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“The bruises on her arms caught my attention. Fresh marks over old ones.” Elijah’s eyes grow dark. “Men who enjoy hurting women and children are the lowest of lifeforms. Your Eve was a nervous wreck, not unexpected of someone who was being abused so badly. She burst into tears when she spilled my coffee on me.”
My fist clenches at the idea of someone abusing Eve, raw, helpless anger making me want to into the next room and finish the job.
“I took her out for coffee instead. At that point, even if she hadn’t been pregnant with your child, I would have intervened. Afterward, I looked her up; it wasn’t hard to get access to her medical records. She had listed your name in her obstetrician’s file on her. However, she hadn’t listed an emergency contact, which I found odd. Further research revealed that she was staying with Thomas Richards, the family lawyer.”
I can’t keep still, restlessness and agitation on hearing how bad Eve had it making me want to get rid of this energy. I move over to her and run my fingers through her hair.
“Who is this man? Why did he…?”
“His parents died in a car crash. Eve’s parents took him in, as a ward. They didn’t adopt him. But from what I understand is that Thomas has a penchant for manipulation. And Eve’s parents are slightly old-fashioned.”
I turn to look at Elijah. “What does that have to do with this?”
“He fed them lies. Half-truths. Eve had an inheritance that she was to receive on her twenty-fifth birthday. He made sure she never got it. He gained control over it, justifying to her parents that she was growing unstable. They trusted him. More than they trusted her. So, when Eve was kicked out for getting pregnant and whatever else he convinced them of, he offered to take her in, and since she had nothing to her name, she accepted.”
An anguished sound escapes me. “She could have come to me!”
My father studies me. “Could she? She thought you had cast her away.”
I stare at the woman lying so still before me, and I have the urge to both shake her and shower her with so much love that she can’t take it. I know that there are parts of her that Eve is holding back from me but now I am starting to understand why.
“She was pregnant, scared, homeless; Thomas took advantage of that. He entered into a sexual relationship with her.”
“He raped her,” I snarl.
Elijah shakes his head. From what I understand, he took advantage of her grief. I don’t know the particulars of that relationship. But I do know that he beat her up, continuously. He wouldn’t let her leave the house and if she did, it was only for her weekly checkups.”
His fingers tap on the plastic arm of the chair he sits in. “He starved her too. Just enough that the doctor would be difficult to notice. And if the latter did, it was explained away by Eve.”
My hands tighten on the metal railings, my voice guttural. “Why is he still alive then?”
Elijah watches me, carefully. “Do you want me to take care of him?”
I hesitate, the word ‘yes’ stuck in my throat.
Something moves on my father’s face. “I confirmed everything before I made a move. I spent thirty minutes alone with the man in his house. He still bears the marks of my visit. I extracted everything that belonged to Eve in that time, and I made sure he would never bother her again.”
I pace along Eve’s bed, unable to stop myself from touching her, from assuring myself of her presence. “If you were so thorough, why did he go after her?”
If Elijah heard the sneer in my voice, he ignores it.
“Three days ago, Thomas Richards was fired from his law firm,” Elijah said slowly. “He was up for the position of a partner in the law firm he was working at. Four days ago, the Board of Directors of Reiner Law received a package from an anonymous source detailing Thomas’s actions against Eve Taylor, including the fact that he had threatened to murder her unborn child. There was a voice recording of Eve from the day the social worker had shown up.”
My jaw tightens on hearing the words that Eve screamed at the woman who came to rip our family apart. She refused to talk about it later, telling me she didn’t want to think about it; that our daughter was safe. And I was so desperate to
please her that I made a conscious effort to put it aside from now.
I should have found out everything there was to know about this. Even if she ended up hating me for it.
At least she wouldn’t be unconscious in a sterile hospital bed right now.
“Hospital reports, the release of Eve’s inheritance at a much later date than when it should have been, damning information that no one should have been able to get their hands on; all those things were in that package. It didn’t take the board more than a day to come to the decision to let him go.”
“A good Samaritan?” I ask darkly.
Elijah studies his shoes thoughtfully before meeting my gaze. “Or someone who had gained an understanding of Thomas Richard’s psyche and decided to wind him up and watch him go after Eve.”
I give my father a disbelieving look. “You still don’t think it’s him who’s been doing all this?”
