Eve, get up,” Ethen said, gently shaking her. Eve hadn’t realized how tired she was until she tried to wake up and all she wanted to do was sleep again. She reached for her glasses groggily.

“What’s going on?” she moaned sleepily. The television was back on, though the volume was off and the captions were on. It was strange, but once Eve realized that Ethen had done that so she could remain sleeping, she was overcome with emotion. No one had ever cared that much about her or her comfort. It was early in the morning and Ethen had stayed the night sleeping in what was surely an uncomfortable position for fear of waking her up.

“They’ve given up what they had on me,” he said with a sigh.

It took Eve a moment to figure out what he was talking about. When his words made sense to her she shot up straight. “What do you mean?”

Ethen pointed to the television for Eve to look at the news. It didn’t give her much, just a ‘Breaking News’ headline and a few subtitles explaining that their sources had given them information on the piece of evidence that would finally enable police to charge Ethen for the disappearance of Laura.

Eve reached for the remote and turned off the television. “If you don’t want me to know, then I don’t want to.” She hoped that this would help him see that she understood that she had kept things from him that he deserved to know. Eve knew that she had no right to this information and wanted Ethen to know that she respected that.

Ethen looked at her with big, watery eyes. He made a noise like he was clearing his throat before speaking. “You can know,” he said, stopping his sentence early for fear of crying. Ethen had also been incredibly unused to someone caring about him in such deep yet subtle ways.

“I don’t want to hear their version of the story. I want yours,” Eve replied. She was glad for his answer because truthfully, she was dying to know what he was keeping from her. Eve would have respected that he didn’t want her to know, but she was grateful that he was now willing to tell her. She did want to hear his side of the story, which she knew would be far more accurate than the published version. In this case, the published version was the same as the Melcor version. Melcor would gain just as much from Ethen’s downfall as they would from him acting as a puppet for their desires.

“I told you that Laura was abusive.” Ethen sighed like he didn’t know how to say what he was about to. Eve nodded for him to continue. “It got to a point where it was unbearable. Neither of us was happy. She was miserable, and so was I. I couldn’t do it anymore. If it was just me, sure, I might have endured it for longer, but we had Jeremy. He wasn’t doing well with Laura and me fighting all the time.

“I grew up desperately wishing for my parents to divorce, just to put an end to the screaming fights they had every night. I didn’t want Jeremy to go through the same thing. I knew that Laura wouldn’t confine her anger and jealousy to me. It would only be a matter of time before Jeremy would become a target of her abuse. So, I got rid of her.” Ethen paused to take a sip of water. He remained quiet for a moment as he nervously tousled his hair.

“What do you mean you got rid of her?” Eve asked, leaning in toward him. It sounded like he was confessing to her murder. Eve knew that this couldn’t be the case. She couldn’t help but think for a moment that maybe it would just be her luck that the only nice guy she had ever been with or known was a murderer. It was her paranoia and bitterness that led her to this invasive thought. She knew that there was no stalk in this thought and it was far from the truth. She waited with bated breath for the truth.

“I offered her money,” Ethen said finally. “I told her that if she left and never came back into Jeremy’s or my lives, then I’d pay her off. I gave her access to an offshore bank account and I deposit almost a hundred million in there every couple of years just to keep her away. I knew she would take the deal; she was too greedy not to. It still shocked me how easily she left her own son without so much as a goodbye. I never told her that she couldn’t tell her parents she was leaving. I never told her that she had to disappear. Just that she had to leave me and Jeremy alone.”

“That’s why you knew she left and didn’t disappear.” Eve was glad to know that he hadn’t been stuck with the guilt of not knowing since she left. It would have been dreadful to have had to deal with that.

Ethen nodded, although it was more a statement than a question. “I had no idea that her parents filed a missing person’s report. To be honest, I thought she would go to them right after leaving us. They had always seemed close.”

“And you didn’t want me to see it or to know because it was true.” Ethen nodded once more. “They’re skewing it so that it looks like she refused the deal and you killed her because of it.”

“That’s what it looks like,” Ethen responded. Eve let out a low whistle. Of all the scenarios, she had run through her head, she didn’t expect this.

“Won’t your bank statements reflect the money you’ve given her?” Eve asked, confused as to how Ethen didn’t see this solution.

“It wasn’t exactly a legal transaction, and we covered our tracks really well. I tried, but we made sure there was no record of it. Even if there were, they could argue that I was playing some kind of long game to make it look like she wasn’t dead,” Ethen said.

Eve thought about how careful Ethen must have been to keep out of trouble and how that had once again landed him in the hot seat.

“That seems a little far-fetched,” Eve replied.

“The whole thing is far-fetched!” Ethen exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “None of it makes sense,” he continued in a defeated tone.

Eve stood from the couch and stretched, her bones creaking from sleeping on it. She began to pace back and forth around the room.

“I need to call Iris,” she said abruptly, launching toward her bag to grab her phone. She dialed quickly, having no saved numbers in her phone; she memorized all of them for fear of it being stolen and her friends being used to get to her.

“Why?” Ethen asked, but Iris had already answered the phone. Eve was so lost in thought that she hadn’t even registered his question.

“Iris, I need you to look into offshore accounts. Ones that get nearly a hundred million deposited every other year or so.” Eve figured that if no one had tracked Laura down yet, she had to be smart. She wouldn’t leave the money in the account Ethen transferred it to. She would have to move it to a secondary location that only she had access to. “Try and locate the account holders. One of them might be Laura.”

