by Linda Verji
She was just plotting out the logistics of making over Jackson’s grandfather so he could look like the type of man a court would give custody when she heard a deep voice out in the hallway.
It was Carter, and he said, “Where’s my mom?”
Immediately, Sharon’s heart jumped in excitement. Her boy was back home. She immediately sat up straighter and her head turned towards the door.
The housekeeper’s voice echoed from the hallway. “She and Jackson are having breakfast.”
“Okay, thanks.” Carter’s footsteps soon followed and moments later, he walked through the archway that led into the dining room.
“Carter.” Sharon couldn’t hide her happiness as she greeted, “We’ve missed you. Where have you been?”
Carter eyed her silently for an uncomfortably long moment before turning his gaze to Jackson. “Jack, you’re not going to school today. Go pack a bag with some of your clothes and anything else that you need then wait for me.”
Immediate confusion shot through Sharon. Frowning, she asked, “Are you taking him somewhere?”
Carter didn’t answer her. His eyes still on Jackson, he said, “Pack for about a week and carry your school stuff.”
“Okay.” Jackson scrambled out of his seat and out of the room, leaving his breakfast unfinished.
Her concern tripling because of the odd anger that seemed to radiate from her son, Sharon asked, “Where are you taking Jackson?”
Carter turned to face her. “Far, far away from you.”
Sharon blinked then blinked again. “What?”
“How could you, Mom?” His eyes were blazing with wild anger. “How could you hurt so many people?”
“Wh… what…” Sharon tripped over her words as her heart began to beat faster. “What are you… what are you talking about?”
“I know everything, Mom.” He paused for a beat. “I know everything you’ve done.”
Sharon’s hand flew to her chest. “What?”
Scowling fiercely, Carter bit out, “Eve told me everything.”
No, she couldn’t have. No, no, no, no, no. Panic streaking through, Sharon shot to her feet. She rushed to him and grabbed his arm. “Carter, I can explain everything.”
He jerked his arm out of her grip and took a step backward. “Are you even human? What kind of person would do the things you’ve done? How could you do that to all those people? How could you do that to Eve? How could you do that to her parents? They are our friends. They helped raised me. They-” He stopped talking to stare at her with a look could only be described as disgust. That look cut straight to her heart.
“Wait, wait, I can explain,” Sharon panted as she took another step to him. “Eve lied to you. I didn’t do anything to-”
“Are you saying that it’s a lie that you used her paternity to force her to marry me?”
“Yes… it’s a lie.” Her words pouring out in a rush, she denied, “I didn’t force her. She wanted to. Don’t listen to her. Don’t believe her. And I didn’t even know about her father. She’s the one who told me. Everything she told you is a lie.”
“No, you’re the one who is lying,” Carter sniped. “Why did you do it?”
“I didn’t. I swear, Carter. I didn’t.” Sharon insisted. However, the look in his eyes made it clear that he didn’t believe her, so she quickly changed tack. “Okay, okay, okay. Fine. I did it. But I did it for us.”
Carter’s gaze turned incredulous. “Us?”
“Yes, us. Our family.” Desperate to salvage the little milk that hadn’t yet spilt, she explained, “I had no choice, Carter. After Arthur died, it was just you and me. We needed someone to take over the company after me but you didn’t want to do it. Eve was the only woman you liked enough to marry, and the only one who was qualified to take over the company. I only did it for us, and I gave her more than I took from her.”
“Are you kidding me?” Carter exploded. “You ruined her livelihood. You ruined her relationship. You played with her family. You destroyed her friendship with me… but you somehow think that making her your lackey made up for all that?”
“Yes.” Sharon added, “I gave her a new life. A better life.”
Carter stared at her as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. When he spoke, his voice was lower but no less angry. “I can’t believe I never saw it.”
“Never saw what?”
“Is this what you are?” He stared at her like she was an alien. “Are you someone who hurts people without even an ounce of remorse? How could I not have seen it? Mom?”
