“Even if they don’t deserve it?”she whispered.
Everly
I tightenedmy arms around Evie.I didn’t know why she thought Chance didn’t deserve her heart.From what I’d witnessed so far, he was already in deep with my sister.Which was a difficult thing to admit, because despite not being a fan of that fleabag, I couldn’t deny he seemed to be someone who would burn the world down to protect Evie.
But I only had a small piece of their story.It was Evie’s choice.Only she could determine if someone was worthy of her.
“Loving people says you’re someone with a big heart.Whether they deserve it speaks more about them than it ever would about you.”She lifted her head, and I brushed tear-soaked strands of hair back from her face.“Is that why you’re so ready to pack up and leave?Because of the bloo—um, because of Chance?”
Her lips twitched with a hint of a smile at how I’d corrected myself.“No, I suggested it because I thought you were upset about the whole Vaughn thing and didn’t want to live in the same town as the man who killed Dad…William.”
A jolt rocked through me, my breath whooshing out of my body like I’d been punched in the stomach.“Evie, what are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on, Evy,” she chided, rolling her damp eyes at me.“Did you honestly think I didn’t know about that?”
“A-about wh-what?”I choked out.
“The night William died, I almost did too.”She didn’t have to remind me of that.I had to live with it in my head every day.Regret clouded her eyes.“Vaughn.Well, I guess you know him as Ghost.He gave me something that made me vomit up the pills I’d swallowed, and then he stayed with me until the paramedics arrived.The entire time I was puking my guts out, sobbing so hard I was shaking, he was right there with me.Talking.About you, his sister, even his wife.Sometimes he would switch to Russian, and I wasn’t even sure if he realized it or not.But his tone never changed.He was kind to me.”
“You…” I had to swallow a few times to loosen the knot in my throat.“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t want to put more images of that night in your head than you already had.And honestly, I was so out of it, I didn’t know what was real and what was a hallucination until I saw him again last night at the bar.”She shrugged as if she weren’t dropping a bomb on me.This entire day felt surreal as fuck.“He came to pick up Abi, and all the memories flooded in again.Not long after he arrived, he and Abi took me aside while Chance was at the bar getting us drinks, and they told me their side of everything.”
“What do you mean, their side?”I gasped.Nothing made sense.
“You were being reckless online.He intercepted one of your inquiries.From how he explained it, you could have gotten into some serious trouble over what you were doing.Vaughn cleaned up your digital trails and made sure no one put you on any watch lists.The only reason he did it was because Abi found out about it and asked him to help you.Well, us, really.Vaughn is a big player in shutting down human trafficking.”Her eyes glittered with shame, rage, more tears.“I never knew William was responsible for that, Evy.I never suspected.”
Reeling from all the new information, I found it difficult to breathe for a moment, but I knew I needed to reassure Evie or she was going to get lost in her own head over not realizing William was a monster.“Of course you didn’t suspect anything.He was keeping you locked in a house with limited outside access.You didn’t even have a phone.The only television you were allowed to watch was Netflix, and even then, he had a freaking parental lock on the mature content.All your homeschool lessons were prerecorded.You had no control, Evie.How could you possibly have guessed what he was capable of?You got a side of him that no one knew existed.”
A shudder shook her.“I should have, though.”
“Why?”I reasoned.
“Because… I don’t know, okay?I just should have known.He manipulated me into thinking I couldn’t leave the house.Made me think it was my fault, that there was something wrong with me.And I believed him.I never once questioned him, not until after our mom died.When he said you couldn’t come live with us, that was when it started to dawn on me that something was wrong.I was stupid.Gullible.Naive.God, it makes me sick how easy it was for him to bend me to his will.”
“You loved him,” I told her gently.
But that only upset her more.“Maybe when I was a kid, but by the end, I loathed him.It was a relief when I woke up in the hospital and they told me he was dead.The cops asked me if that was why I’d swallowed the pills.They thought I’d attempted to kill myself because he died and I couldn’t handle the thought of being alone.”
Yet another thing she hadn’t told me.Not that I could throw stones.I’d kept a lot from her as well.But apparently she already knew the secrets I’d been keeping.
“I didn’t explain to them that I had been planning it for months.Saving up the meds little by little, only taking a dose every other day to stock up and still test positive when he did random urine testing.”Her fingers trembled in mine, and I realized how much she had been locking away.To protect me.Just like I had done to protect her.“I was so tired, Evy.Each day, it got harder and harder to hold on.It felt like there was nothing left.Even when I looked in the mirror and pretended I was talking to you, it felt like you were fading away.And that night, I couldn’t do it anymore.I couldn’t face waking up the next morning without you beside me.All I wanted was the loneliness that felt like a physical pain to go away.”
It was hard to listen, to watch her relive the nightmare of that night, but I was desperate to know every last detail.Fuck, I should have demanded she tell me about it sooner.Instead, we’d both avoided the topic as much as possible.
“William left that night for some business dinner, and I curled up on the couch with a mug of tea and a bowl of popcorn with M&Ms mixed in.I let him kiss me on the forehead, and I told him I loved him as he walked out the door.It was the perfect time to finally do it.I had enough pills that even if he came home early, it wouldn’t matter.I waited for twenty minutes after he left, watched my favorite episode of my comfort show, and ate all the chocolates out of the popcorn.Then I swallowed the pills.It took three gulps before they all went down.”
My stomach roiled, my heart and mind in chaos as she continued.“They barely had time to hit my stomach before this man appeared in front of me.I don’t remember being scared of him, even though I know I should have been.He was dressed all in black, this big man with silent steps.He didn’t raise his voice when he asked what I’d ingested.I told him about the anxiety meds Dad made me take, and he pulled something out of his pocket.He insisted I drink it.That made me angry, because I was tired of being told what to do all the time.All my life, I had no control.Not once.But I sure as hell would have it in my death, damn it.I’d finally made my own choice, and he wasn’t going to make me change my mind.”
Stop.Please, stop.
I wanted to beg her to end the story there, but I couldn’t.Christ, I needed to hear it all, and more than anything, she finally needed to tell me.
“Vaughn grabbed my jaw and forced me to open my mouth.He poured the vial down my throat and did something that made me have to swallow.The meds were already starting to make me sleepy, so I couldn’t put up much of a fight.The next thing I knew, I was vomiting.He sat with me, not touching me, but talking.Just talking.Vaughn told me how he’d met you, how his wife had convinced him that by taking out William, he was saving you, me, and countless other victims who would have been trafficked by William’s organization.He grunted and admitted she hadn’t needed to try hard to plead her case.He was going to do it anyway.William was already on his radar.”
Evie took a calming breath, and I did the same, realizing I’d been holding it.
“I remember begging him to let me die, and he shook his head.He said that even though she didn’t know me, it would make his wife cry if something happened to me.And he couldn’t have that.What finally stopped me from pleading with him was when he said you were waiting for me.He explained how he’d met you and how reckless you’d been.That’s when he started talking about his sister.Samara.Sammy.Vaughn gave this pained sort of smile and said sisters were annoying as hell, but he cared about Sammy.She was his first and only good memory until he met his wife.So he figured that I was worth it if I could give you even a single moment of peace.”
