‘The very last thing,’ Dad pushed.
Evelyn bit her lip, looking for the first time vulnerable. ‘I love you … both.’
Dad dropped from the couch onto his knees in front of her.
‘Was it all lies?’ Dad pleaded, not moving any closer.
‘No.’
‘You died …’ he said, a tear sliding down his face.
‘Yes.’
‘And now you’re back.’
‘Yes.’
He swallowed and stood up, still trying to appear indifferent. ‘For how long?’
‘I don’t know.’ And then Evelyn’s eyes seemed to lose their focus and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
CHAPTER TWO
‘I am not bound to please thee with my answers.’
William Shakespeare
Things weren’t going in my direction.
After Evelyn first came to, she’d continued to pass out intermittently as we tried to answer Dad’s many questions.
After the fourth time she blacked out, Dad had taken her into his room and ordered her to rest.
That was three weeks ago.
She was still there.
I’d tried to explain everything to Dad, sat up with him, night after night, giving him various demonstrations of my power, but logic is a strong counter-agent to acceptance. Eventually I called in Griffin and Spence to help. Griffin had the ability to instil truth in a person as long as what he was saying was in fact true. After a few choice words, it became difficult for Dad to question him.
Spence hammered everything home with a showing of his glamour abilities, morphing into a number of different personas and settling on simply putting his hand on my shoulder and cloaking us both with invisibility. I couldn’t help but notice during his display that Spence’s power had grown significantly in the last few months.
Finally, Dad knew the truth.
His acceptance was closely followed by a demand to see Lincoln.
They sat across from each other at the dining table, Dad staring at Lincoln in a new – unfriendly – manner.
‘I welcomed you into my home,’ Dad said, threateningly. ‘Let you spend time with my daughter, despite the age difference. I thought we had an understanding.’
‘Dad,’ I groaned from my perch on the kitchen bench, but it was useless.
I’d expected Lincoln to be on edge or at least cautious. I was wrong.
He stared right back at Dad, sporting his own steely glare. ‘With all due respect, Mr Eden, I’ve been here many times and seen you very few. For the first two years I knew Violet, we were just friends who worked out together. I never encouraged anything … more than friendship.’
Sadly true.
‘When I first met her, she was trying to put her life back together after the attack, though I only learned about that recently. Her world had been thrown upside down by that bastard.’ His hands fisted on the table. ‘It’s no wonder she was desperate to find a way to get control of her life. I helped give her some of that.’ He glanced at me as I paled, half expecting Dad to leap up and throw a punch in his direction. ‘And she did the rest.’
Dad flinched and glanced towards the hallway where Evelyn was eavesdropping. She didn’t look happy.
‘That is, in part, true,’ Dad confessed. ‘But I trusted you with Violet and I now hear you happily sent her, with an evil angel no less, to jump off a cliff in order to save your life!’
I had to give it to Dad, he did have a way of presenting things in an unfavourable light.
Lincoln’s composure didn’t falter. ‘I was unconscious and had no idea that she’d gone to embrace. I never wanted her to make the choice for me.’ His next words were heavy and slow. ‘I have to live with that for the rest of my life.’
Dad shook his head. ‘And so you should.’
I chose that moment to step forward. ‘Would you rather I was a different person, Dad?’
He broke his eye-lock with Lincoln to look at me.
‘Would you rather I had let him die? Chose my future over his life?’
Dad was silent.
I glanced in Evelyn’s direction. ‘That’s not something I could’ve lived with.’ I walked to stand behind Lincoln, the symbolism not lost on anyone. ‘I’ve made choices. Some I regret, some will haunt me forever. But leaping off that cliff to become who I was supposed to be, to save him – that’s one choice I will never regret.’
I couldn’t see Lincoln’s face, but his body was very still.
Dad eventually cleared his throat and stood up. He was far from ready to forgive and forget.
‘I hear what you say, Violet. But I can’t help but feel you’ve been forced into this world for the wrong reasons.’ He glared at Lincoln.
Lincoln stood up. ‘I understand your feelings, Mr Eden. I look forward to changing your mind about me one day. But until then, I can only give you my word that I value Violet as both a person and a Grigori. And …’ he looked at me briefly, ‘I’d do anything for her.’ And with that, he made for the door.