Summary: Eve and Julian are on the road to renewing their relationship, but there’s still so much standing in their way, including Julian’s wife and Eve’s mother.

Julian had wrapped the towel around his waist modestly, but halted as he saw her eyeing him lustfully. His hair was slicked back and his body glistened in the lamplight. Droplets of water trickled down from his broad shoulders and tapered lazily into his slim waist. Although he already held her firmly in his grasp this sudden sight of him provoked an even stronger possessiveness in her.

He belonged with her. Time had only proven that.

“Julian, what are you doing up already?” He sat down on the edge of the bed and eased back into his pants and boxers.

“I have to go to the hospital to see about Gideon. Also, Evellyn called. She’s worried.” She crawled up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing his neck lightly. “Oh, don’t do that, darling, or I won’t be able to leave.”

“I don’t want you to leave.”

“I know, but I have to make sure that the children are all right. I shouldn’t have just walked away like that. I’m their father; they needed me to help them feel secure, especially after that.”

“Hey, hey, Julian. I’m sure they understand. If any of them, Evellyn should. She knows you best of all.” She kissed his crown tenderly while waiting for him to acknowledge what she’d said.

“Yes, she does.” He grasped her wrist and looked at her over his shoulder. “When did you find out?” She met his gaze head on.

“Today from my housekeeper, Pilar. I didn’t know you two knew one another.” He looked down thoughtfully.

“Pilar Lopez?”

“Yes.”

“A small world.”

“Apparently so.”

“I’m sure you want to know why I lied.”

“I do.” He rubbed his eyes painfully and took a deep breath.

“Because, I was afraid of you, Eve.” Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Afraid of me. Darling, why?”

“What you can do, Eve. All the things you can do. At first, I thought that maybe you had no idea how powerful you were, but then the accident happened…and I realized that you knew quite well. I didn’t plan to lie. In fact, I almost took it back immediately, but when I saw how it struck you, I thought that it would put you out of my life for good.”

“For good?”

“Yes.” She dropped her arms from around him and backed away. “I thought that it was best for her.”

“Why? You know I never would have hurt our daughter.”

“I wasn’t afraid of you hurting her, Eve. I was afraid of you taking her from me.” Her face was incredulous.

“How could I possibly--I would never--How could you even conceive…”

“I know, I know, but I didn’t know that then. I knew you were manipulative and dangerous. I also knew that I loved you and that she would too. I was selfish in keeping her from you, but I’ve had her all her life. I’ve raised her and loved her and earned her love, but you would have just swept in and owned her immediately. I couldn’t stand the thought of her loving you or needing you more than me.”

“I don’t think she could, ever.” Eve cleared her throat roughly. “Maybe it’s for the best, Julian. Her believing that I’m dead. It’s better than her thinking I abandoned her.”

“No, you see that wasn’t true either.”

“What?”

“You have to understand, my daughter and I have no secrets from each other. I never told her you died. I couldn’t look into the same eyes that I love in you and tell her a lie.”

“She knows me, she knows who I am?”

“She knows you’re alive and that you live here. I wanted to introduce you; I still want to introduce you now.”

“Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” He chuckled dryly.

“Darling, I wanted to today and I was going to, but…”

“Your phone rang.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“If that isn’t fate speaking…”

“I don’t know what is.”

“I have no idea what fate has in mind, Julian, but I know that come hell or high water, I love you. I am not whole unless we are together. I am more complete today than I have been since I left you. I want a life with you. I want to know our daughter. I want to know what it feels like to be loved by you. I want more than just tonight.” He turned around and kneeled on the bed in front of her.

“You already know. My love is spent, Eve, but I will give all I can to you. Only with the hell that we have each endured are we soul mates. Our hell connects us and our love unites us. You live in my heart.” She lovingly kissed him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“And you in mine.” She tried to silently instill in him all her love. She checked the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. “Darling, you should go. They’ll be expecting you.” He pulled away regretfully.

“Yes, I should. I’ll talk to Evie. I’ll arrange a meeting for you. Maybe, tomorrow, if all goes well.”

“I’d love that. Wow, a chance to meet our daughter face to face. That’s a dream come true.” He tipped her chin with his finger.

“No, my love, you are a dream come true.” She smiled at him and they shared a last kiss.

He peered into his son’s room to see Mea curled up in Liam’s lap and Liam lying against Evie in a dead sleep. To think how close he came to losing his two youngest and his oldest frightened him nearly to death. Evie awoke as he stepped fully into the room.

“Daddy.” He smiled at his girl and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “We were worried about you.”

“I’m sorry, darling.”

“The way you just walked off. We thought you’d hit your head and that something was wrong.”

