Chapter 42



𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕕

Eve's POV (ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪)

Five, four, three, two, one, zero-

"Don't you recognise him, Evelyn?" I jerked, my mother's voice dragging me out of the mental meltdown I was experiencing.

I couldn't process it all at once. My mother was alive, she was somehow walking with laura, Lucas was somehow, impossibly Antonio Crane. My next door, cute little neighbour who had been snatched out of our lives too soon. Whom I had had a huge crush on. That same Antonio was Lucas.

Now it made more sense. The constant talk about his sister whom I never got to see in person, only in pictures. That was how I had been able to recognise her when Jay had taken me to the mysterious girl - who had been muttering my name throughout the time she was unconscious.

When she said she couldn't remember her name, only that she had to warn a woman named Evelyn about an impending danger, I had thought she was trying to warn me about Lucas deceit and had seen it as a sign to continue with my sinister plans. How was I to know that she was Lydia? My very own best friend, whom I had run around our manor with through tunnels we had discovered together.

Oh my god.

"Oh my god," I whispered aloud, my eyes turning to land on my mother as if seeing her for the first time in my life. "Mother, what did you do?" I slithered, my eyes on fire.

"Call me Gina. Only my children call me Momma and you aren't one of them."

The fuck?

"Your children? Are you referring to that thing beside you?" I scoffed, my anger running wild. Who the fuck did this bitch think she was? After what I just found out, calling her mother should be considered a blessing.

Gina threw her head back and laughed out loud. "Oh, you ignorant child. Forget this whole tough girl act you try to pull. Once a fool, always a fool."

"A fool you tried to kill but failed, miserably. You are the fool, Gina. Thinking you could somehow defeat me, you made me stronger." Her eyes flashed when I called her Gina. I thought that was what she wanted?

"Speak to me with resp-"

Luckily for her, she didn't get to finish whatever nonsense she was about to spill because Lucas interrupted with a sneer. "So you forced me to seduce your daughter because you knew my true identity, right?"

Her gaze snapped towards Lucas and I followed it only to discover that Lucas had moved closer to me. No wonder he sounded so close. For the first time in five years, I was completely grateful he was near.

"Don't forget the fact that you were awestruck by Evelyn the saint." Gina snickered and I cringed.

Oh lord. This woman needed to die.

"Now I know the why." Lucas continued as if he hadn't heard her. "Can you now tell me how? How did you find me? How did you even know my real identity because I am a hundred and ten per cent sure I was hidden well."

The bitch raised her voice in laughter again. This was something she was greatly enjoying. How I was so going to enjoy slicing her into a million tiny pieces while she was still alive. For breaking my heart, for killing my father, for leaving me with a thousand and something days worth of guilt, anger and pain. For destroying our family, for razing us.

"What you don't understand, Antonio-"

"Antonio is dead," Lucas declared, his voice ringing above hers with intent. "I go by Lucas now." I turned and caught him staring at me fiercely, the emotions in his eyes were way stronger than anything I had ever seen.

My lips curved up in a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Gina scoffed sarcastically, nonchalantly even. "What you don't understand is that I made you."

For the first time since we arrived, Lucas laughed. Like a full-blown chortle that went on for seconds on end. Apparently, the sentence Gina just made was very funny.

Why wasn't I getting the hang of the joke?

"You made me?" Lucas asked when he was finally able to breathe. "Where were you when my parents died? Where were you when I was being whisked away to an orphanage? Where were you when I had to escape and live the life of a gigolo just so I could fend for myself and my little sister, huh?

"I was right beside you." A very familiar voice drawled and stepped through the metal door Gina had stepped out from, and to God who made me, I have never been so awed as I was in that very moment.

"No fucking way." I breathed, my heartbeat rising a hundred degrees higher.

"Yes, fucking way, little sister." He answered and went to stand beside Laura, his hands wrapping themselves around her waist.

I almost fainted.

"Damien?" I heard Lucas hoarsely whisper beside me. There was no way he could have seen that coming. None of us could.

"Yes, brother." Damien sneered, but as I looked into his eyes, I noticed something odd. His eyes weren't carrying the same venom his voice puffed.

"It was you. It was you all along." Lucas brokenly whispered, tears sliding down his cheeks now. This was just too much trauma. Too much discovery for both of us. How were we supposed to handle the fact that all we'd ever thought we knew had all been a lie? An elaborate, well thought out lie.

"The fact that he pulled it off without you knowing, shows how much of my son he is."

As Gina said this, something clicked inside my head. "Your son," I whispered, trying to not believe the thoughts spiralling through my head right now. Gina was looking at me now, her eyes dawning in realisation. I had just somehow pieced together her well-guarded secret.

"Didn't you have an affair with Antonio's father, a year before you married my dad?" I asked, my eyes glowing with hatred. It was true what they said, Knowledge was indeed great power.

"How the hell did you know-"

"How old are you again, brother?" I sneered, directing the question to Damien and cutting of my mother- no Gina, in the process.

"Twenty-nine?" Damien answered before his mother could stop him.

"Oh wow, what a coincidence that you were born exactly ten months after your mother began her affair with Lucas's father. Which were three months after Lucas was born, right?" I add, my eyes flickering to Gina. She looked like she was about to rip my tongue out.

Smirking, I continued, "Am I the one that finds it so strange that there was no record of you being pregnant at that time? Oh wait, there was a record of Eunice, our housemaid, being pregnant - who was said to have given birth to a male child who had died-"

"Hold up, hold up," Damien said, his hands slipping from Laura's waist so he could fully face his mother. "Is she trying to say that my father was Mr crane?"

For the first time since we arrived, Gina looked scared. "Baby-"

"Don't patronize me, Momma, just tell me the truth. Is my father Mr Crane? Am I in any way related to Antoni-"

"It's Lucas!" Lucas roared and Damien molten eyes shimmered to him for a second before landing back on his mother.

"Lucas. Am I related to Lucas, Momma?"

"Baby you don't understand, I did it for you-"

"Fucking answer the question woman!" Damien thundered, his hands clutching his stomach. He was still sore from the bullet wound Laura's men had inflicted on him.

"Yes he was, but-"

"Oh my god," Damien whispered, turning his back to her. "Oh my god, Momma. How could you have done this? You told me my father was dead, told me he hadn't even wanted me, told me-"

"But he hadn't wanted you-" Gina began.

"But at least he was alive! He was very much alive, not until you killed him. And you used me. Me! His son, his blood!" There was something nasty brewing in Damien's eyes.

Why wasn't I surprised? What I had just learnt about my mother today was enough to drive any sane person loco. Apparently, the wicked witch of Transville had also lied to her beloved son. How ironic.

If I could remember correctly, The Crane's were killed by an accidental fire. So when Damien says she used him, I found it hard to grasp what he was trying to say. I blatantly refused to believe the truth about the matter.

"No," I heard Lucas whispered beside me. "You set my house on fire?"

His voice scared me. The way he sounded, low, careful, intentional, sent goosebumps up my arms. This was a side of Lucas I had never seen before.

"I'm so sorry brother, I didn't know-"

"Don't call me your brother!" Lucas cut in. This was nothing but pure rage at work and I couldn't blame him. I was pretty much jeered up myself. "I am not your brother, your anything! Did you, or did you not set my house on fire?"

"I'm so sorry Lu, I didn't know-"

He didn't get far on that sentence because the next thing I knew, Lucas was already shooting through the roof in pure rage. How he had gotten to his gun so fast, was beyond me.

Shit!

This was definitely the beginning of the end.