by Trisha Grace
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Epilogue
About Author
More Books
To Jesus, the one who made it all possible.
To my dear fiancé, who is always so supportive of me.
To my mum, who is always encouraging of whatever choice I make.
Prologue
Evelyn and Dan strolled through the park, the light pink cherry blossoms hanging low above them. She took off her coat, folding it over her arm.
Spring was warmer than usual this year.
Children were already out in full force, running around in t-shirts and jeans.
She glanced over toward the playground and smiled ruefully as she saw the huge grins plastered on children’s faces.
She loved watching children at playgrounds. She loved listening to the high-pitch, carefree laughter and the shrieks of joy as they ran spiritedly, flailing their hands about.
“I used to love playing at the playground until my parents forced me to take my sister along,” Dan suddenly said.
She shook her head with a grin, but didn’t say anything. She felt Dan’s eyes on her, waiting, she supposed, for her to share an anecdote of her own.
But she didn’t like to think about the past. No, she didn’t allow herself to think of the past.
“Do you want to head over to the mansion for dinner tonight? Or would you rather we go somewhere else?” Dan asked after a moment, turning her head back to him.
She pursed her lips. It felt weird going over to Kate’s house when she wasn’t around. “Somewhere else.”
“Are you going to stay away from the mansion until they come back from their honeymoon?”
One of her shoulders inched up, giving him a nonchalant shrug.
“You can still head over even though she isn’t around, you know?”
“I know.” She smiled, then continued. “Where do you want to go for dinner?”
She was glad that Kate’s wedding had resulted in the need for Dan and her to work together. She was reluctant at first, thinking it was better that she stayed away from him.
Things between them were complicated.
They were good together, but they weren’t meant to be.
She wasn’t meant to be someone’s girlfriend. She wasn’t meant to be in a relationship.
She wished things between them could remain like this forever.
Simple. Just two friends hanging out together.
“How about—” Dan looked down toward the floor.
A young girl wearing a bright pink dress printed with large blue flowers ran right into Dan’s legs, fell back, and landed heavily on her bum.
Dan immediately knelt down and lifted the young girl up.
The young girl stared at him with wide, frightened eyes, seemingly ready to burst into tears.
Even being down on his knee, Dan towered over the girl.
“You all right?” Dan asked with a small smile and a light pat on her head.
The girl nodded slowly, her lips curling to reflect Dan’s.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” the young girl replied.
“Abi!” A woman wearing a light purple top came running over. “I’m so sorry, she never looks where she’s going,” the woman said as she scooped the young girl into her arms.
“It’s okay,” Dan said, grinning at the girl. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Bye,” the young girl grinned and waved as her mother carried her back toward the playground.
Evelyn watched Dan return the girl’s wave.
Dan would make a great father.
The kind of father who would be there for their children. The kind of father a kid would be proud to have.
He was responsible and extremely patient.
She had worked with him and seen how he was with his staff. When things went wrong, he never lost his temper. He focused on solving the problem, gave a stern warning that such mistakes should be avoided, and never brought it up again.
And with her, even after all that she’d put him through, he would always turn up whenever she needed him.
“Cute girl,” Dan commented.
“You think every child is cute.”
He grinned and shrugged.
“You would be a great father.”
“I sure hope so, I’ve been babysitting Joanne forever,” he said. “And I’m sure you would be a great mother.”
She hitched her handbag higher up against her shoulder.
“You don’t want to have a family?”
Her fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag.
This was why they weren’t meant to be. They were so different. “I know you do.”
“Yeah, I do. And you don’t?”
Again, she adjusted the strap on her shoulder. “I already have a family. I have Kate.”
Though Kate wasn’t related to her, they were closer than most sisters were. Kate would probably be the only family that Evelyn would ever have.
His head bobbed up and down as he stared ahead.
They continued strolling through the park, walking side by side, neither saying anything.
Evelyn gazed at a mother walking past them. The young mother held a baby in her arms, rocking gently as she cooed the baby back to sleep.
She turned her head from the mother and child. She wouldn’t know how to be a mother anyway.
She didn’t know a single lullaby. She didn’t know how to bake cookies. She didn’t even know what a normal childhood was.
It was better that someone like her didn’t have children.
“So what do you want to have for dinner?” Dan asked.
Dan deserved better. He shouldn’t be wasting time on someone who could never give him what he wanted.
Pressing her lips into a thin line, she turned to him. “Actually…” She paused as she felt the vibration in her bag. “One minute.”