“Come and sit down.” Sharon grabbed his arm and tried to drag him to a seat. “Let’s talk about this.”
“No.” Carter snatched his arm from her grip. “I can’t even look at you right now. I just…” Shaking his head, he turned then started for the door.
“Carter. Carter. Carter.” Sharon followed him out of the room. His strides were so long that she had to run just to catch up with him. As she trailed him up the stairs, she panted, “Carter, wait. Can’t we talk about this? Eve lied to you… please. Just listen to me first. Stop.”
Carter didn’t stop or turn back. He kept walking up the stairs, turned into the hallway and strode to Jackson’s room. Sharon walked into Jackson’s room just as Carter was saying, “Are you done yet?”
“Yeah.” Jackson gestured to his backpack.
Carter grabbed the backpack. “Let’s go.”
“Carter, stop. Wait.” Sharon was desperate now. “Can we just talk for a moment?”
But he was interested in listening to her. Hiking the backpack on his shoulder, he grabbed Jackson’s hand then swept past her without a word. Sharon followed them down the stairs with more calls of ‘wait’ and ‘stop’ but nothing worked. Carter and Jackson just kept walking until they were out of the house. Carter didn’t even look at her as he and Jackson got into the car.
“Carter, can you stop for a minute?” She frantically tapped the car window.
He started the car.
“Carter,” she called out just as he pulled the car out. She had to jump backwards to keep from getting scraped by the side-mirror. “Carter. Carter. Carter,” she yelled, but it was no use. The car took off, leaving her standing alone in the driveway. As she watched him go, panic turned into despair.
He knew everything. He knew everything. He knew EVERYTHING.
Feeling a weird heaviness in her chest and tears gathering behind her eyes, she rushed back to the house and straight to the dining room. Her phone was still beside her plate. With trembling fingers, she grabbed it, quickly scrolled to contact she wanted then hit the dial icon. One ring. Two rings. Three rings…
“What do you want, Sharon?” Eve’s calm voice echoed over the line.
“What did you tell him? WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?” Sharon screamed. “You promised that you wouldn’t. YOU PROMISED-”
Eve hang up on her.
Tears now streaming down her cheeks, Sharon dialed Eve’s number again. This time Eve didn’t pick up.
“You bitch! You bitch! PICK UP!” Sharon yelled as she tried calling again.
Eve didn’t pick up.
Sharon tried to type out a text message but her fingers were trembling so much that the phone slipped from her hands to fall to the carpeted floor. She bent to pick the phone up but was hit by a nasty bout of nausea, dizziness and breathlessness that forced her to sit down.
Oh God! Carter knew everything. Eve had told him. How could she? HOW COULD SHE?
The desolation Sharon felt was indescribable, like nothing she’d ever felt before. She cupped her hands over her face as she took in deep breaths. But her panic refused to subside. If anything it just got worse. Breathing became harder and a weird pain started in her chest. The housekeeper found her like that.
Panic in her voice, Martha asked, “Mrs. Welling, are you okay?”
Sharon tried to answer her but couldn’t. Through pants, she managed a breathless, “Water. Water.”
Marth
a rushed to pour her a glass. As Sharon gulped it down, the only words ringing in her mind were, ‘He knows. He knows. He knows’. The water was enough to wet her lips and ease her nausea. Several deep breaths later, the tightness in her chest subsided. But nothing could soothe the misery that had now set in. Carter knows.
Sharon sent the housekeeper away so she could be alone.
How could Eve have done this to her? And how could Toni have let her? Were they not afraid that she’d tell Mark about Eve’s paternity? It hit Sharon right then that she’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. She’d brought Toni to a chessboard then made what she thought was a smart move. But instead of playing the game, Toni had simply upended the whole board. She had ended the game.
It was all over.
There was no longer anything that Sharon could do to stop her sky from falling. She was all out of cards. And she’d lost Carter, the only person who mattered to her. Fury seeped in to intertwine with misery.
