AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s go inside. Can I offer you a cup of tea or coffee?”
Eve brushes past me and sticks the key in the lock.
Now that the tension seems to have abated, Mila stretches her arms towards my father, looking thrilled at seeing him.
Eve is already inside, and I don’t want to hand my baby over to my father.
It is bad enough that my hands are tainted.
His are far worse.
“Don’t be childish, Zayn. It doesn’t suit you,” Elijah chides me, leaning forward and taking Mila from me.
“What the hell is going on?” I hiss at him. “What am I missing?”
“I’ve been cleaning up your messes for a long time, Zayn,” my father tells me. “Even the ones you didn’t know about.”
“I want answers.”
I just left Mila in her room to pack what she wants to bring to my house.
Not the smartest idea since my daughter wants to bring all of her toys and then some.
Elijah is in the kitchen, waiting on us as Eve went to pack her things. I trail after Eve, watching her throw some clothes into a bag.
She pretends to contemplate between two shirts, but I know she is thinking of how to answer me while giving me as little information possible.
“Eve,” I grab her firmly by the wrist, forcing her to look at me.
When she does, I frown. “I’m asking you to be honest, not try to throw me off track. How do you know Elijah? How did you meet him?”
She doesn’t remove her arm from my hold, just gives me a conflicted expression. “It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it,” I suggest, unhelpfully.
Brow twisting in annoyance, she pulls her arm back. “I met him at the hospital. When I first found out about Mila. I had gone for a check-up. I ran into him, and he was holding a cup of coffee in his hands, and it fell over him. And I offered to get him another one. We just got to know each other.”
I blink, languidly, not buying into it. “And somehow he just ended up becoming a silent partner to in your business? You’re not telling me everything.”
Eve dumps an armload of clothes into the bag and scowls at me. “Why do you need to know everything? It’s got nothing to do with you!”
“The hell it doesn’t!” I shout back.
She stares at me, stunned by the lack of control I just exhibited.
I regret it almost instantly.
Her voice is low this time, strain in it. “Let my past be, Zayn. I don’t want to think about it.”
I flex my fingers. “You don’t understand, Eve. Elijah is—He’s—" How could I tell her that my father isn’t just a criminal: he runs the underground world? That he is one of the most feared people, the king of monsters.
“He was kind to me,” Eve’s fingers tremble as she tries to zip up the bag. “When I had nothing and no one, Elijah was kind to me.” She looks up at me, and I see a plea for understanding. “I needed kindness at that point in my life.”
I take a step towards her, helpless at this expression in her eyes. “Why, Eve? What happened that was so bad?”
She shakes her head mutely. “I don’t want to talk about it. But your father, in a way, saved my life. I owe him a lot.”
I shove my hands in my pockets, my eyes narrowed.