She pulled out her phone and frowned at the unfamiliar number. “Hello?”
“Hi, Mandy.”
Evelyn’s face blanked. “You got the wrong number,” she said, and hung up the phone.
“Everything all right?”
She forced a smile as she looked up at Dan. “Yeah, but I’ve got to go.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.” She turned and walked away from Dan.
“And dinner?”
She drew in a deep breath and turned back to him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Eve—”
“I really have to go.”
She spun around and strode toward the parking lot, still clenching the phone in her hands.
Chapter One
Evelyn stared at the numbers on her vibrating cell phone. The originally unfamiliar number had become a source of fear and probably the cause of the migraine she had been s
uffering from.
She buried her face in her hands and let the phone vibrate a few more times before sighing and picking it up.
“I thought you were going to ignore my call,” the monotonous voice said.
Tightening her grip on the phone, Evelyn clenched her jaws. She took in a deep breath and quietly cleared her throat of the frustration that had lodged itself there before replying. “What do you want?”
“Money, of course. I’ve run out.”
“I’m not your bank.”
“You can always say no. But I can’t say you’ll like what follows.”
Evelyn shut her eyes and reminded herself to take slow, deep breaths. All she wanted to do was to smash her phone into the wall and leave, to disappear to a place where no one knew her.
If only life was that easy.
“How much do you want?”
“Three thousand. Six o’clock, same place.”
Evelyn hung up the phone without another word. Leaning back against the chair, she shut her eyes and swallowed hard. Crying wouldn’t solve the problem. She needed a solution; she needed to think.
She had contemplated on making a police report, but that meant revealing the secret she had so adamantly refused to speak of. She had thought of changing her phone number and live in denial, praying that things would simply return to normal as long as she could no longer be reached.
As much as she tried to convince herself, she knew things wouldn’t just vanish by feigning ignorance.
Since receiving the first call less than a month ago, Evelyn’s bank account had been set back by over six thousand dollars, and there didn’t seem to be an end to it.
Straightening herself, she stared at the photos playing as the default screensaver on her laptop; photos taken on her best friend’s wedding. She stared blankly at the pictures from Kate’s wedding, seeing smile after smile, until a photo of Dan and her appeared.
Evelyn tilted her head back and took in a deep breath, but tears still went tumbling down her cheeks. Tears stemmed from the nostalgia of joy she had felt in the picture; a joy which seemed so far away and unattainable at the moment.
Life had been good since she got out of the foster system. She had worked hard, and along with Kate, they had a successful career and a great life.
She had thought that if she were to keep her past a secret, she could bury it deep enough that someday, she’d completely forget about it.
Thus far, time had proven her theory to be entirely wrong. Ghosts of the past had a way of haunting one, no matter how much one had changed.
After so many years, Evelyn thought her past was so far behind that the only remnant of it was in her mind.
Again, she was wrong.
She was beginning to doubt if she would ever be free from the past she couldn’t shake.
There was a simple solution, and she knew it.
All she had to do was to spill the beans; let everyone know what had happened to her before, and the blackmailer would have nothing to threaten her with.
It should have been an easy thing to do.
All those things happened so many years ago. But even after a decade, it was difficult for her to open up and talk about what had happened to her, or about what she had done.
Kate was the only one who knew her secret, and Evelyn was sure Kate would never reveal it to anyone unless she allowed it to be so.
Before, she had kept it a secret because she didn’t want to talk about it, she didn’t want to discuss it with anyone and relive her nightmare.
Now, even though she didn’t want to admit it, the truth behind her silence was her hope to keep Dan from ever finding out what she had done.
She’d battled with the decision of telling Dan, to end everything once and for all, but the resolve to do so always disappeared before it ever took root in her heart.
Each time she made up her mind to tell Dan, fear would creep in.
Fear, with its little voice, would tell her that Dan would never accept her after what she had done, and he would be disgusted with her.
The little voice, which seemed ridiculous in the beginning, began to grow louder until she could no longer ignore it.
Soon, the voice in her mind dropped into her heart, and she was convinced that Dan would scorn her when he found out what had happened.
Though she was no longer seeing Dan, though they were never officially dating, she couldn’t bear the thought of Dan finding out her past. She couldn’t bear to see his reaction.
It didn’t take much for the fear to convince her that she was alone in this matter. No one, not Dan, not Kate, would want to be involved with her shady past.
Brusquely, she wiped the tears away on the back of her hand and picked up her bag by the side of the table. Another trip to the bank was necessary.