This was all Eve’s fault. If it wasn’t for Eve, Sharon wouldn’t have lost La Belle. If it wasn’t for Eve, Carter wouldn’t know. If it wasn’t for Eve, Carter would never have looked at her the way he had. Sharon could still vividly remember how he’d looked at her; like she was a monster, like she disgusted him.
It was all Eve’s fault. She’d started all this.
Now trembling with fury, Sharon picked up her phone again. The person she called answered on the first ring and she opened with, “I have a job for you.”
CHAPTER 22
Eve woke up to find Carter gone. He’d left a note letting her know that he’d see her in the evening. After showering, Eve headed off to work. Surprisingly, the fuss about Sharon’s exit had died down considerably and La Belle was once again running like a well-oiled machine. Eve settled in for meetings as well as other work-related activities.
The only knot in her day was the constant calls from Peralta and his people. Because she’d stopped picking his calls, he was now going through the work phones. He’d stopped threatening her and was now in the begging phase. He kept on pleading with her to make Nina take the video down and to make a statement that everything described in the video was false. In return, he promised, he’d make sure she never had trouble with the law again. Not even a speeding ticket. Furthermore, the police department would be at her beck and call.
Sharon would have taken that deal. Unfortunately for him, Eve wasn’t Sharon. She directed her assistants to tell him that she was busy and if possible just hang up on him.
She got off work at around six. Now that Peralta was groveling, Eve had no reason to use Benisio as a bodyguard. She drove herself back to the hotel. Though she planned to move back to her parents’ place, she didn’t want to do it without settling things with Carter.
When Eve stopped by the reception to get her key-card, the clerk stopped her with, “Your husband changed your suite to a family suite.”
She frowned. “He did?”
“Yes.” The clerk nodded. “He said you’d have guests.”
He didn’t mean Sharon, right? To her relief, when Eve walked into their new suite it was to find Jackson. He was playing video games but the moment she walked into the suite, he jumped to his feet and rushed to her.
“Aunt Eve,” he greeted as he hugged her. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” Eve grinned and held him closer. “What are you doing here?”
“Uncle Carter said that he and I would be staying here for a few days.” Jackson pointed to the interconnected room on the left side of the suite. “That’s my room-” He pointed to the room on the right side. “-and that’s yours and Uncle Carter’s.”
Instantly, Eve recognized what this meant. Carter had talked to his mother then moved out of the house. Of course Eve was curious about the conversation, but her main worry now was Carter. His moving out of the mansion meant that the talk hadn’t gone well. How was he doing? Last night, he’d been traumatized but it had to have gotten worse after confronting his mother.
As she and Jackson moved towards the couch, she asked, “Where’s your Uncle?”
“He had to drop by his office for a bit but he said that he’d be back by seven.”
Sure enough, Carter walked into the suite around seven-thirty. He looked drained. Every smile he gave was forced and he barely touched the dinner they ordered. Seeing him so miserable sent an ache straight to Eve’s heart. She wanted to hold him close, wanted to talk to him so that he could express his sadness. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do it while Jackson was still awake.
As soon as Jackson headed to bed, she grabbed Carter’s hand and led him to their room. The moment the door closed behind them, she drew him into her arms. It was almost as if Carter had been waiting for her embrace because his body sunk right into hers. His arms were like a thick band of steel around her waist and his breathing was slow and deep as if taking each breath hurt.
She pulled her face from his shoulder to meet his troubled eyes. “Are you okay? How did the talk with your mom-”
He fixed his lips to hers, cutting her words short. His kiss was as desperate as his hold. It was almost as if he was telling her that the consolation he needed went beyond words. He wanted more. Her brain told her to tell him ‘no’ because they hadn’t talked about their relationship post-scandal, but her mouth refused to say the word, and her heart knew that he was hurting too much for her to turn him away. She returned his kisses with soothing ones of her own.
