Chapter Five

Two years later…

Her emerald eyes shone through the dimly lit room as she walked down the aisle. Her white flowing dress danced in the cool breeze, her hair just as wild and unruly as he liked it. The wind picked up and blew the linen covering her arms, revealing a beautiful baby bundled up in her embrace. This was it, was who he was meant to be, the reason why God had put him on this earth, the end of the game after years of promiscuity and confusion. Father and husband…that is who he was to be from that day onward. No longer would he be DJ, the almost first born of Dennis Kent. He would be Dennis Rogers Kent, husband to Eyvette and father to…what was the baby’s name? All he knew was that it was a girl, a little princess who was a mirror image of her mother. Her chortles and giggles echoed in the empty church and warmed his heart.

The baby was happy, Evie was happy, and he was happy. How could he not be when he finally found his place in this world, figured out who he was and who he was always meant to be? Evie stopped and stood away from his grasp. A loud screeching noise replaced the adorable sound of his daughter. DJ recognized it as the screeching of tires, followed by the blaring of a car horn. The church dissipated. Evie and the baby lay silently on the ground and a puddle of blood formed beneath their pale bodies. DJ wasn’t in his tuxedo anymore. He was on the street, barefoot and shirtless. The red light blinded him, the smell of gasoline suffocated him, and a blaze of fire burned him. DJ dropped to his knees. In an instant his life had been destroyed and he watched helplessly as his happily ever after went up in flames.

The strange thing was that Evie still lay in the church aisle, and he slowly approached them. Tears rolled down his cheeks and a knot formed in his chest. All he needed to find was a pulse. He crouched beside her. Carefully, he went to touch the pressure point on her neck when her eyes flew open, and she spoke.

I’m pregnant.

DJ shot up from the bed, drenched in sweat. Evie’s words haunted his dreams, his every waking moment. There was no place for him to run and escape the guilt, the knowledge that it was his fault that they were dead, his fault that he found himself back at the starting point. DJ caught the hand that snaked under the bed sheet to caress his groin. He was in no mood for that.

“I have to go.” DJ threw the linens aside and got off the bed. He pulled his clothes on in a hurry, doing his best to avoid the mirror. DJ didn’t like the man looking back at him.

“Are you going to call me?”

DJ turned back to the woman on the bed. He didn’t remember her name, and she looked exactly like the girl he had been with the previous night. To DJ, they looked alike and sounded the same now.

I don’t remember your name and I have no intention of taking your number. I’m not good for you, emotionally. Physically I can satisfy you, only because sex seems to be the only way for me to escape, even if it’s just for a moment. Right now, after a night of fucking, I am weighed down by guilt because, two years later, I still feel like I am cheating on the love of my life. I have loved only once in my life and I know that I will never get a love like that ever again, so why even bother?

That’s what he wanted to say, what he should have said. These women deserved an explanation as to why he was as rough and distant as he was, and why he didn’t bother knowing their names. However, this was who he had been before Evie…life, although confusing, was much simpler. He was going back to that. Love was nothing but another tool God used to punish him.

“Andrea, my name is Andrea,” she said. There was a look in her eyes that had chill run down DJ’s spine.

“No,” DJ said and walked out. “We’re not going to see each other again.”

“That’s what you said last time, but here we are.”

“I won’t be making that mistake again,” DJ said as he left.

Insults followed him and what DJ thought might be a shoe. It bothered him that they were hurt and mad. That was Evie’s fault. But in order to go back to the man he was before Nice, this was what he had to do. DJ checked his pockets for his wallet, phone and car keys.

DJ had a dozen missed calls and five messages. He got into his car and drove to the office. He listened to the messages. Two were from Catalella, asking about the merger they were working on, one was from Reno, and the others were from his father. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to his father. As far as he was concerned, Dennis Senior was the villain in his story, the cause of all his problems. So, he ignored the request for a call back and drove to his apartment. He needed a shower and a change of clothes before he could meet Reno for breakfast.

DJ hated going to his home. He disliked how cold it felt, how bare it was and how it was not the home that he had planned for him and Evie. This was a bachelor pad, befitting the life he was now determined to take up. His family had finally accepted the fact that he wouldn’t tolerate their matchmaking antics. So far, each and every girl they had set him up with had complained about how he had sex with them and didn’t call the next day. DJ was in and out of his apartment in an hour. He drove to the café and waited for Reno to arrive.

