Chapter 1
"Hey John," Nora said walking into John's office, with her customary peace offering -- a hot cup of coffee. "Have you been home?"
"Yeah. I went home for a few hours last night and then I came back to the station."
"John, you have to take better care of yourself. You look awful."
"Thanks, Nora, but I'm okay."
"No, you're not and neither is Evangeline."
"What do you mean?" What could be wrong with Evangeline? He hadn't heard anything through their mutual friends. Michael still talked to Evangeline on a regular basis and, since Jen's death, she and Marcie spent time together regularly.
"I mean she's hurting and you need to make her talk to you."
"Nora, I don't have anything to say that she wants to hear."
"Make her want to hear what you have to say." She tossed him a saucy smile and bounced out of his office.
He looked at the picture of Evangeline that had been sitting on his desk for a couple of months. It was a picture he had taken; she was sitting in the park laughing at something and boy was she beautiful. John knew she was avoiding him and he understood it, but he didn't like it. He knew he had hurt her and he regretted it more than he could imagine. A few months ago, he had admitted to himself that he was falling in love with Evangeline.
He realized he had fallen when Evangeline had been in danger during The Killing Club murders. John knew then that he wouldn't survive if anything happened to her. Shortly after that, he'd gone to the jewelry store and bought a ring. John knew that he wanted to marry her and even though she was afraid of divorce, he knew he could convince her to try with him. He'd planned to ask her to marry him the day after she'd found out about Cristian. She'd walked away and the ring was still in the box in the drawer of his bedside table.
John felt like his life was on hold. He was alive, but he wasn't living. The two things that he had were his brother, who wouldn't let him crawl back into himself when the mess hit the fan; and Antonio.
He was surprised when Antonio had come to him and apologized for telling Evangeline about Cristian before John had a chance to. When Antonio had cooled off and spent more time with Cristian, he'd gotten a better understanding of the position John had been placed in. He sympathized with John and Antonio knew that he was indirectly responsible for a little of the drama going on in John's life.
Antonio had even talked to Evangeline in an attempt to get through to her and convince her to talk to John. He'd been unsuccessful. John had a feeling he was going to have to ambush Evangeline, but he was afraid it would only make things worse. As he was contemplating how he could get her alone, he was interrupted by Vince with a case file.
"Hey." Nora smiled as she sat down in the seat across from Evangeline. Evangeline was sitting in the palace going over a client's file.
"Hey, what a pleasant surprise." She put the file away and returned Nora's smile. "What are you doing here?"
"Having lunch with you."
"That's nice of you. I'm actually free. I had a meeting with a client and it was cancelled."
"Well, it's a good thing that I'm here." Nora had a certain look on her face; one that Evangeline recognized.
"Okay, what is it?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What do you want to tell me?" Evangeline asked.
"Why do you think I have anything to tell you?"
"You have that 'I'm going to give you advice whether you want it or not' look."
"You need to talk to John," Nora said with complete conviction.
"Nora…."
"Don't Nora me. You're miserable. He's miserable and there's no need for you to be."
"Nora, he put Natalie above the rest of Cristian's family. What does that say about his feelings for her? I can't compete with that and I won't. I love him more than I ever thought I would, but I can't lose who I am in an attempt to keep him."
"Evangeline, you're not going to lose yourself. You're too strong for that."
"Sometimes, I wonder about that where John is concerned. I'm pretty weak to his charms."
"It's like that when you love someone. The problem here is you aren't looking at this objectively."
"You're right. I'm not and I don't think I can. In fact, I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Tough, because I've not finished." Evangeline sighed but didn't move, as Nora continued. "Have you taken the time to look at this from John's point of view? Cristian made John promise not to tell the truth. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it wrong? Absolutely. Did it potentially put other people in danger? Yes, but John made a promise."
Nora paused for a few seconds to let that sink in. "When it comes right down to it, John is a man of his word. Can you imagine what kind of stress he was under keeping the secret? This wasn't about John's feelings for Natalie, it was about a promise he made. I think you owe it to John to at least listen to his side of the story. He loves you and you love him. I love you both and you need to fix this. You are too good together to let it be torn apart by someone else's drama."
She took a deep breath after her monologue. "Now, I'll get off my soapbox and order a salad. What are you having?"
Evangeline was grateful for the change of subject. She needed time to process what Nora had said. Evangeline also needed to use a page from her own book and take a step back and look at things from John's perspective. She'd been so hurt that she hadn't considered anything past the obvious. That had been wrong.