Slowly, she turned the desperation in his frantic kiss into something slower, deeper and calmer. When he reached behind her to lower the zip of her dress, she let him. When he pushed her sleeves down her arms, she reached for the buttons of his shirt. As her dress fell to the floor, she dragged his shirt off him. The rest of their clothes fell off their bodies slowly, leaving silent whispers as fabric met the floor.
Still kissing her like his next breath depended on it, Carter carried her to the bed. As soon as he had her lying on her back, he came over her. For a moment, he just hovered over her, staring at her. His eyes were so sad that she cupped her hand over his cheek.
“I’m sorry, Eve,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
She knew what he was apologizing for and it sent an ache through her. That ache wrapped itself around her heart and squeezed. If she was feeling this miserable, she could only imagine how much worse he felt.
A lump in her throat, she ran her fingers over his warm skin, soothing him in the only way she knew how. “It’s not your fault.”
Her words didn’t ease the troubled gleam in his blue eyes. He dragged out a deep breath before murmuring again, “I’m sorry.”
His gaze told her that he blamed himself for what Sharon had done. Eve wished that there was a better way to reassure him that she didn’t hold his mother’s sins against him. But there wasn’t. Right now his wounds were too fresh and no words could ease his misery. Only time could ease the guilt he felt. Meanwhile, all she could do was show him that she still loved him. All she could do was reassure him that no matter who his mother was and what she’d done, he was still Carter to her; the man who’d been her best-friend and companion all her life. She cupped the back of his neck and dragged his head down so their lips met.
The kiss was sweet yet sad, desperate yet soothing. It echoed the need in his touch as his hands skimmed her naked body and heated her. Eve mimicked his touch, running her hands through his hair, over his back and the rest of his body. As they pleasured and soothed each other, their sighs, sharp gasps and hushed moans punctuated the heavy silence in the room. And when he finally entered her, a low whimper fell from her lips to mingle with his groan.
His strokes were long, slow and measure. They hit deep inside her until it felt like he was in her throat. It was almost as if he was trying to tattoo his remorse into her body, like he was using his body to tell her just how sorry he was. His lips played hers and his tongue twisted around hers in rhythm to those delicious strokes.
It was too much for one pe
rson to handle.
He was too much.
“Ah… ah… Carter,” she moaned his name as the quivers started. Her walls contracted around his steel-hard length, her limbs clasped around him in frantic need and every cell in her body trembled in anticipation.
When she erupted, it was with a low cry. The heat that raced through her surprised her with its intensity and it left her vibrating like a pulled violin string. Her vision went dark as waves of pleasure battered her over and over again to leave her boneless and thoroughly pleasured.
The manacles that were holding Carter back fell away with her release. His strokes changed, became shorter and faster. Groaning her name, he tumbled off the cliff too. She held him close, stroking and soothing his heated skin as he dragged in breath after breath.
Carter stayed over her for a long moment before slowly getting off her and the bed to go to the bathroom. He came back with a warm cloth, wiped her down before tossing the cloth aside. When he got back into bed, he dragged her right back into his arms. Eve was so worn out that sleep should’ve claimed her right then, but it didn’t. From Carter’s breaths, it was obvious that he wasn’t asleep either.
He broke the silence with a murmured, “She doesn’t even feel sorry for what she’s done.”
“Hmm?” Eve looked up to meet his eyes.
“My mom,” he clarified. His eyes shadowed, he repeated, “She doesn’t even feel sorry for what she’s done. I think that’s the worst part of it all.”
Eve wasn’t surprised. Everything she knew about Sharon told her that when God was handing out packages containing human emotion, Sharon’s bag was missing empathy and remorse.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do; how I’m supposed to deal with this.” Carter rubbed his palm over his face and sighed. “How do you talk to someone who doesn’t think they’ve done anything wrong?”
“She’s your mother. She’ll listen to you,” Eve soothed, but even to her own ears her words sounded like bullshit. Sharon would never accept that she’d done something wrong. If she was capable of doing something like that, things would never have escalated to the point where they were now.
