Chapter 45
Eva nodded and looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap.
“Morocco was more than just a trip for my thesis.”
He waited patiently as she searched for the words she needed to say.
“It was an excuse.”
“I’m not following.”
“Morocco… was my escape,” she said as she looked past him and out the window at the wind blowing lightly at the large cedar tree.
“Escape? From me?”
She shook her head, still looking out the window. She was silent for a long time. Slowly she turned to look at Edward. She searched his face for validation.
“I killed Gracie and her brother.”
Edward just stared at her. His body felt detached. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Eva, you don’t know what you are saying.” He tried taking her hands but she pulled away from him.
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“But, why?”
“She needed to go and it was her fault for dragging her brother into it. I had no intentions of….” She turned her head away.
“Eva.” He turned her face back toward his. “You need to talk to me. Why did you kill her?”
She pressed her lips together and took a big breath. “Do you remember that professor that was murdered a few years ago?”
“Yes. Professor Gains, right?”
She nodded. “He wasn’t killed when I was going to school there. I was still in high school.”
“So, why is that relevant to what happened?”
“My grades were perfect. With the scholarships I received, I had my choice to go wherever I wanted to go.”
“Okay.”
“I chose Oxford University because of what Gracie did to him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My name isn’t really Eva Brooks.”
Edward’s eyes were glued to her.
“It’s Eva Gains.”
“He was your father.” Edward felt his heart swell for her. “My God, Eva. I’m so sorry.”
“The reason I went to Oxford in the first place was so that I could get close enough to her to make her pay for what she did. My life was good,” she nodded. “Ya know? I thought my parents were happy together, I was just graduating high school, I was top honors, I was popular and had a choice of any university in the world. When I found out my father was murdered, my whole world stopped. And then,” she laughed “when I found out why?” She stood up and walked to the window. “I had no idea my father was having an affair, until after the courts dragged every horrible detail through the newspapers.”
“It must have been horrible for you.”
“At first, it was completely incomprehensible. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. The only thing I could think about was murdering her like she murdered my father. I got through the year and started confiding in a counselor. She helped me realize my full life’s potential. After a while, I guess I talked myself out of following through with it. Until I met you.”
“Me?”
“I got to know you and fell so hard for you, Eddie.”
“Call me Edward. Eddie is gone, he wasn’t real.”
“Anyway, when I found out she sunk her claws into you, I couldn’t even imagine my life without you.”
“Did you really think she was going to kill me as well?”
“Yes. It is what she does. Why do you think she got her brother to beat the hell out of you? I believe he was supposed to kill you.”
“That’s why you were so afraid when you found out about that night.”
“Yes. I knew what I had to do. I knew it was never going to end. I wasn’t going to allow her to take two men I loved from me.”
“So, why did you go to Morocco?”
“It was part of the plan. I had to get away, an alibi.”
“Did Gerald know?”
“Not a clue. He was so involved in trying to get me into bed that he was oblivious. You can understand why I needed to do what I did. When I got to Gracie’s house, everyone had thought I already left for Morocco. It was the perfect plan, until I saw you inside arguing with her brother. By the time you left and I got inside and killed her, her brother had regained consciousness and saw everything. I couldn’t chance it.”
She turned and faced him. “I’m so sorry you almost took the fall, but I had a feeling you would be arrested and charged since you had been there before I was, so I planted evidence to make it look like she tried setting you up.”
“This is… so surreal.”
“I’m sure there are still investigations going on, but last I heard they had no suspects.”
A hard knock on the front door startled Eva as she backed up toward the window.
“Police. Mr. Caldwell, are you there?”
Eva looked at Edward with terror in her eyes. She wanted to say something but she closed her mouth and turned back toward the window.
Edward walked to the door and opened it.
“Is there a problem, officer?”
“There was a call made to emergency personnel from this address. The operator detected a disturbance over the call and dispatched the Sussex Police Department to check it out. May we come in?”
