The Turn Life Takes (Eve/Julian) - Chapter 15
by yhh
Pacing the floors, Julian waited impatiently for Eve to return to Kathleen's.
Constantly opening the front door, walking around to check the backyard,
he was afraid something had happened to her. Why did he listen to her? He
should have never left her alone with that child abuser. He was going after
her. "Endora."
"Yes, Daddy?"
"Stay here- -"
Eve walked through the door as if all were right with the world.
"Where have you been?" Julian demanded.
"I was talking to TC." Seeing the anger, relief, and frustration in his
eyes, Eve knew she was in for a doozy of a conversation but first she had
to talk to Endora. "Julian, could you go get me some tea and a piece of
a pound cake that Kay and Simone made last night?"
"Eve, I hardly think- -"
Eve tilted her head towards Endora.
"I'll be back in two minutes," he announced, walking to the kitchen.
Walking over to her daughter, Eve sat down next to her on the floor. "Angelpie,
can Mommy talk to you for a minute?"
Endora nodded and put down her Mama Tabby doll to sit in her mother's
lap.
Eve hugged and kissed the toddler before beginning. "Endora, Mr. TC was
locked in his shed; do you know anything about that?"
The little girl was silent and refused to look her mother in the eye.
Lifting her face, Eve stared directly into Endora's eyes. "Mommy has noticed
when we lived in the other house a lot of Mr. TC's things, like his car keys,
his wallet, his ID would be found places no one would ever think to put
them. Do you know anything about that?"
Again her question was met with silence.
"Endora Timothea Lenox Johnson Crane, listen to Mommy. Just because you
don't like someone doesn't mean you can do mean things to them, and hiding
people's things or locking them in a room are not nice things. You have
to express yourself in other ways. Come talk to Mommy or Daddy or your sissies,
okay?"
"'kay," Endora replied. "May I play?"
"What did Mommy just talk to you about?" She wanted to make sure her daughter
heard and understood what they had just discussed. Endora already had the
Crane tendency to hear what she wanted when she wanted down pat.
"No move things."
"That's right. I love you," Eve said, hugging and kissing the two-and-a-half
year old.
"I love you, Mama."
"Why don't you take Mama Tabby and Tio Timmy upstairs to your room, while
I talk to Daddy, okay?"
"'kay." Grabbing her dolls, Endora climbed the stairs to her room.
Watching her daughter leave, Eve wondered how she knew it was Endora who
was moving TC things. A two-year-old putting his keys inside the flower arrangement
on the dining room table? Locking him inside the shed? But she knew, she
just knew it was her youngest daughter. Her mind wouldn't even begin to let
her contemplate how that was even possible. All she knew was with Tabitha
as Endora's birth mother; she had to be prepared for anything and everything.
"What was that about?" Julian asked, retuning with his arms full of food
and drink.
Getting up to help him place the food and drinks on the table, she shook
her head. "Just a little mother and daughter conversation." She would tell
Julian about Angelpie if and when strange, inexplicable things kept happening.
"What took you so long?" he asked, sitting across from her on the sofa.
"TC wanted to talk."
"You're not considering going back to that monster, are you?"
Eve took a moment before she answered Julian's questions. She didn't know
where she stood with TC to be honest. She had been Mrs. Thorton Chandler
Russell for over twenty years. How could she turn her back on that- - on that
history? After her parents died and she was sent to live with her spinster,
overzealous aunt, all she craved was a family and TC had provided that. His
mother, his cousins, aunts, uncles, Sam, they all made her feel like one of
them. Once she had buried her guilt about the lies she told them, she felt
as if she belonged. Yet she knew, if TC couldn't or wouldn't accept Endora,
then she couldn't be with him any longer. Endora was her second chance from
God to parent a Crane child and she wasn't throwing this chance away for
anyone, including the man she promised to be with until death. She quieted
the voice in the back of her head, which reminded her that her decision about
her marriage had already been made. She knew TC was stubborn and was never
going to accept Endora and was never going to go to one single counseling
appointment, but part of her still hoped. Her dreams of the fairy tale ending
with TC demanded for her to still have hope, to not give up.
Julian was shocked by Eve's silence. It should never have taken her this
long to answer his question. He knew the pull TC and the life they shared
together had over his darling Eve, but for her to consider taking that scum
back after what TC did to Endora. His next words shocked him as much as they
shocked her. "Eve, I thought I loved you more than anyone else in the world,
but I realize I don't."
Eve gasped.
"Endora and Ethan-Martin have snuck into my heart, into my soul, and they
now fully occupy it. And I would risk and give away anything and everything
to protect them, to keep them safe." He paused, fighting back the tears.
"I love you with all my heart, Eve Johnson, never doubt that, but I will be
willing to give up on us in order to protect my daughter from that woman hitting
man you call a husband. I will take my children and disappear." Standing up,
Julian walked to the front door and paused. "I came over today to inform you
that Stefan had an update on his search for our son. Please in no way take
this as a threat Eve. I'm not threatening to take Endora from you so you'll
leave TC. You have to do what's best for you just as I have to do what's
best for our daughter." With those final, heartbreaking words, Julian closed
the door behind him.
Eve felt her heart crack. How was everything turning out so wrong? She
never meant for any of this to happen. Collapsing on the sofa, she cried.
Whitney, Fox, and Simone all stared at each other with the same question
in their eyes. Julian was Endora's father? Kay tried as hard as she could
to mirror their shocked looks.