Chapter 40



𝕀𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕔𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕔𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘

Eve's POV (𝕊𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕥)

"Mum!" I screamed, my fragile legs carrying me down the stairs as fast as they possibly could.

"Evelyn, your father-" My mum cried, eyes wide and puffy, her hands on her chest as she stumbled towards me.

"Mum, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Tears were rushing down my cheeks now, my heart shattering, breaking, pained. I was slowly but surely being utterly destroyed.

"Your father is gone, Evelyn, gone!" She reached me then, her hands weakly grabbing my arms, eyes wide like a woman hysterical. "How could you have done this? You've jeopardized everything, destroyed us." She choked, her snobs getting in the way of her painful grunts.

"Mama I'm sorry. I didn't know. He lied to me, deceived me, told me he loved me, mama." Mucus was already running down my nose, the radiant energy within me, gone, torn from my very soul.

"I can't do this anymore baby. I can't leave like this, I can't-" The light began to fade from my mother's eyes and she began sliding to the ground, taking me along with her.

My grip on her tightened and I began to cry. "Mama I'm sorry, please don't leave me. I can't live without you mama, I can't go on without you, mummy-" But my mother wasn't listening anymore. I could feel her heartbeat slowing, fading, could sense her soul leaving this world.

I screamed, the mansion carrying my voice to the furthest of places, to the deepest corners of my soul, sending it into and beneath the earth.

The foyers doors were kicked open and a frantic Doctor Jay came rushing in, his medical kit in hand.

"Evelyn," He called as he spotted me on my knees, my dying mother in my arms.

I lifted my wet lashes and looked my him, my eyes empty. "She's gone." I brokenly whispered. "She's dead, and I killed her."

"No, no, no, don't say that," Jay said as he slowly took my mother's hand into his and felt for her pulse. He moved to the nape of her neck too, checked her heart and pupils before slowly dropping her hands back to the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Evelyn, I shouldn't have told her your dad was dead. I should have known she couldn't handle it."

"No, she died of a broken heart. I killed her, I fucking killed my mother."

Jay came towards me, trying to place his arms on me. "Evelyn-"

"No." I breathe, shifting away from him. "I don't deserve to live. I just single-handedly destroyed my family's name, destroyed my reputation, ruined us financially and killed my parents all in one day, all in one signature, all because of one man."

I rose to my feet and ran for the kitchen. Jay stood up and came after me, somehow having an idea of what I was about to do. But he wasn't fast enough because the knife was already in my hands by the time he sprinted into the kitchen.

"Evelyn no! please don't do this. You deserve a second chance, we all do."

"No, I don't. All I want to do is kill Lucas and myself. But the bastard has left me. Just as he planned to do. Since I can't find Lucas, I'll just have to settle for myself." With that I raised the knife high into the air and brought it down with force, embedding it into my stomach. Jay was already halfway through the kitchen, and by the time I began to collapse to the cold floor, he was there to catch me.

"No Evelyn, I won't let you die. I swear it."

His blurring face was the last thing I saw before everything went peacefully quiet and very, very, dark.

***************

Lucas POV (𝕊𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕥)

I ran faster than I've ever had to run in my entire life.

I couldn't lose her too. Not after just losing Lydia. The painful expression on my sister's burnt dead body was the worst sight to ever be engraved in my heart. Had I saved her from that fire five years ago only to be burnt to death?

I had gone berserk with rage, shooting at any and everything on my path, including that evil bitch Laura. I hope she dies slowly and painfully as Damien assured her she would. I couldn't wait to finish her off myself because I had Evelyn to worry about.

The news circulating the globe on TV by reporters were all staged. It was nothing but a lie. Evelyn still had her company intact. It might have been temporarily transferred to me, but all I needed was my signature and it would all be hers.

I had to tell her the truth, needed to let her know that I was forced, had no choice. I needed her to know how I loved her, how I would never hurt her because she was my life, and right now, the only good thing remaining in my existence. My sister was gone, and so were my parents.

I got into my Cadillac and drove like a mad man, the documents she had signed sitting beside me. I cursed the moment I met Laura, cursed how weak I was, how I couldn't save them, save my sister, my parents and now Eve.

I was still at loss as to how Laura found out about my plans. How had she known I had planned to double-cross her? How had she even known about my plans to save Lydia? Where had those pictures come from? Pictures of I and Evelyn in the throes of passion, in my car, outside her father's house? At first, I had thought it was Damien, but when Laura almost killed him in front of me I knew it just couldn't be him. It just couldn't.

I arrived at the Russell's Manor just in time to see ambulances and police cars covering the entire street leading to the house.

My heart sang in fear.

What could have happened? What was going on?

I jeered out the car and jammed the door, ignoring its call for me to lock it up and ran towards the mansion, passing my old family house - which was already being rebuilt. Ignoring the searing pain I felt at the sight of it, I ran towards the porch only to be stopped by some policemen at the front door.

"Sir, you can't go in, this is an active scene." A man with a detective badge hooked to his left breast grunted, his hands preventing me from tearing through the doors.

"What's happening? Where is Evelyn? Why are there cops all over this place?" I asked, my voice frantic.

The man looked at me more keenly, his brows furrowed in thought. "Who exactly are you again?"

My eyes landed on him then, finally seeing him for the first time. If he was a detective, then I had to be very careful. "Just a concerned neighbour."

"What's your name, concerned neighbour?"

"It's Antonio-" Just as I was saying my name, my real name, the doors were shoved open and a body was being pushed out in a stretcher, a man in a doctors' coat beside the covered body, his hands tightly gripping the person under the covers.

The detective immediately rushed to them, an irrelevant me completely forgotten. The detective met the doctor and spoke into his ear. As the doctor shook his head in sadness, my heart sank.

No, no, no. I wasn't going to assume or believe anything, not until I saw it with my very own eyes. As if on cue the detective lifted the covers off the body and to my absolute horror the peaceful, smooth and angelic face of Evelyn met me.

She looked peaceful like she was completely contented being dead.

"She stabbed herself in the gut after discovering her father was dead. Her mother died in her arms. It should be ruled as a suicide."

As the doctor said this I stopped breathing, moving backwards until I found myself in my car, driving at full speed to wherever the wind took me.

Hopefully, it was taking me to my grave.