He occupied a corner booth, an area for the male servers. DJ had had his fill with women from the café hitting on him, and no matter how hard he tried to convince Reno to switch venues, he claimed this was the only place that got his coffee right. Before DJ would smile, wink and flirt with the female staff of whatever establishment he was in. Now he could barely look at them. Something always happened to him when a waitress approached him. They would immediately take Evie’s form with her brilliant emerald eyes, the unruly mop of curls on her head, and her heavily French accented English.

Seeing Evie in each and every woman he approached was the reason he didn’t hang out with Catalella as much as he used to. Although they had very different characteristics, their physical appearance mirrored each other. It was just because they were both biracial, with crazy hair and curvaceous bodies. If it wasn’t for the fact that Catalella had brown eyes, the two could have been sisters. Evie’s last name was Ross, so for a while DJ had toyed with the idea that Adrian’s senior had visited Nice once during his business trips and left a child behind. Evie was only a couple of months younger than Catalella, so the idea hadn’t been entirely impossible. But Catalella had told DJ of her parents’ romance and, seeing how Adrian was committed to Rosalinda, he immediately overruled the idea that Adrian was a cheat just like Dennis, his father.

“Lost in thought once more?” Reno asked as he slid into the booth. “Let me guess—Evie.”

DJ ignored Reno’s statement. It was like a stab in the chest each time someone mentioned her. Knowing that the most important people in his family had not met the woman he was in love with hurt. It was disappointing that they never got to feel the extraordinary effect that Evie had on him.

“You are late,” DJ said.

“No, actually you are early. So, what happened last night? It is very much unlike you to be up this early during the weekend.” Reno waved across to a waitress and DJ groaned.

“I have a merger to see through, and did you have to do that?” They were a pair of good-looking boys who usually got unsolicited attention. He just didn’t understand why Reno had to do this every time.

“I like some female attention; it keeps my wife on her toes.” Reno grinned.

If DJ didn’t know that Reno was completely in love with Lisette, he would have believed his bullshit story. However, calling female attention to them was not for Reno’s benefit but DJ’s. Having Reno as a big brother for the past couple of years made up for the two decades, they were apart. Reno was quickly covering the annoying elder brother quota. His methods were strange, but DJ had learned never to question them.

“What’s the real story?”

“You are tired of sleeping in random beds each night, right? That is why you have never taken any woman to that museum apartment of yours.”

“That is how I bought it.”

“Yes, white and black with a few touches of mahogany, straight from the real estate catalogue. But that real estate agent did volunteer to give your place a feminine touch.”

“I can’t…” DJ mumbled. His eyes closed when the tears threatened to fall, trapping them behind his heavy lids, prickling him like tiny ice picks. “I just don’t want to be alone. I…cry, thinking about…them…it’s just too much for me to do in broad daylight with people around me. In the dark alone…I get ideas.”

“We talked about that. Catalella already—”

“And if she had died, I wouldn’t have forgiven her. I have this dark cloud above my head that will not go away.”

“The accident wasn’t your fault; you shouldn’t blame yourself. When Lisette got in that wreck, I accepted the fact that it was out of my hands.”

“Lisette didn’t die, and you get to tuck in all three of your children at night.” DJ combed his fingers through his hair in frustration. Reno just wasn’t getting it. “You blame yourself for Rhyne disappearing, even though you were just six years old when she was taken.”

“That’s different.”

“No, it’s not.” DJ swallowed the lump in his throat and caught a tear on its way down his cheeks. “I should have told Evie that Ava was in the apartment. I should have trusted that Evie would understand, but I didn’t. I was too afraid of the man she first met instead of believing that she knew who I really was, the man she turned me into. Now she’s dead and I will never get to hold my baby in my arms. That is something you will never be able to understand, Reno, and I pray to God that you won’t have to.”

“So, how about you cut out the sex and sleep instead. You need to take some time to heal. It’s been two years, DJ.”

“It could be two centuries, and I still won’t be able to get over this pain.”

“Random sex won’t help,” Reno said.