Iris was ready for the call; she had seen the story break on the news. Eve worried that she hadn’t slept at all, and judging by the sound of Iris’ voice, she was right. Iris had been worried about her own safety since Eve’s near collision with the car. Eve wouldn’t be surprised if Iris hadn’t slept since then, or if she had it would only have been a couple hours at a time and on the couch. Eve wished she could be there for her friend, but knew her going there would only bring more unwanted attention. Iris had only gotten the news’ version of the story, where Laura got to play the benevolent mother who dies by the hands of Ethen after refusing the money. Iris didn’t believe it for a moment and patiently listened as Ethen and Eve explained the real story to her.

Eve knew that she had a lot more to tell Iris. She didn’t ask about Charlie, but Eve could almost hear his name on Iris’ lips. Iris was more focused and selfless than to ask about him right now though. She would be desperate to hear about him. In reality, she had been in love with him since she first met him. Eve knew that this was true, she had ignored it when she was a child. She used to hate the idea that Iris and Charlie might have a special connection. Eve cherished her own connections with her brother and her best friend and thought that maybe she would lose this if the two had a connection. Now she knew better. She would love it if they could reconnect and somehow find happiness in one another. That would be a fairytale in its own right. Eve wanted to tell her everything but knew there would be a better time in the future. They had a solid lead and Iris needed to focus on that, not on Charlie.

Iris went right back to work looking for Laura. Knowing where to start was a helpful step in her search. She had been running mass searches for every piece of information that she could think of that might give her a lead on where to narrow it. This would reduce her search time tremendously, though Iris still cautioned that it would take her a long while to locate her. The very nature of offshore accounts was to have them under the radar and she was looking for a very specific one. Even though Ethen could give her the information for the account he deposited the money to, it would take her time to figure out where the money went from there.

“That was a good idea, to tell Iris so that she could narrow her search,” Ethen said. “I should have told you about it earlier. We might have already found her, without all these accusations and false evidence floating around.” Ethen looked like he thought he had been foolish for keeping it from her for so long. Eve wished that he hadn’t because what he said wasn’t untrue. They may have been able to get ahead of this thing, instead of trying to catch up from behind. She wondered why he had thought that she might not believe what he had to say. Both she and Ethen had a lot of guards up, and they needed to know that they didn’t need to have those up around one another anymore. That they never need to keep anything a secret from the other. Eve was slowly beginning to realize that this was the case.

“It’s okay. I understand why you didn’t want to,” Eve replied. She wanted to echo how he had responded when finding out that Charlie was her brother. It was okay and she did understand it. She just knew that they needed to stop not telling each other things. “We’ll find her though.” Ethen didn’t look convinced. “We will. I have never known anyone to outsmart Iris.”

He nodded, but still looked uneasy. Eve couldn’t blame him. The threat loomed over his head as the trial came closer and closer. His only hope would be to track Laura down. It would be almost impossible to prove his innocence without her. Eve knew that Ethen wasn’t terribly concerned with the ruling; he was more concerned about Jeremy. Should he go to jail, then Jeremy wouldn’t have anyone. He would probably end up with his grandparents, whom he’d never known, or worse. They could refuse to take him and he’d live in foster care until he was an adult. Ethen didn’t care about how the trial would affect him, only how it would affect Jeremy.

“Do you really think you’ll find Mom?” Jeremy said. Both Ethen and Eve jumped, not having realized that he was there.

“How much of that did you hear?” Ethen said in a sharper tone than he meant.

“I already knew it all,” Jeremy replied quietly.

Ethen looked stunned. “You did?”

Jeremy nodded. “I remember her being mean to you and ignoring me when I was little. I heard you tell her that you would give her money if she left us alone.”

Eve could almost hear Ethen’s heart break listening to his son’s confession. Jeremy’s assurance that his father had done nothing to harm Laura made more sense now, as did his optimism about the outcome of his father’s case. He was still young enough that he believed if someone was innocent then it would be proven so in court.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know you ever heard that. You were so young, I didn’t think you’d remember her much at all.” Ethen looked sick to his stomach at the thought.

“What I remember most is Mom’s response,” Jeremy said. “She just asked you how much. No protests, no horrified reaction at leaving me, no refusing to leave or begging to take me with her. Mom just asked you how much. I don’t remember what you responded with. I think I left by that point or stopped listening.” Jeremy had tears in his eyes as he finished telling his father this long-kept secret. “Whatever it was, it was enough. That was the last I ever saw her.” Eve’s heart broke for the boy. It was a terrible thing to know that your parent or parents didn’t love you. Eve had wrestled with that her entire life. No matter what anyone said, it would always feel like her fault that he parents didn’t care about her. She knew that Jeremy probably felt the same way, though right now she was on the other end of it. She couldn’t help but think how ridiculous it was for him to feel that way. It could never be his fault. Eve felt a strange pull in two separate directions. How could she truly believe that it wasn’t Jeremy’s fault if she still thought that it could be hers?

“I’m sorry son,” Ethen said, embracing Jeremy. Jeremy tried to hold off his sobs but was unsuccessful. “I only did what I thought was right.”

“I know,” Jeremy said, nodding. “And it was. Anyone who can leave that easy wasn’t meant to stay.” The wise words sounded more mature than something a fourteen-year-old ought to be able to come up with.

Eve politely left the room so father and son could have time to themselves. She excused herself to the study, where she found Charlie sitting. They only shared a few words, unsure what to say. They both knew that the new information was out there and the whole nation was making their minds up about whether he was guilty or not. It was not long after she left that her phone began to buzz.

“Hey, Iris,” Eve said answering the phone. Hoping for good news. Charlie looked up at her, equally desperate for some kind of break in the case. They needed something soon or there might not be any turning back.

“I found her,” Iris said triumphantly.