“Oh, no, little one. I was just inside myself for a while. I couldn’t believe how close I’d come to losing Gideon.” They both looked to the young man in question hooked up minimally to a heart monitor and a minor breathing apparatus. Besides the bandage on his forehead and the cannulla in his nose, he appeared mostly unhurt. Though his coloring hid most of the bruising.

“How is he, really?” She squeezed his hand tightly.

“They had to put rods and pins into his leg. The beam shattered it, but other than that, Daddy, he’s okay. You saved him.” Julian looked away bashfully. “Don’t be embarrassed. You saved my brother and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

“Oh, no, dear. Your every breath is thanks enough. I’ve been thanking you everyday since you’ve been born. You made me better.”

“And you raised me up.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, sweetheart.” He pondered how he would tell her his news. As Gideon stirred, he realized that this wouldn’t be that time. Thinking quickly, he leaned down near to her ear. “Darling, later on, I’m going to need to speak with you in private.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

They went to talk to their boy. Dinah showed herself later on, her casts now the only sign of the accident that had very nearly ended their lives. The conversation between Julian and Dinah was strained but civil. Her drinking hadn’t ceased and that only managed to piss Julian off, and stave their reconciliation. It looked to be an unlikely reunion.

Some time later, visiting hours came to an end and Julian departed reluctantly with Evie to the parking lot. She felt the tension in the air and wrapped her arm around his to bring him out of his thoughts.

“Daddy, what’s going on?”

Now was the moment of truth. He could put it off if he chose; it was ultimately in his hands. Yet the many promises he had made to his daughter and to Eve hung over him like disappointed threats.

“Do you remember my telling you that your mother lived in Harmony, close to us?”

Uneasy, Evie shifted on her feet as her mother tended to do. “I do.”

“I’ve been speaking with her recently and, if it is your wont, she would like to meet you.”

The young woman swallowed, her eyes welling up like her heart. She couldn’t speak for a long moment. “My m--mom?”

He nodded. He didn’t know where these emotions would lead. Evellyn was nothing if not unpredictable.

She started to become angry. “My mother, who dumped me on your doorstep in the worst part of Boston? Who didn’t look for me for twenty-five years? Who let you struggle to raise me while she had everything?”

There was no way he could respond to those accusations, except to say, “Yes.” It was her.

“Why does she want to know me now?”

“She’s wanted to know you all along. Circumstances…did not make it possible.”

Evie began to pace, muttering to herself and clinching her fists like Eve. “I don’t understand. Why does she want me?” She stopped suddenly and turned to him. “Daddy, is she using me to get to you?”

“What? No, love, never. Give her a little credit. She‘s finally grown up.”

“Just because she’s decided that this is the time to play mommy that doesn’t mean I have to go along with it. I have a life here, with you and Dinah. Why should I give that up?”

He approached her and laid his hands on her shoulders. “You don’t have to, there’s no reason for that. I’m not asking you to turn your back on the only family you know to be a part of her life. I’m simply communicating to you that your mother would be interested in getting to know you.”

Evie was wary, and with good reason. She hadn’t met this woman -- ever and now she was about to. Why shouldn’t she be on the verge of a breakdown?

“Nonetheless, I see your concern and I see your fear.” He lifted her chin with his fingers so that he might look into his daughter’s eyes, Eve’s eyes really. “I won’t expose you to her if you aren’t ready. Care for her though I do, I care for you infinitely more. You are my daughter before you are ours.”

Suddenly courageous, Evellyn shook her head resignedly. “That’s why I have to do this. That’s why I have to meet her. You made me strong; I wasn’t making that up. I haven’t got an excuse in the world for being too weak to face her. You did and you have more reason than I do to despise her.” She sighed. “She is my mother. I’ll meet her.”

Julian tenderly brushed back her hair. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”

She peered up at him, thoughtfully perusing his expression. “I have an idea that it’s only half as happy as she makes you.”

Her father’s brow furrowed in consternation. He attempted to divert her suspicion with his roguish smile and failed. “Darling, I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms in front of her. Words weren’t necessary where they were concerned. He interpreted her doubts accordingly.

“It’s complicated, Evie. It isn’t cut and dried or black and white. I know you won’t understand it--”

She waved off his explanation. “I don’t need to, but if she hurts you, Daddy, if she’s using you to get to me, I make no promises about how far I will go to take her down.”

Julian had the good grace to laugh as he unexpectedly pulled Evie into a hug. He knew she couldn’t have any idea how much like Eve she sounded. She was becoming in every way her mother’s daughter. He was both terrified that he was already losing his little girl and thrilled that he might be finally gaining the life he’d craved since he first discovered a precious delivery outside his door.