Reunion with the Don After Parting

Adrian Vance, heir to the Vance family, and I were together for three years. When we broke up, it got ugly. At the height of everything we had, I took a million dollars from his father and got rid of our child. He was outside the operating room, crying like a little kid. "Eve, I'm begging you, don't be this cruel. Don't throw away our love, don't throw away our baby..." I smiled, cold as ice, my nails digging into my palm. "You fool. Just go. The thought of carrying your child makes me sick." Adrian held back his tears until the corners of his eyes went red, and finally he let go of my wrist. Later, Adrian became the Don. We met again when I was at my lowest. It was his engagement party. The blonde standing at his side was about to become his noble Donna. And there I was, on the floor at his feet, begging him for a little money. He asked if I regretted it. I didn't regret a thing. He still didn't know that I'd given birth to that child and raised him. And now, that boy is dying. Chapter 1 Five years after we split, at the worst point of my whole life, I ran into Adrian again. He was the youngest, most untouchable Don on the East Coast. It was a social gathering for the East Coast mafia families, and nobody had expected the Vance family's new Don to show up with his fiancée on his arm. People were whispering. "Adrian came himself? When he shows his face in person, it usually means someone's about to bleed. He doesn't spare anyone." "They say he can't stand these fake little parties." "So he came for her?" "I heard that Ashford girl, Eve, is working here as a waitress. Maybe he came to watch her squirm." I was in a corner handing out drinks when my back went rigid. I looked up, straight into Adrian's gray-brown eyes. That look brought a single word to mind: cold. Everyone in the East Coast underworld knew how much Adrian had loved me once. I was the last survivor of the Ashford family, a family that had its moment of glory. Five years ago my family was slaughtered down to the last person. Even our territory and our name were wiped off the map, and I became a stray with nowhere left to go. He was the only heir to the Vance family, and he'd been hopelessly devoted to me even after I fell into the gutter. That year, he betrayed his family to protect me. He didn't want the Don's throne, didn't want the money. He was ready to die just to be with me. We crammed into a run-down apartment, ate cheap pizza, hid from his father's men and from the killers our enemies sent, and even though it was a hard life, it felt like we owned the whole world. Every night the gunfire went quiet, we'd hold each other on that cramped little couch and swear we'd stay together forever. Until I got pregnant. The old Don wrote me a check for a million dollars and begged me to leave Adrian. He didn't say anything to humiliate me. He just tapped me once on the shoulder. "The Ashfords are weak, and so are you. All you'll ever do is drag Adrian down." "This million, at least it'll give those two beaten strays you call parents a decent old age." That morning, Adrian and I had cried with joy over the new life coming. That night, I took the check and went to the hospital. I said I wanted to get rid of the child that carried Vance blood. That day, Adrian fought his way through, dropped to his knees outside the Vance family hospital's operating room covered in blood, and pounded on that door. Again and again, sobbing, he begged me. "Eve, Eve. I don't want to be Don. I don't care about the East Coast, about any of the business. I only want you. I'll take you somewhere no one knows us. I'll work hard, I'll take care of your family, your parents, all right? I'll give you everything. Please?" "I'm begging you, don't be this cruel. Don't throw me away, don't throw away our baby..." I lay on the cold table and bit down hard on my lip, nails buried in my palm, refusing to let a single sound out. The clock ticked forward, second by second. Through that one small door, Adrian's crying slowly faded. The doctor came out and reported to the old Don. "Miss Ashford's procedure was a success. You can rest easy." By then my tears had long since soaked the pillow. I heard Adrian's hoarse voice say he'd hate me for the rest of his life. Chapter 2 Everyone on the East Coast knew Adrian and I had broken up. The fallen Ashfords weren't good enough for the Vances. But nobody knew the rest of it. The old Don had buried every detail. The amused looks and the whispers kept pulling at my thoughts. I got distracted, and I spilled red wine on a guest's couture gown. The next second, a hand cracked hard across my face. "What is wrong with you? I bought this dress just for tonight, and you spilled wine all over it." The woman spat the insults at me. I lowered my head and apologized. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I can pay to have it cleaned." That only made her angrier. "Cleaned? This is Valentino couture. The cleaning alone runs ten grand. You got that kind of money?" "I can write you an IOU for now." The noise of the party died down. Adrian looked over. He watched from across the room, cold and detached. Somebody recognized me, and to score points with the new Don, made a show of laughing. "Well, if it isn't the Don's ex. You two are done, and you're still pulling cheap stunts like this for attention? Don't you know he's marrying into the Whitmore family?" The woman I'd splashed instantly switched to a fawning smile. "Don, I heard you're getting married next month at St. Mary's? This woman spilled wine on me on purpose. Let me have the manager fire her, throw her off the East Coast, so she doesn't taint your wedding." The manager had no choice. "If the Vances and the Whitmores want it, I'll cooperate." Just then a wave of expensive perfume drifted over. Charlotte, at Adrian's side, laid a hand on the woman's arm and smiled gently. "Let it go. Today's the day Adrian and I get engaged. No sense letting a little thing like this embarrass everyone." She drew a thick stack of cash-filled envelopes from her expensive clutch and handed them to the woman, every movement graceful. "You've all worked hard tonight. A small token from the Vance family." Finally she came to me, looked me over with that pitying, condescending gaze, and pressed an envelope into my hand. "Eve Ashford, isn't it? Adrian's mentioned you." She sighed, her voice full of reasonable, generous sympathy. "Things must have been rough since you left him. Take the guest gift. A girl should take better care of herself. Adrian's the Don now. You showing up in front of him dressed in rags, people will laugh at him for having bad taste back then." To perform for the future Donna, the woman I'd splashed yanked a gilt-edged invitation from her bag and flung it in my face. "Take a good look. He's getting married. And you spill wine on me just to make a scene. You've got nerve." The card grazed the corner of my eye and dropped into my lap. I had nothing to say. Head down, I saw Adrian's name printed on the invitation. And beside his name, side by side, was Charlotte's. Charlotte. Even the name sounded like a well-protected daughter of some noble house. She must be more sensible than me, I thought, more refined, better at taking care of a man. She'd never keep hurting Adrian, and she'd never be the stone in his path to becoming Don. Five years apart, and now this. Knowing Adrian was doing well, that was enough. I held back the tears that almost fell, pressed a hand to my stinging cheek, lifted my head, and said one thing to Adrian. "Congratulations." Adrian stared straight at me. When he heard it, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he let out a cold little laugh. He looked at my swollen cheek and spoke flatly. "Eve, stay away from every one of my family's ceremonies. And don't try to worm your way into my wedding by waiting tables." "Charlotte doesn't want to look at you. It'd kill me if she's upset." I gripped that thin, gilded card and stood there, stunned. I bit down hard on my lip, forced out a smile, and said softly, "Okay." Chapter 3 Adrian turned away, cold, and didn't spare me another glance. The woman was still hounding me for money. I lowered myself and begged her, said I really had none, that I'd find a way to get her dress cleaned. She told the manager to throw me out right then. Head down, I forced the words through my teeth. "I really need tonight's five hundred dollars. I can't leave." Adrian's footsteps stopped. He pulled a checkbook from his pocket, wrote a check for ten thousand, and tossed it at my feet like alms to a beggar. "Take it and get out of my sight." He looked at me. "Don't ever let me see you again —— a woman who only cares about money." I knelt on the cold marble, picked up the check, and said quietly, "Thank you, Don." I meant it. With that ten thousand, I could clean the woman's dress. The rest was enough for two rounds of Damian's dialysis. After that night, everyone said Adrian truly hated me now. That he'd never love me again. I knew he didn't want to see me either. I took the check and left the hall early. After my shift, in the changing room, one of the girls I worked with flipped open a society magazine and pointed at Charlotte. "Eve, don't you think this classy Miss Charlotte looks about seventy percent like you? Especially the eyes, the shape of her face when she smiles." "You think the Don still can't get over you? Are you two really finished, just like that?" I looked at Charlotte's glowing, rosy face on the page, let out a slow breath, went quiet for a long time, then smiled. "It doesn't matter. I lost the right to care a long time ago." I didn't want anything more to do with Adrian. He would never know, I thought, that back when I took that million, I quietly kept our child. That boy, Damian, had gotten sick. Acute kidney failure. He was dying. Chapter 4 That year was the poorest, hardest stretch of my life. I worked myself to the bone to get Damian the best brand-name drugs, to keep him going until a kidney came