“I want her back.”

“I know. How about we go to your place, then we can call AJ and Rich and have a boy’s night.”

“My place?”

“Well Lisette and the kids are at my place, obviously, Catalella and the twins are at Rich’s and Kat is pregnant.”

“You do understand that hanging out with you guys while you moan about your wives and kids is only going to make me feel worse.”

“That’s why we are bringing booze.”

The booze didn’t help, and neither did the boys. As they laughed, DJ forced a smile, anything to feel like he wasn’t wrapped in this shroud of darkness. He wanted it to end, to hit the bottom. The never-ending falling feeling, plunging into darkness, was slowly turning him into a wreck. DJ walked out to the balcony of his apartment, the first time he’d done so since he’d moved in. He looked up at the sky as the night crept in. The moon emerged from its hiding place and the cool night air filled his body with goose bumps. He looked up and begged Evie to forgive him, and for the universe to make tomorrow a better day, a bearable day.

* * * *

The sound of crunching metal, gasoline and blood bombarded Evie’s senses. She felt cramped, and a steady flow of thick, crimson liquid covered her eyes and spurted out of her mouth. She couldn’t see anything…it was too dark. But she could hear. Her ears did a perfect job of listening to Sophie’s screams. Evie didn’t know how long she had been at it, but Sophie didn’t pause to take a breath. Evie’s fingers dug into what felt like dirt. It felt like she was on the cold, wet grass and not in the car beside Sophie as she had been moments before. A loud boom sounded, and Evie was knocked out.

Evie!

Evie!

DJ!

Evie struggled to open her eyes, but they felt heavy. Her arms outstretched she followed the sound of DJ’s voice.

Evie! He called out once more, his voice faint.

DJ! Wait, don’t leave me!

Evie don’t leave me!

What? Now she was confused. Slowly as her eyes began to open, DJ’s voice was no more than a whisper, then nothing. She was surrounded by darkness. The moment of silence was followed by loud noises, people screaming, an electrical charge, a beeping noise and her mother. Was she crying?

DJ! Evie yelled at the top of her lungs—odd because she couldn’t open her mouth. What the hell was going on? Her head began to ache, the pain blurring her eyesight and dimming her hearing. Darkness took over once more.

Evie was jostled awake when she felt someone move her around. She couldn’t see them, though. Evie felt like she was being tucked into bed. She whirled around, trying to see who it was. There was no one, nothing, just darkness. When the voices came once more, she could only recognize her mother’s and Philippe’s. Sophie wasn’t there and neither was DJ. The two people she expected to be by her side weren’t there.

What was going on? The last thing she remembered was running out of DJ’s apartment. They got into the car and…crunching metal, gasoline and blood. She doubled over, a slicing sensation running along her abdomen. The pain and loss assaulted her senses all at once, and at a distance she heard a little cry.

My baby!

Her eyes flew open, and she was staring at a white ceiling, the familiar beeping noise ringing in her ears, the pain slowly subsiding.

Evie woke up nine months after the accident, her hair shorter, a scar on her temple, and with the limited ability to move her limbs. The doctor had told her that she’d had some sort of head injury, that the brain swelling required that she be put into a medically induced coma, which ultimately became a long-term coma. All Evie knew was that, when she woke up, she had lost more than her hair and her mobility. She had lost her baby, Sophie and Dennis Rogers…well, he was nowhere to be seen or found. You would think that once the woman you claimed to love was in an accident and in a coma, you’d find the man keeping vigil by her bedside. But no, that wasn’t Dennis Rogers. He was probably out in the world, looking for a new woman to lie to. He had no remorse—not for Sophie and definitely not for their dead baby.

She woke up and Dennis wasn’t there, but Philippe was, and he had been for the past year. Evie didn’t know what sort of relationship they had. They weren’t sexually intimate. He would kiss her, and she would let him. He asked her to marry him, and she said yes. She said…yes. Despite the fact that she didn’t love him or want him, she had said yes. Evie didn’t know what else to say. What was the proper thing to do? The man had helped her learn how to walk again. He had been beside her when she mourned her dead baby and her best friend. It was the logical decision…that was what her head said. Her heart had been quiet. It didn’t seem to have awoken from the coma, or maybe it, too, had met an untimely end.

