🗝️Detective Ryker Viltarin must uncover dark secrets before he loses not only his heart but also his life.🗝️
You're on your own, far from home
The wind is blowing in the top of the pines
A gloomy sky where the sun never shines
Deep...
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"Look at me!" Eve wiped the red hair from her face, and her lips trembled. "What does someone like you want with me? Sally's right ... I ... I'm not ... all that!"
Her fingers gripped the red waves, and new tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The sight choked his chest. He could see her gaze drifting away from him and lingering on one point without taking him in.
"I have nothing. Nothing at all. And I am nothing. I ... no matter how many times you say someone might like ... me ..." her voice broke. "No one wants a mother with a child ... So why ..."
"Is that what your ... deceased husband told you that? That nobody wants you? That you ... are not beautiful?" It bubbled out of him bitterly before he could stop himself.
Eve flinched as if he had hit her or poured a bucket of ice-cold water over her. He saw her fingers clench into the towel and the poor fabric crumpled in her fingers.
The young woman stared at him, then swallowed as hard as if there were a noose around her neck and turned her eyes away from him again. It seemed to take an eternity, but then she nodded slowly.
"I ... after Liam was born, I wasn't good enough. Nothing was good enough. I never was, and I'm still not. He always said I wouldn't be able to do anything alone. And he was right: everything goes wrong, I can't get anything done ..."
Ray stared at Eve. His mind began to reel when he saw how broken the young mother was. His heart stumbled in his chest. A thorn dug into his chest as he realized he hadn't been wrong: Dylan's words were a lie. This woman was not the image he had given him. No, life had broken her, and Dylan was a part of it. Why - it didn't matter at that moment.
"Stop it," he said softly, taking her hands in his—rough hands, marked by many years of struggle and labor, with strong fingers. Hers, on the other hand, were innocent and soft like everything about her. Eve didn't deserve any of this. She deserved ... so much more.
"Eve, people always tell us we're not good enough. Not strong, not fast, not talented, not smart ... or not beautiful enough." He brought her hand to his cheek and felt her fingers tremble slightly. "We work hard, but that's not enough for someone. We can have a heart of gold, but someone still says you're not good enough."
