Chapter 61
Roman watched Evelyn look at the screen for the millionth time before she tried to call her parents again.
“They’re still not answering,” she said.
“They’re probably inundated with calls. They probably just switched them off,” he assured her as he took a cup of coffee to her.
“But if people are calling them that means it won’t be long until those reporters find them,” she said.
Evelyn was biting her fingers as she looked back at the screen. He had done this to her.
“I’m getting reports every half hour. So far everything is quiet there. But you’re right, it won’t take long for the reporters to dig things up now that your name is out there.”
“I don’t think my parents will ever speak to me again,” she whispered.
He looked away to avoid looking at the consequences of his actions. He’d said he would fix it but there was only so much he could do now. They had her name. Anybody who knew her at all, even the smallest connection, could come forward and sell a story. He had gone through this several times with his father. The only thing he could do now was just damage control.
He sat at the kitchen table with his drink and looked at Evelyn’s beautiful face. He’d really fucked this one up.
“We’ll have to bring them here, Evelyn. There’s no other way.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“You don’t want to be in the same room as my mother. Trust me,” she muttered, and then she started biting her nails again.
So she had told them about him. They knew whatever version of him that Evelyn would have told them. If any of it hadn’t been true before, it was true now.
“We won’t be in the same room,” he said. “We won’t be here.”
Evelyn looked at him with a frown.
“If they see us packing up and leaving, they won’t have any reason to stay here. I’ll have the gate changed to a more secure one so they can’t see inside, then your parents can come here,” he offered. “They’ll still have their security team, they’ll be okay here. It’s safer than their house.”
“And where will we go?”
He knew she wouldn’t like this part. He looked down at his coffee mug and put his hands around it. He was still playing with her. Still manipulating things. Everything he said was just another nail in his coffin.
“We will go back to your house,” he said quietly.
Her house. It would always be her house because everything in it would always remind him of her.
He heard her breath hitch and she looked away from him.
“I don’t know if I want to go there again,” she whispered.
“But you know that no one can find that place,” he reminded her. “We can go there and hide out for however long we need to.”
Or they could have gone to his apartment in the city. They could even have flown anywhere in the world until things calmed down. But he didn’t have a playroom anywhere else.
“You need to decide now, Evelyn. Those reporters move fast. I can call one of the security guys and he can take the phone to your mother. They need to start packing.”
“It’s not that simple. My dad... He needs so many things. We can’t just move him.”
He stood up and held his hand out to her.
“Come. I want to show you something.”
Evelyn was hesitant at first, but she put her hand in his and allowed him to help her up. He led her into the lounge to a wall at the back and then placed his palm on it to start sliding it open.
“What's this?”
He stood aside to let her enter. It was part of the extension he had built. A large, accessible hallway led to a large bedroom. There were tracks on the ceiling so her father could hoist himself in and out of bed, and all the equipment he needed was stored where he could reach it. There was also an adjoined bathroom where her father could lift himself into the bath whenever he wanted. He wouldn’t need to wait for anyone.
He watched Evelyn’s face when she realised what he had done. She blinked back some tears when she opened another door and saw all the equipment that her father would need stored in it.
And then the last door was an elevator. Evelyn looked back at him as if she couldn’t believe that he would do this for her.
She walked into the elevator and he followed. She pressed the button to go up, and when the doors opened again, they were in the bedroom he had converted into a bar/game room/library.
Evelyn wiped her tears away and turned to face him.
“You will never know how sorry I am that things with this house worked out that way,” he whispered, “But it was always your house. This was the least I could do.”
“I don’t know if I can accept this,” she said. “What I put my parents through... My father’s not even speaking to me properly right now.”
“I’m sorry.”
His voice was thick as he looked at the pain in her eyes.
“I turned a lot of things upside down, Roman, and I can’t help but think I’m stepping right back into the same situation,” she said.
If she started to look back at everything he had said and done to her then she would never agree to go back to the house with him.
“Nothing’s the same, Evelyn,” he insisted. “I will show you. But right now we need to bring your parents here, and we need to leave the city. Please.”
Reminding her of their urgent situation seemed to do the trick. Evelyn’s face cleared and she wiped the rest of her tears,
“You’re right. And I think I’m just reading too much into things, I’m sorry,” she said. “Let’s call the security guys and get my parents ready.”
“And am I also making arrangements for us to go back to London?” he asked.
Evelyn nodded. And he felt like he had been offered a second chance.
He would fix this mess of his own making. Somehow.