However, Dennis Rogers still possessed her, owned her. She couldn’t stop thinking about him or the moments that they had shared. The night she had found him with a towel around his waist and a redheaded vixen on his couch was still burned into her brain. She wished the accident had given her amnesia, anything to forget who she’d been in the past, so that she could embrace the person she was now—cold, unfeeling and engaged to Philippe Fitzroy.

It was hard trying to forge forward with her future when her mother kept on bringing up the past. Elizabeth had finally convinced Evie to go to New York. Elizabeth had taunted her with pictures of her father, Adrian Ross, with his family. Evie was angry—here was another man not held accountable for his actions against her. He had abandoned her, kept her a dirty secret shrouded in shame.

Evie was tired of being the sweet one people walked all over. She had to admit, just to herself, that the anger did not stem from a father she didn’t know but from the fact that Dennis had abandoned her. Philippe… Evie had politely insisted that he shouldn’t accompany her to the U.S.A. She gave an excuse that she needed to be alone for a while, to wrap her head around her new reality. And he, in turn, had accused her of going to New York to search for Dennis Rogers. Evie hadn’t thought about what she would do if she happened to bump into him. The city was large yet small at the same time, according to the travel blogs that she had read.

Evie knew she would be lying if she didn’t admit that she was terrified of that possibility. Being in the same space with Dennis Rogers would break her.

“Ten minutes to landing!”

Evie looked around the small cabin and watched as the crew adjusted tables and checked on the passengers. She smiled at an air hostess, hoping that the woman wouldn’t see how nervous she was. She felt like an exposed nerve. Evie touched the scar on the side of her head and, just like that, the night of the accident replayed in her head…then waking up, having lost nine months of her life, and the reality that she would never see her best friend or hold her baby hit her like a freight train. That was all she needed to activate the pain and grief she’d worked so hard to bury deep down inside her. And, in turn, that woke up the hate that she had for Dennis Rogers. There was no if about it. She had made up her mind. Once she had claimed what was owed to her from Adrian Ross, she would look for Dennis Rogers and ruin him. This was her seizing the day, taking command of her life.

“We are here, dear,” Elizabeth said as she patted Evie’s hand.

That made Evie does a double take. Elizabeth had never called her dear. She called her Eyvette, her tone filled with disdain, and if she was really annoyed with her, she would call her Rosalind, and at times Rosalinda. For a long time, Evie questioned two of her given names. Why would Elizabeth name her Ross after the man who had abandoned her and not McCrery, like her? And why Rosalind after Rosalinda, Adrian’s wife? There was only one answer to that. Her mother hated her just as much as she hated the two people, she thought had destroyed her life. That was fine with Evie. She didn’t hate her mother, but she did feel indifferent toward her. The only reason why Elizabeth would call her dear was if she was sure Adrian would give Evie part of his wealth. If only it could be that easy.

“I know, dear, the captain just said so.”

Elizabeth drew back her hand and the hateful gaze Evie had learned to live with crossed her face.

“There she is the mother I have always known and tolerated. Where are we going to stay once, we arrive?”

“A hotel.”

“We have no money.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Elizabeth said with a grin that honestly had Evie worried.

Evie looked out the window and watched as the earth slowly came up to meet her. Soon she would be faced with her new reality, and she was ready to take it on.

* * * *

“Babe, Ethan just pooped in his diaper!” Rich yelled as he held his baby at arm’s length. His little boy forced his fist in his mouth, gurgling, spitting up and laughing as Rich scrunched up his nose from the odor.

“So?” Catalella asked.

“He needs a diaper change.”

“And?”

“And nothing, he needs a new diaper. Should I bring him to you?”

“Should you?”

Rich knew that tone. It meant ‘you better have the right answer, or I will rip you a new one.’ “Actually, I think I will go to the nursery and change him. Have a father-son bonding moment.”

“Good call,” Catalella said.

Rich sniffed his son’s bum once more and recoiled. “Dear God, how can such a smell come from someone so little and so cute.” Rich carried his boy to the nursery and changed him. He also took him out of the white onesie that Catalella had put him in and into a T-shirt that read ‘lady killer.’ “Only girls wear leotards—well, girls and dancers. You, my boy, will not be a dancer, you are going to play for the New York Giants.” Ethan gurgled and Rich took that as a sound of agreement.

