Chapter 17

Chapter 17

EVA'S POINT OF VIEW

I was just sitting there on the floor, staring at my phone like it was gonna bite me or something. That stupid article kept flashing in my head.*Eva Brown: Homewrecker*. God, it felt like someone had branded those words onto my brain. Every single comment I'd read felt like a knife twisting in my gut, cutting deeper into all the cracks in my already busted up heart.

How the hell did I end up here?

I pressed my hands against my eyes, trying to make the pictures go away Max and Sara together, those awful headlines, all those nasty comments. But they wouldn't leave me alone. They kept following me around, even when I closed my eyes.

I couldn't stay in this house anymore. If I did, I was gonna fall apart completely. I had to get out, even though I had no clue where to go. Anywhere had to be better than sitting here in this empty house that felt like it was squeezing the life out of me.

I threw on some jeans and a sweater, grabbed my purse, and started tying my shoes. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely do the laces. Every little thing I did felt like I was moving through mud or something. I didn't care where I went, I just needed to breathe some air that didn't feel so heavy.

The mall. It wasn't exactly exciting, but it was familiar. I could just walk around and pretend for a little while that I wasn't *her* you know, the woman whose face was plastered all over the internet. I could blend in with the crowd, hide behind all the normal people doing their normal shopping, and maybe, just for a few minutes, forget about the complete train wreck my life had become.

I don't even remember the drive there. My brain kept going back to that article, to Sara's smug little face, to the way Max looked at me like I was nothing. By the time I parked my car, I felt like I was just empty inside, like someone had scooped out all my insides and left a shell.

When I walked into the mall, I thought all the noise and people would drown out the crap in my head. But as I walked past the stores, I could feel people staring at me. I could hear them whispering, looking at me like I was some kind of freak show.

*They've seen it. They know who I am.*

My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might burst out of my chest, but I made myself keep walking. I held my chin up just enough to fake like I was okay, even though I felt like I was dying inside. I wandered around the shops, not really seeing anything, not really *there* at all. It was like I was floating outside my body, watching this sad version of me pretend that everything was fine.

But it wasn't fine. Nothing was even close to fine.

After what felt like forever, I decided to leave. I'd tried to run away from how crappy I felt, but it just followed me around like a bad smell. The mall didn't help me escape like I'd hoped it would.

As I got to the entrance, that's when I saw them. Reporters. There was this little crowd gathered just outside the doors, all of them with their cameras ready, their microphones pointed at me like they were guns or something. I couldn't breathe, it felt like someone had grabbed me by the throat. I could hear them already, shouting all these questions at me, hungry for answers I didn't have.

"Eva! Do you have anything to say about the affair?"

"Is it true you stole your sister's husband?"

"Eva, how do you respond to all these claims?"

I stopped dead in my tracks, my brain going a million miles an hour. How the hell had they found me here? I so wasn't ready for this. I wasn't ready to face the whole world and all their judgment. But there they were, waiting for me like a pack of wolves, ready to rip me to shreds.

I tried to take a deep breath, but it came out all shaky. My hands were trembling like crazy, and I tried to hide them in my pockets. I couldn't let them see me fall apart, not again. Not like this. I had no clue how, but I had to push through this mob somehow, even if every step felt like it was gonna break me into a million little pieces.

I stepped outside, and it was like all hell broke loose. Cameras flashing everywhere, people yelling questions louder and louder. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, full of hate, like they were trying to crush me with their looks.

But I kept walking, even though their words hurt like hell. I didn't have any answers for them. I couldn't defend myself. I was just a woman stuck in the worst nightmare ever, and I couldn't wake up, there was just one thought that kept repeating in my head, over and over again:

*How the hell am I supposed to survive this?*

*** **** **** *** *****

**MAX'S POINT OF VIEW**

I was buried up to my eyeballs in work, the usual mountains of boring documents and business reports eating up all my attention. But no matter how hard I tried to focus on all this crap, there was something bugging at the back of my brain that I couldn't shake Eva. Things between us had been tense lately, more than tense really. It was like walking on eggshells or something. I couldn't get rid of this heavy feeling in my chest, this guilt that had settled in after all that drama with her, Sara, and me. 

I was sitting there rubbing my temples, trying to push all these thoughts out of my head, when my secretary Sophie came busting into my office. Her face was all pale and weird-looking. She was holding onto her phone like it was a lifeline or something, and she looked seriously freaked out.

"Mr. Graves, I really think you need to see this," she said, her voice all shaky and nervous.

I looked up at her, frowning. Sophie wasn't the type to get all worked up over nothing, so whatever this was, it had to be pretty damn serious. She handed me her phone, and as soon as I looked at the screen, my stomach did this weird flip-flop thing. It was a video. There were reporters everywhere at least a dozen of them all crowded around someone at the entrance of the mall. And then I saw her.

Eva.

She looked absolutely terrified, like a rabbit caught in a trap or something. All those flashing cameras, all those questions being fired at her, it was way too much. Her face was all pale and her body was so stiff, like she didn't know which way to turn. I could hear the reporters' voices in my head, and man, they were being such jerks.

"Eva! Got anything to say about the affair?"

"Did you really steal your sister's fiancee ?"

"Are you a homewrecker?"

"Eva! What did Sara did to you to deserve the evil that you melted on her?"

"Eva! Got anything to say about the affair?"

"Did you really steal your sister's husband?"

"Are you a homewrecker?"

"Eva! What did Sara did to you to deserve the evil that you melted on her?"

"Eva! Answer our questions!"

I felt this rage building up inside me, like a volcano about to blow. They had no fucking right no right at all to corner her like that. Eva was innocent in all of this mess, and seeing her looking so scared and vulnerable like that... something inside me just snapped.

I jumped up from my chair so fast I almost knocked it over, grabbing my suit jacket. "Sophie, get rid of that goddamn article," I barked at her, my voice coming out way harder than I meant it to. "Make sure it disappears from every single site. I don't care how you do it, just make it happen."

She nodded real quick, already dialing numbers on her phone as I stormed toward the door. My mind was racing a million miles an hour. How the hell had this gotten so out of control? How had I let things get this far?

I'd known things were bad between Eva and me, but this this was a whole other level of fucked up. Eva had never asked for any of this attention. She hadn't signed up to be part of my crazy world, with all the scandals and the media frenzy and all that bullshit. I'd dragged her into this mess, and now she was the one paying the price for it.

As I stepped out into the hallway, I could feel my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to jump out of my chest. I had to get to her. I had to fix this somehow. 

I had to stop being the asshole who just stood by and watched while she suffered.

I had no clue what I was gonna say to her, or if she'd even listen to me after all the crap that had gone down. But I knew one thing for sure I wasn't gonna let those vultures tear her apart anymore. Not if I could help it.

Without another word, I took off running toward the elevator, the sound of my own footsteps echoing through the empty halls li

ke i was being chased.. I didn't know if I could make this right, but damn it, I had to try.