Evelyn drove up the lone, single driveway that led to the mansion. Green, towering trees that stood throughout all seasons flanked both sides of the road. For a moment, her eyes flickered onto the trees. She forced herself to focus on the road and kept her eyes away from the never-ending woods.
Even after a year, Evelyn couldn’t get over how creepy and isolated the mansion was.
Whenever her eyes wandered to the trees, thoughts of someone, or something, suddenly appearing out of the forest to attack her would surface.
Even with her wild imagination aside, she hated the drive up to the mansion.
She wasn’t sure if it was the scenery of the impenetrable forest or the solitary drive, but a sense of melancholy always accompanied her on the drive.
If only Kate had chosen to live somewhere else, then she wouldn’t have to make this drive up every other day.
She tightened the grip on her steering wheel as she turned into the mansion and saw Dan’s car.
She hadn’t seen him for weeks, not since Kate went on her honeymoon, not since that day at the park, but that hadn’t stopped her from thinking about him.
She sighed, pushing the thoughts from her head.
They were no longer together, and for good reason.
Stepping out of the car, she strode up to the door and turned the knob. As expected, it wasn’t locked.
With so many people going in and out of the house, Marianne had made it a policy to leave the door unlocked during meal times.
Evelyn stepped through the doorway, and her entrance was immediately announced by the motion sensor alarm.
She didn’t understand why Tyler had bothered with that thing. The kitchen didn’t offer a direct view to the main door, so the alarm did nothing to indicate who was coming in. For all they knew, she could have been a burglar.
Strolling past the luggage in the living room, she headed straight into the kitchen.
She forced her lips into a wide grin. “Hey!”
Kate turned around with a blissful smile and gave her a hug. “Sit! I’m giving out the presents. These are yours,” Kate said, giving the two large paper bags on the oval dining table a slight nudge.
Without even looking, Evelyn knew it was probably two new branded bags.
Bags were her sole indulgence.
Having grown up with barely anything instilled some habits in her.
She always made sure she set aside more than half of her income in the bank. She didn’t go for expensive food and had been driving the same secondhand car for years.
But bags, she was always willing to cut back on other expenses for her bags.
She sat beside Kate and watched her dole out the presents to Dan and Marianne. It was strange to see so few people in the usually crowded kitchen.
Kate’s husband, Tyler, sat back against his chair, his arm draped lazily across Kate’s chair.
The past year had brought about many changes to all their lives.
A year ago, a will left behind by Tyler’s grandfather ended up bringing Kate and Tyler together. Along with Tyler, Dan, Ryan, and Joseph all tagged along. They had all become part of the regular people in her life now.
Besides Dan, s
he wasn’t close with any of the guys.
She wasn’t a sociable person in the first place. She was the sort who fared better at being alone than having to mingle with people. Having one friend was more than enough for her.
Her on and off relationship with Dan definitely didn’t help her score any points with the other guys as well.
Joseph, in particular, was exceptionally cold toward her. He never spoke to her directly unless necessary.
Even Ryan, the friendliest in the group, hadn’t warmed up to her either.
But she did have to admit that everyone had been cordial with her for Kate’s sake. Even Marianne, Tyler’s housekeeper, who loved all the boys like her own children, never showed any disapproval of her despite the things she had going on with Dan.
Evelyn hadn’t meant to keep Dan in her craziness. Each time she had walked away from him, she had promised herself that it was the last time and that she wouldn’t get involved with him again.
Logic and rationale told her that they weren’t meant to be. But each time she needed someone, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for her phone and calling Dan.
“How was the honeymoon?” Marianne asked.
As Kate launched into how perfect everything was, Evelyn stole a glance at Dan.
She hadn’t spoken to him since the whole blackmail began.
It was her decision, her own doing, but that didn’t stop her from missing him terribly.
She smiled ruefully as Dan ran his hand through his blond hair, causing the sleeve of his shirt to inch up, revealing the muscles under it.
Though he wasn’t the largest guy in the group, his tendency to work alongside his men in his construction company had built quite a few sturdy muscles.
Dan hated folding up the long sleeves of his shirt. He hated having to pull the edge back down his elbow whenever he lifted his arms.
Her smile faded as the dull ache in her heart worsened.
All the details she remembered about him only reminded her of how happy she was whenever they were together, how people like her didn’t get happily-ever-afters.
And the blackmail she had been receiving was the reinforcement of the different world they belonged in.
Dan grew up in a complete family. They weren’t perfect, but at least he grew up safe.