“Sweetheart, someone is on the phone for you.”

Rich turned back and faced the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. A sight that he would see every day for the rest of his life…his wife, Catalella, in a dirty T-shirt and jeans, balancing their little girl on her hip. “You look beautiful.”

“I know.” Catalella crossed the room to where he was, rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I thought we said no work on the weekends. It was a rule we made, that and no nannies on Sunday.”

“Right,” Rich said as he took the phone from Catalella. “I’m sure something must have burned down.”

“It doesn’t matter if the fire takes the whole city, you are not leaving me here alone with two babies. I did the heavy lifting for seven months.”

“If men could get pregnant, baby, you know I would have done it for you.” Rich winked and put the phone to his ear.

“It’s your mother,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

Never in his life did he think that he would be haunted by a person, or a word, like ‘mother.’

“She won’t ever love you, Ethan.” Elizabeth shouted, her red, fiery hair matching her temper. “Why would she want a man as weak as you are when she has Adrian?”

“You speak about him as if he’s a God.” Ethan crossed the room with three large strides. He grabbed Elizabeth at the elbow and shook her. “Tell me lass, do you have a thing for him?”

“If I had met him first—” Elizabeth left the statement hanging as she tried to pull out of Ethan’s grasp.

“Is that why you were rubbing all over him like a cat in heat when Talia died? You have no shame, woman.” Ethan shoved Elizabeth away from him. She landed on the bed with a loud gasp.

“I would have had him if it wasn’t for that maid,” Elizabeth spat, the venom thickly lacing her words. “You know what I wanted the most when Talia died? I wanted you to die. That way Adrian and I would raise our children together.”

“Do you love him that much?”

“Love?” Elizabeth threw her head back, her evil cackle filling each and Every corner of their master bedroom. “Love or lust? There is no such thing as love, Ethan. Do you know how I know that? Because I love you, but it has never been enough for you, has, it? I want your best friend. I want to hurt you as much as you’ve hurt me. Imagine if I take away your best friend and your son. I’ll show you just as much loyalty and love as you have shown me.”

“You’ll never leave this house, Elizabeth. Do you hear me?” Ethan's shout rattled the glass windows, and for a second it had Elizabeth backing away. But she was stubborn. She stuck out her chin and Ethan decided to take her up on the offer. The sound of his fist meeting Elizabeth’s jaw had Rich cringing and inching away from the room. He was a coward and he felt like one. He couldn’t help his mother. But when Elizabeth’s laugh rang out it was filled with hatred and anger, the sort that sent tiny invisible creatures crawling down his back.

“Honey, what is it?” Catalella’s soft touch on his cheek pulled him out of the memory.

“That was the hotel. They said that a woman named Elizabeth McCreery just checked in,” Rich rasped, his voice husky and dry as he reached to touch Catalella’s hand. “She is back…my mother is back.”

* * * *

Evie couldn’t believe that they were in the penthouse suite. She wondered how her mother had been able to get them in there, let alone the fact that room service was delivered by the manager himself. “Mother, how did you manage to pay for this room?”

Elizabeth sat at the breakfast table, her legs crossed at her ankles, nibbling on a piece of toast. “Don’t be silly dear. I’m not paying for anything. This is what it means to be rich, darling. Things pay for themselves.”

“Darling, you and I, we are not rich. I’m not about to be humiliated by getting thrown out of here.”

“We won’t be.” Elizabeth looked at her watch for the seventh time since they had checked in.

“Expecting someone, Mother?”

“Yes, and he should have been here by now.”

The doorbell rang before the door swung open. Evie was uneasy. The older man had forcefully entered the room, the manager and two security officers flanking him. She threw a look at her mother, but the woman didn’t seem fazed.

“What are you doing here, Elizabeth?” the old man barked.

“I have the right to be here.” Evie watched as her mother uncrossed her legs and sat ramrod straight in the chair. “I am still his wife, oops, sorry, I meant widow.”

“So, help me—” The man took a threatening step forward.