through. For money, I'd kneel at a party to pick up a check somebody threw on the floor. I'd take work pouring drinks at an underground bar, wearing see-through stockings, drinking until my stomach bled. I thought that party was probably the last time Adrian and I would ever see each other. Until, a few days later, that girl Charlotte came looking for me. Charlotte's friends must have kept hearing people say she looked like me. She wanted to see me for herself. She came to the bar's private room with a few socialite friends, and those girls asked for me by name. One of them looked me up and down, open contempt in her eyes. "So you're Eve? The Don's first love?" "First love, please. I heard she sold Vance secrets for a few grand and got thrown out by the old Don. She's a traitor." Something in me went bleak. So that was the story Adrian's father had put out. Charlotte looked at my heavy makeup, her expression saying plainly that she found me filthy. I clenched my fists and held my temper. I didn't want trouble. I just asked if they wanted to buy drinks. If not, they were only wasting my time, and I still had money to make. The girl took it as disrespect and sneered. "What's with the attitude? Pouring drinks in a dirty little place like this, and you're acting high and mighty?" She slammed a thick stack of bills on the table in front of me, pointed at a row of cheap hard liquor, and said, "Fine, Eve. You like money? Drink all of these down in one go and I'll give you a hundred grand." Drink all of that and I'd be in the hospital getting my stomach pumped. Charlotte put on a flustered little act and gently talked the girl down. "We agreed, didn't we? We'd just come take a look, we wouldn't put Eve in a hard spot." "Everyone says she's good at seducing men, tells me to watch out for her. Even Adrian says I'm too naive, worries she'll walk all over me." "But I'm fine. Adrian's heart is completely mine." I listened quietly, and I understood well enough. She was telling me how much Adrian loved her, and how much he despised me. I smiled and said nothing. I just asked her friend, "So we're agreed? I drink all of this, you give me a hundred grand?" Then I picked up a bottle and started pouring it down my throat. Everyone sucked in a breath. They hadn't expected me to throw away my own life for money. Charlotte grabbed my hand, wrenched the bottle away, and murmured, "Eve, how can you ruin yourself like this over money?" "As women we have to know shame. I wasn't going to say this, I didn't want to upset you. But you know what? Adrian can't stand women like you, women who'd risk their lives for a little cash—" I cut her off through the burn in my stomach and asked, "Where's the money?" "What he likes now, what he hates, what's it to me? I just want the hundred grand you promised." Charlotte looked down at me, her eyes full of arrogance and scorn. "Eve, a hundred grand isn't even enough to get my jewelry serviced. I'd sooner toss it to a beggar on the street than give it to you." She stepped closer in her heels, mockery plain in her voice. "Look at the state of you. Where's the backbone the eldest Ashford daughter used to have? The Ashfords are gone, Adrian threw you away, and now you're just a stray scrounging in the mud. You're too pathetic to even be worth my amusement." Her friend gave me a hard shove and jeered. "Get it now? Miss Charlotte's toying with you. She's not giving you a dime. What's a stray dog like you going to do about it?" I looked at them coldly, and then I started to laugh too. The next second I brought my arm down and smashed the bottle against the corner of the table. Glass exploded with a sharp crack, and a jagged edge caught Charlotte's arm, opening a thin, bleeding line. "I'll say it one more time. Give me the money." The room dropped to freezing in an instant. Charlotte glanced down at the blood on her arm, her eyes turning vicious, and said coldly, "Ruin that hand of hers." But the next second the door slammed open, kicked in. Adrian stood in the doorway against the light, staring at me, ice cold. "Eve, you hurt my fiancée on my own turf. You looking to die? Apologize." Charlotte's bodyguards, hearing Adrian's order, could only pull back the knives they'd drawn. They'd been that close to taking my hand off. I sneered. "Your fiancée broke her word first. A hundred grand. Hand it over." Adrian ground his teeth and said, one word at a time, "The Vances play fair. You want money? Fine. Apologize to Charlotte first." I watched Adrian shield Charlotte, and I remembered how, long ago, he'd once thrown everything away for me too, even gone to war with his entire family. