Chapter 12: Twelve

“I didn’t know Mrs. Yiannopoulos was moving away.” She muttered to herself, holding Eve tight into her grasp.

“I bribed her,” he said without a stitch of shame. “She’s just a few blocks away in a better house.” Mischief coated his sinful voice. “Come Evangeline, let me help your mother up.” He used a soft but commanding tone. Eve obeyed him without questioning, settling herself on his side.

Little traitor. Melina didn’t dare to look at his face. Not yet though. She set her gaze on those thick columns in front of her, hidden by those jeans. He stretched his hand, waiting for Melina. But that didn’t help to ease her state of distress as her eyes traveled up. She swallowed a few times when they reached a place that brought back sweet and wild memories, causing her to flush hard as she licked her lips.

Melina shook her head to dissipate those sinful thoughts from her lewd mind, and she took his offering hand. In a vigorous pull, he brought her to collide in his worked out chest. Then, those warm pools of honey beamed on her, and she felt herself drowning in them as her body came alive in his arms. As if in a slow motion film, she leaned forward, her eyes fixed on his mouth as images of the videos and pictures came to her mind. She didn’t understand, or maybe she didn’t want to believe that such warm and gentle eyes could do those atrocities. Something must be wrong. It has to.

She heard Eve giggling, dissipating the lusty fog from her mind. “Thanks.” Her voice came out raspy, and she hated herself for it. “What are you doing here, haven’t you hurt me enough already?” she asked only to his ears, and the warmth she saw earlier in his eyes gave place to a nasty stare. She let go of him, grabbing Eve’s hand in hers, heading inside the house.

“You’re in trouble, missy. How many times, mommy told you not to talk to strangers?” Melina reprimanded the girl and looked at him in a sort of dare.

“I’m not a stranger, Melina, and you know it damn well!” Who the hell she thought she was to pass him as a stranger to his own daughter?

“But mommy! Giagiá said it was ok!” Eve announced in a tearful voice, throwing a tantrum.

“She did, didn’t she?” Anger boiled her blood as she noticed Henry on her feet, just like the cats. “Giagiá!” she yelled as soon as she got into the house.

“We need to talk, Melina.” He used the same tone with her as he did with Eve, but she wasn’t a child, and she didn’t need to obey him.

Giagiá dashed to them, hiding a smile behind her sheepish face, and Melina shot her a know-it-all glare. She just shrugged, regarding the scene unfolding in front of her.

“Not now.” She gritted out. “I have a routine with her every evening and you’re not invited.” The dirty look on his face told her he would retaliate against her. But right now, she just wanted to have a quiet evening with her daughter. Then she turned to the girl. “Muffin, say goodbye to your fa… Friend, your new friend.” The satisfaction that crossed on his face when she almost gave herself out was infuriating.

“But mommy!” Eve stomped on the floor, looking up at her. “I’m not gonna say twice, do you want dessert after dinner or not?” The girl quieted down, weighing the worth of a new friend for her dessert, but her little tummy won the battle. “Okay.”

“Don’t be upset, little one.” He kneeled in front of her. “We are friends now, we’ll talk again.” Eve put her little hands on his face, giggling.

“It tickles.” Tears pricked in his eyes, and a smile came to his lips to such a cute gesture. He was in front of his daughter, and he couldn’t get over it. She was small and delicate like her mother, but everything else was him in her. It was such an overwhelming feeling to look at someone and see himself there. Her hands worked like magic in his injured soul, traveling over his face, memorizing him on her fingertips. “Bye Henry.” Not holding himself anymore, he brought the girl to him in an embrace close to his heart. He’d wait for the day she would call him daddy. He was a patient man.

“Bye, little one. Don’t give trouble to your mommy, ok.”

His voice was soft, but Eve picked up the warning in them and nodded to him. He got her compliance faster than she would have, and they just met. Her eyes filled with unshed tears, looking at them together for the first time, and Eve’s little hands doing their magic. That was the best feeling in the world, and she waited for it every evening.

A guilty feeling for having separated them crept on her, but Melina sent away the same way it came. She couldn’t feel guilty for protecting her child, even if it was from her own father. If those videos were true or not, he did kidnap her in the past and it was him in her house, in her parents’ crime scene. She refused to feel guilty about her past actions. Evangeline dashed to the kitchen, taking Giagiá by the hand with her. As she also turned to follow them when she heard him.

“You had no right to keep me away from her. You do whatever you have to do tonight with Evangeline and come to my house.” He bit his words out in a cruel voice, making Melina shrink her shoulders.

She half turned to him. “And if I don’t show up…?” Melina saw how much she was mistaken. Those beautiful eyes could turn merciless with the flip of a coin, just like now. She prayed in her heart not to let those shitty recordings be true.

“I’ll make you regret your decision.”

Listening to his threat, a lightning bolt crashed on her, sending electricity to places she hadn’t allowed herself to feel anything for so many years, and his icy stare turned into a fiery wave on her skin. Just like that, he went back to whatever hell he spawned from. Probably the next-door neighbor’s house. Now, his home.

Eve was already sound asleep when Melina showed up at the living room, glaring at her grandmother, who gave her a spare look, focusing back into her crochet.

“How could you, Giagiá?”

She wouldn’t let go that easily, and for as long as she knew her granddaughter, she could see in her eyes the jumble of emotions cooking up there, so it was better if she put some sense in her stubborn head at once.

“Melina, come here, child.” Giagiá put her strings and needle on the side, and a grumpy Melina sat by her foot.

“Why did you let him see her, grandma?” She whined and rested her head in her lap, Giagiá fingers caressing her soft curls.

“Because it is done, Melina. He’s here and he won’t let go of her. She’s his daughter.” The old lady said it so matter of fact, she wished she could see life that simply.

“But he’s not a good man, he’s involved with awful people, he did atrocious things, Giagiá.” She closed her eyes, remembering the video. “You know what he’s capable of. I’ve hidden nothing from you. How can you be this accepting?” Her question was almost an accusation.

“He reminds me of someone from a long time ago, a bad boy on the outside, but with a good heart on the inside.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Your father, Melina.” A sob escaped her lips, listening to her grandma. “Why the crying?” Melina just shook her head. But the old lady had her suspicions. “Be careful, child. Looks can be deceiving.”

“I will.” She didn’t know for how long she remained there, hugged to her grandmother’s legs.

“Now, now, let me finish my crafts, and I believe you have somewhere else to be, don’t you?” Hearing her, the image of being tossed into a lion’s den came to her mind.