“So, help you what, Harold? What are you going to do?” Elizabeth stood up and walked over to where Harold stood. The woman was as graceful as a gazelle but approached the man like a predator seeking its prey. “I don’t want to see you, I want him.”

“He is not coming,” Harold smirked. “Is that why you are here—for him? What delusional thought told you that he would still need you, want you? You abandoned him. He is a grown man with a family, a career, and an empire to run. I am proud to say that he is not like his father, I made sure of that.”

“Speaking of the dead one, what did he leave me?”

“Nothing.”

Evie had never seen her mother ever blindsided by anything or anyone. Elizabeth had always been in control, playing with people as pawns in her palm. However, this man seemed well-learned in the wiles of Elizabeth McCreery. He had an answer for every question and statement that she had.

“I want you to leave this place,” Harold said.

“I’m not going anywhere until I get what is owed to me.”

“Mother—”

“Shut up!”

“Mother?” Harold stared at her, bug-eyed. “Obviously not Ethan’s. Who are you?”

“Eyvette Rosalind Ross, why?”

Harold didn’t answer, but turned to the security men and said, “Don’t let them out of this room. Give them whatever they ask for, but don’t let them out of this room.” When he turned back to her, his eyes seemed to peruse her. “He’ll be here. Not for you, but for her.”

Harold walked out and a silence filled the room. Elizabeth’s palm was bawled into a fist, her jaw tensed and her eyes in slits. She wasn’t happy.

“Was he talking about my father? Is my father coming?”

“No.” Elizabeth sat back down. “You have a brother. He is the one that owns this building and some others around you. Ross, he owns the others, and the man that was just here owns his fair share of New York. This city has its owners and you, baby, are going to be one of them.”

“I have a brother?” Evie lowered into the chair right next to her. “You had a son before me?”

“I had a life before you, a good life, a perfect life. Now here I am, squatting in a hotel that used to be mine.” An odd, self-mocking expression curved her mouth. “I was invited to every party. No social event would be complete without an appearance from Elizabeth McCreery. I used to be something.”

“You used to be a mother too.” Evie spat out. “How old was my brother when you abandoned him?”

“I didn’t abandon him. I just saved myself.”

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“You were never a mother to me, and now I find out it isn’t me you don’t like. You just despise your own children.”

“His father took everything of value to me and he—Ethan—was shaping up to be just like him. I don’t believe Harold. I know that my son is exactly like his father, cold, mean and cruel. He has a wife, a family. I’m sure that he also has a mistress. Probably his secretary, banging her in his office twice a day. Then one day he will fall in love with some maid, and she will take everything from her the same way Rosalinda stole from me.”

“My father’s wife? What has she got to do with anything?”

“Everything.” Elizabeth stood up and rushed to her. She had a tight grip on Evie’s hands. Her eyes were manic and her voice desperate as she said, “You have to make them pay. They took everything from us. They forced me to leave New York, the only home I knew. The only reason I gave you those names is to remind myself never to fall in love. You saw what Dennis did to you. It’s the same thing they did to me.”

Evie didn’t know what it was, but for the first time in her life she saw sincerity in Elizabeth’s eyes. She wanted…no needed…help to make the people who wronged her accountable. Evie was determined to help, not just for Elizabeth but for herself, too. She would wait for Harold, Adrian or Ethan to show up, then she would demand what was owed to her and her mother. “I will help you, Mother. They will pay. They will all pay for what they did.”

“Good girl.”

Here it was, a connection that she had been deprived of, one she had craved from her mother. This was the only person who had always been at her side without fail. She was the only one Evie owed her loyalty to, Evie realized that now. Whatever their differences, they had been set aside at that moment.

“I’m going to go freshen up. I expect they will be here soon.”

“You should do that. But Harold is going to need some time to put his army together. We won’t see them until tomorrow.”

Evie went to her room and lay on the lush bed. If she had been raised the way she ought to have been, she wouldn’t have struggled her entire life. Evie didn’t know what kind of person that would have turned her into. She didn’t know a lot of things. At this moment she didn’t even know who she was, and that reminded her of Dennis when he had struggled with his identity. Evie got out of bed and stood at the window. Looking down at the city of New York, she wondered where Dennis was at that moment, and she wondered if he knew that she was coming for him.