Page 148 of Fall Into Temptation
“I think there’s two things that we need to take care of before then.”
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Eva felt calm and wondered if she was just too tired to worry anymore. She looked up as the cop led Agnes into the room. Her hands were cuffed in front of her. The orange of the jumpsuit made her skin look even more yellow. The bags under her eyes were practically suitcases.
“Your boyfriend talk some sense into you?” Agnes sneered, sinking down into the chair across from her.
“Here.” Eva tossed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter across the table. “This is the last thing you’re ever getting from me.”
Delivering the line had been worth the walk of shame back at the drug store. After running out of the store with a pregnancy test and then returning to buy a pack of cigarettes, Eva had felt the need to blurt out the entire story. For some reason, it felt very important to convince the clerk that she wasn’t really a horrible human being.
“Uh-huh,” was the woman’s only response to Eva’s confession.
Greedily, Agnes snatched up the cigarettes. She lit one and blew out a cloud of blue smoke.
“I want you to bail me out,” Agnes announced. “And get me a lawyer. Maybe that brother-in-law of yours? If he can dress that well, he’s got to be good. I’m gonna sue every last one of these assholes for wrongful imprisonment.”
Eva waited for her mother to run out of steam.
“Here’s the thing, Agnes. I’m done with you. Prison or no prison, we’re done. I don’t owe you anything. I’ve got too much going on right now to pay you another thought. I’ve got a man out there who wants to marry me.”
Agnes snorted. “I don’t care what you’ve got going on. Or how many assholes you marry. You’re getting me out of here.”
“No.” She said it calmly, firmly, feeling the word resonate within her. “I’m not. I let you make me feel guilty for things that weren’t my fault. You want someone to blame for how pathetic and shitty your life is? Go look in a mirror.” She jerked her chin toward the two-way mirror on the wall. “I’m done with you.”
“I’m your mother!”
Eva shook her head. “No, see that’s where I was wrong. Just because you gave birth to me doesn’t make you my mother. My real mom is Phoebe.”
Agnes stubbed out her cigarette, her motions jerky. “Look. Maybe I haven’t always been there for you. But—”
“That’s just it. You weren’t there. And you made me feel like I didn’t deserve to have people there for me. You made me feel like if people got to know the real me, they’d find out just how undeserving of their love and attention I was. And you know what? That’s on you for the childhood years. But it’s on me for not figuring it out sooner. I could have saved myself a lot of time and a lot of money.”
“Eva, I need your help,” Agnes rasped, desperation etching itself on her face.
“No, Agnes. You need your own help. It took me quite a while to figure out that I’m worthy, and hell, I’m fucking awesome. I don’t know what’s on the inside of this,” she circled her finger in front of her mother’s face. “Maybe there’s something worthwhile inside. But nobody else is going to see it until you do.”
“I need money. I need a lawyer!” Agnes tried to stand, tried to make a grab for Eva, but her hands were cuffed to the desk.
“No, Agnes, you need a lot more than that. And I just don’t have the time or inclination to give you anything anymore.”
Agnes started to shriek.
Eva got up and knocked on the door. “We’re done here,” she told the guard.
She walked out into the hallway and into Donovan’s arms. The door closed behind her.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?” he asked, running a big hand down her back and pressing her just a little closer.
“I’m good. Really good.”
“Good because there’s one more thing we need to take care of.”
“Two things,” she corrected him.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Together, they pounded on Beckett and Gia’s front door intermittently ringing the bell until they heard footsteps. “Jesus, what the hell are you two doing here?” Becket yawned. He was shirtless and his pajama pants were untied. Gia was behind him wearing one of his law-school t-shirts. Her hair was a crazy snarl of curls.