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to smooth things over, to make Charlotte happy. Fine. For Damian's medical bills, I'd do anything. That vicious face of Charlotte's finally curved into a smile. "Miss Eve, since my fiancé's spoken, a verbal apology won't do. I've bled, after all." I looked at the cut on Charlotte's arm, picked a sharp shard off the floor, and dragged it hard across my own wrist. Then I held out my bleeding hand and said calmly to Adrian, "Give it to me. The hundred grand." Adrian looked at me, and all at once his eyes went red. Watching Adrian's clenched jaw and trembling pupils, the smile on Charlotte's face froze. She pulled a check from the inside of Adrian's jacket and put it in my hand, her voice soft. "Eve, I'm not giving you this because I owe you. It's because I don't want to be like you, someone who cares so little about her own life over a bit of money." I couldn't be bothered with her fake face any longer. I took the check and started to leave, but Adrian grabbed my wrist. He said my name and cursed at me through his teeth. "Eve, does it not hurt? Would being broke kill you?" The way his brows knotted, it almost looked like it pained him. I wrenched my hand free, turned back, and said with a cold smile, "I've always been a woman who'd do anything for money, Adrian. You knew that five years ago, didn't you?" "Mind your own business, and keep your woman in line. Stop coming after me." Chapter 5 Adrian stared at me, those gray-brown eyes cold enough to frighten, like he wanted to swallow me whole. What I'd said must have dragged him back to before. How he'd betrayed his family, given up everything for me, and how I'd thrown him away for the measly million his father handed me. He would never understand how he could have lost to that million. My stomach was churning, agony rolling through it. I didn't want to say anything more. I turned to go, and then the ground dropped away under my feet, and the next second Adrian had thrown me over his broad shoulder. Like some thug who wouldn't hear a word of reason, face cold, he carried me straight out of the underground bar. Everyone stared, shocked. I fought and struggled, telling him to put me down. He clamped my hands tight and pressed down on the cut on my wrist, snarling at me. "Eve, you must be a demon God sent to torment me." "You're a demon. You stole my soul." He threw me into that black Cullinan, leaned over to pin my legs, gripped my face, and cursed viciously. "Sometimes I really want to put a bullet in you." His expression said he hated me to the bone. But his eyes always seemed to be telling me he still loved me. My stomach hurt too much to speak. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead as I glared at him. Adrian frowned, opened the glove box, dug out a bottle of stomach medicine, shook out two pills, and pushed them into my mouth. At the very back of that glove box I saw the cheap perfume bottle I'd emptied years ago and couldn't bear to throw out, a hair tie gone frayed and white at the edges, and the worthless little silver pendant Adrian had bought me five years back... Everything of mine was hidden in there. In the five years I was gone, it had kept this young Don company through countless bloody nights in my place. Tears spilled out of me. I turned my head fast and wiped them away before Adrian could see. All these years, and he still remembered my stomach was bad. Even with me gone, this cold-blooded mafia boss still kept painkillers in his car out of habit. And I'd hardened my heart, and with everything I had, I shoved him away. I forced myself to smile at him. "Don, stop chasing me, all right? The way you are now, it's repulsive." "You probably don't even know. I got married a long time ago. My kid's already three..." "Don't tell me you still want to patch things up with a woman covered in mud like me. Adrian, don't embarrass yourself." I shoved him back two steps. His tall frame went rigid. The instant I sat up to get out of the car, he lunged, pinned me hard against the leather seat, hand around my throat, voice shaking through his teeth. "Eve, I don't believe you." "You'd better tell me you're joking." I looked him dead in the eyes and said calmly, "Fine. I'll prove it to you." I took Adrian to a run-down hospital. The smell of disinfectant filled my nose. I stood outside the dialysis room, and through the glass I pointed at the unconscious little boy inside, hooked up to a ventilator, and told Adrian, "That's my child." His name was Damian. He was the last light I had in this world. He was the only reason I was still alive, my one hope. He was stubborn, just like Adrian. He looked like me. He'd inherited every good thing from both his parents. He was such a good kid. But he'd fallen ill, a boy not yet five, thin and small. But his eyes stayed as innocent as a fawn's. It broke your heart. Adrian stared at that child for a long, long time, then clenched his fist and drove it into the glass of the room. He dropped his head. This man who could summon storms was suddenly as broken as he'd been five years ago. That night, the last thing Adrian said to me was this. Eve, you've really got nerve. From today, this cursed debt between us ends, once and for all. I watched the last spark of light die in his eyes. He didn't ask who the child's father was. And he didn't recognize that the boy lying in that bed was his own flesh and blood.