Page 19 of Unbreak My Heart

Someone gasped. She looked up. The other brunette. Eva must have looked confused because she reintroduced herself, “Emma. I’m Emma. Married to this one’s twin,” she pointed at Darby. “He just… left? You and the baby?”

Eva nodded and bit her lip. Sherefusedto cry over the bastard again, even though she could feel the stinging trying to make her do so.

“That’s despicable,” the blonde said. “Millie. Millie Stevens-Jameson.”

“Yeah. He wasn’t the nicest person,” Eva agreed. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She may as well tell them all of it. She could see they wanted to know, even if they were too polite to actually come out and ask, and she was fairly certain that she’d be seeing a lot of these women over the course of the build.

“He’s never even seen Matty. Never once visited. He decided halfway through the pregnancy that he didn’t want kids, after all. So, he left. He’d moved in with another woman within a few months. I tried to contact him, to see if he wanted to see Matty after he was born. I don’t know, I guess I thought he might take an interest once there was an actual child…” She trailed off, the looks of sheer horror and anger on the faces in front of her bolstering her courage and confidence. “He didn’t bother replying. I sent him some pictures and they came back a few weeks later.”

Darby let out a few choice words, Millie and Emma nodding in agreement.

“I know we’ve only just met, Eva, but please believe me when I say that if you need to talk—or even vent—I’m here. I’m happy to listen. Sometimes that’s all you need, right? Someone to listen. Even if it’s someone you don’t know all that well.”

The others murmured their agreement to that, too.

Eva looked at them all, not quite able to hide her surprise. Millie leaned her hip against the counter and stared at her, her assessing gaze sending prickles of heat all over Eva.

“I have a feeling we’re going to get to know each other very well, Evangeline. Besides the Cow rebuild, you’re a friend of Simon’s. That much is obvious. And any friend of one of the family usually gets absorbed into thewholefamily.”

Eva tried to ignore the blush she could feel flaring up her cheeks. Millie narrowed her eyes and looked closer. Too close.

“Eva. Call me Eva,” she said, trying to deflect the unusually observant woman. “And I don’t really know Simon all that well. We’ve only met a couple of times.”

That raised more eyebrows. She could have kicked herself. The last thing she needed was Simon’s family getting wind of the fact that she had a crush on the man—a totally one-sided and completely impossible one, at that.

Because no matter how attractive she found him, whatever his reasons, he didn’t like kids.

“Well, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve known him, he seems to be a little protective of you. Si’s a bit like that. He comes across all chill and laid-back, but if he sees someone being victimised or treated unfairly, it winds him right up,” Darby said, a contemplative look on her face. “And it certainly seems he thought you were in need of help.”

Eva nodded and blurted, “I’ve known him since February. Valentine’s Day. But we’ve only actually met twice.”

Millie gasped, shock washing over her face. Emma and Darby looked equally surprised.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Millie shook her head. “Ah, nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” She shrugged and turned to place her handbag on the counter so she could dig through it. “Valentine’s Day is Juliet’s birthday.”

Eva frowned. Why would her daughter’s birthday cause such a reaction? It didn’t add up.

“What aren’t you all telling me?”

Emma’s strained voice replied, “Valentine’s Day is Simon’s wedding anniversary.”

The bottom dropped out of Eva’s belly. Her hands started to shake, and she pressed a hand to her stomach, certain she was going to throw up.

He was married? Married and out tomcatting around on his anniversary?

Shit.

She’d thought he was actually one of the nice ones.

“I see,” she managed, before her throat closed up altogether.

“No. You don’t see. Not at all.” Darby moved to stand directly in front of her. “We know he went out in Bialga that night. We knowwherehe was. I’m assuming that’s when you met?” Darby wrapped her arms around herself and waited for Eva’s slight nod before continuing. “Without going into too much detail, he needed to get out of the Crossing for a while. I don’t blame him. I probably would’ve done the same thing. He never mentioned meeting anyone, though.”

Eva blanched. She could actually feel the blood draining from her face. Darby reached out and rubbed her upper arm, a strange, pained smile trying to force itself onto her lips.

“That’s not surprising, Eva. It’s none of my business what happened—”

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