“Absolutely. I apologize for any misconception. When I arrived home, I did notice my door open but couldn’t understand why my alarm didn’t go off. I guess I jumped to conclusions thinking it was a burglar and I made the call. Turns out it was just my girlfriend trying to surprise me.”
“Do you mind if we take a look around?”
“No, not at all. Help yourselves.”
He backed up and opened the door, allowing the two police officers to walk in and look around. He followed them into the bedroom where Eva was still facing the window.
“Miss?” One of the officers stepped toward her. When Eva finally turned and looked at him he smiled. “Is everything okay here?”
She looked at Edward in an eerie manner and then looked back at the officer. “Yes,” she said simply.
“Well, it looks like everything is in order and if there are no complaints then I suppose we will be off.”
The officer hesitated while looking at Edward, waiting for his approval that they could be dismissed. He looked over at Eva and smiled at her.
“Yes, everything seems to be fine. I’ll double check my alarm system and have it tested first thing Monday morning.”
He walked them out of the house. “Thank you for checking up on everything. I do appreciate it.”
“Have a good day, Mr. Caldwell.”
“You as well.”
He waited on the front step until they left and went back into the bedroom.
“You didn’t tell them,” she said plainly.
“Did you think I would?”
“I knew you wouldn’t.” She walked to him and put her arms around his neck.
“Where is the broken glass?”
“I swept it underneath the bed. I didn’t want to give them reason to stick around and ask unwarranted questions.”
“Always thinking.” He smiled and pulled her closer.
She stretched her face up to his and kissed him tenderly.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes still closed.
“For what?”
“Everything. Not believing in you, ditching you when you may have needed me most, making you think I had something going with Gerald.”
“I never thought that,” he teased.
She smacked his arm playfully. “You lie.”
“I’m just happy everything is finally out in the open and I can go back to loving you the way it was intended.”
“Well, almost everything is out in the open.”
“Some things are better left tucked away,” he said, kissing her forehead. “We all have secrets.”
She turned away from him and walked to his closet, her hand running along the many pressed suits he had hanging up. “So, is this what I can expect to come home to every night? Is this the real you?”
“I confess. It really is.” He walked up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “Can you handle it?”
“I will definitely give it a try.”
He spun her around, picked her up and kissed her deeply. His head swam with the feel of her back in his arms. He didn’t want to let her go. He didn’t want to open his eyes. He was afraid that if he did, he would wake up and realize it was all just a dream.
“Eva,” he whispered as he kissed her again.
“Hmmm.”
“You do realize you are stuck with me from now on, don’t you?”
She pulled back and gave him a smirk. “Am I? Who says I want to be?”
“You wouldn’t want to upset an old man, now would you?”
“An old man? I doubt you are much older than I am.”
“Not me.”
Eva face contorted into a state of confusion. “Then who? What are you talking about?”
“You don’t remember what the old man said? I’m appalled.”
She shook her head when the memory didn’t ring any bells.
“The old man at Le Petite Rose des Sables.”
“Le Petite….” She gasped. “Paris. The first place we went out together. How did you remember that?”
“I believe he said something like, Vous avez quelque chose de très rare.”
“You have something very rare, yes,” she said with a glazed look in her eyes. “He said he could feel it and that he was hardly ever wrong.”
“And he said, Aimez-vous les uns les autres et aimez la vie.”
“I thought you couldn’t speak French?”
“I have learned a few things since I met you.”
Eva was mesmerized at Edward’s dedication to her.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, his eyes glued to hers until he opened his wallet. He pulled out a small piece of paper that was ripped from the corner of a page and held it out to her.
“What is this?” She took it and unfolded it. “My number and address? You kept this?”
“It was the first thing you ever gave to me. I had to keep it.”
He handed her another small ripped piece of paper.
“What are you doing?”
“Open it.”
She unfolded it and looked up at him. “A heart?”
“It was the first thing I ever gave to you.”
She lowered her gaze and smiled, a light shade of pink covering her cheeks. “So I suppose I should do the right thing and keep it, huh?”
“Absolutely.”
She put her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
“You got it, Edward.”