-three years. ‘Sh*t Devin, why couldn’t you just hate Eve and move on!’ She thought bitterly.

Julian was now sitting back with his arms folded as Devin continued to tell him the rest of the story.

“The day my father was shot, we got into an argument when I told him that he was lying to me about my mother. It was then on his deathbed that he told why he did what he did.” Devin said then lowered his head a bit. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Julian that Duke was his older brother.

“Why did he do this?” Julian asked.

“He said he did what he did because his father asked him to. His father promised he’d acknowledge him as his son to the public.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Julian said, his face etched in confusion.

“It does make sense if your black and your father’s a rich white man.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that Duke kidnapped me from my mother because his father promised him acceptance if he did. But he was lied to just like I was.”

“I still don’t follow…”

“What I’m trying to say is… Duke’s father is…is…” Devin stuttered then turned his head. He just couldn’t do it.

“Devin?”

“Duke’s father is Alistair Crane… making him your half-brother. Your older half-brother and my uncle.” Devin finally said then turned and waited for Julian’s reaction.

The look Julian had on his face was something that Devin would have never suspected. He looked rather calm and collected and Devin didn’t like that one bit. He was actually scared. Julian then stood up from his chair and walked over to the dresser that was closet to the door. Suddenly he screamed out and started destroying anything that was in his site. First he ripped out all of the drawers from the dresser, knocked over all the books that were top of it, walked over to the other side of the door, and started kicking other things over and more books. After literally destroying everything in the room, he suddenly dropped to the floor and started laughing wickedly.

“He kept me from Eve and my son all because he had a black son and didn’t want me to have one too?! A brother? I had a brother, who kidnapped my son because of father lies!” Julian was now seething mad.

“Julian…” Devin called out to him cautiously. He was lucky that Julian hadn’t threw him out of the bed and destroyed that too as he looked around the completely decimated room.

“Sonofab*tch!” Julian shouted. He then turned around and looked at Devin. “What else did that bastard keep from me?”

“Duke also told me that Pierce and Liz knew. So after his death, the day I had him buried I flew straight to Boston, since that’s where mom used to live. I learned some things about mom’s past and yours. Then yesterday, mom and I were talking at the coffee house when Pierce came in. She was scared of him and wanted to go home, so I said I’d follow her to make sure that she got home safe.” He paused. “While driving there, I saw that Pierce was following us. After keeping my word, I told her I’d come back later on to talk. As I was pulling out of the driveway, I saw Pierce’s car on the side of the road, but no him. I went looking for him and found him looking up through mom’s window as she was changing. I got so mad that I walked up behind him and knocked him out, then took him back to my apartment to get the rest of the answers that I was looking for.”

“Did you get them?”

“I found out that Alistair is not as powerful as many people here in Harmony think, that includes you too. He has no say so in anything here. Alistair is in debt to some crime syndicate. You accidentally got him in more trouble when you got involved with mom.”

“How could my involvement with Eve cause him more problems?”

“That’s what I wanted to know. Pierce also told me that the syndicate boss promised him mom once you both were separated.”

“What the…?!”

“He told me that she and I were the key to this syndicate, but I don’t know how? Alistair messed up when he took me from mom and his boss found out. Alistair was going to use mom and I to pay off his debt. I asked him who the crime boss was and he wouldn’t tell me. I asked him again and before he could answer he was killed and I was shot.” Devin finished.

“We have to tell Eve everything now.” Julian said.

Devin nodded.

“I know. Do you think she’ll hate me because I didn’t tell her right away that I was her son?” Devin asked.

“Eve could never hate you. She grieved for so long when she thought you had died, and because of me. I hurt her so badly. I didn’t want to leave her, but father told me that if I didn’t he’d have her killed. I didn’t find out about you until a few years ago. If I had known that she was pregnant, I would’ve defied father and married her anyways. Somehow, after all of these years of self-hate and regret, Eve and I have a second chance to be together and I’m not about to let anyone come between us again.”

Liz had arrived at the docks five minutes early to make sure that she wasn’t late. She was kind of nervous and kept looking around to make sure that everything was all right. She walked a little farther and stopped when she saw a black Mercedes Benz parked in front of her. The driver of the car got out, then walked to the back door and opened it. Stepping out was a man who had to be about 6’4 250, brown-skinned, 70 years old, but looked a little younger, dressed in a navy blue suit with a matching hat and a platinum ring on his right pinky finger.

“Elizabeth, it’s good to see you again.” He said with his deep baritone voice.

“It’s good to see you to sir.” Liz said then looked down.

“Your brother really messed things up when he told Devin everything. He had to be taken care of, you know that.”

“I do.”

“Where is Melissa?”

“Right here sir.” Said a woman in her mid to late 40s as she walked towards them.

“M.” Liz said.

“Liz.” Melissa smirked.

“Look ladies, there has been a change in plans.”

“Sir.” Melissa said.

“I want Eve and Devin by tomorrow night. And Liz, I want you to take care of Alistair tonight.”

“But sir…” Liz started but got backslapped.

“Don’t you “but sir” me! You think I forgot! I told you years ago that if you ever lay a hand on Eve that you would regret it! Now I’m telling you again, I want Alistair Crane dead tonight! Is that clear?!” the boss shouted.

“Crystal.” Liz whimpered out.

“Good. Driver I’m ready.” The boss said as he got back into the car. Liz was wiping the blood from the cut on her mouth when Melissa walked up to her.

“Liz you never learn.” And with that, she smirked then walked away leaving Liz to herself.


Chapter 19
Chapter 17
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