Out of Focus #SYTYCW15 Top10 Finalist! [COMPLETED]

32| Burned **Adult Content

"No. No, Nate was a bully but he was harmless. Punched holes in walls and talked a good game but never had the balls to hit me. He was also unfaithful, but I didn't care. If he slept around it meant he wasn't home and wasn't after me for sex."

Marshall hung his head. To know she'd settled for that. Seven years. God dammit.

"A year after my divorce was finalized, I had gone out with a girlfriend for a few drinks and met Randy Kincaid. He was handsome and exotic and didn't blink when I mentioned having kids. Being a divorcée with a tonne of baggage usually sent most to the hills.

"But not Randy. He hounded me relentlessly to meet the girls. I wasn't too keen on an early introduction, but he had this way about him...wore me down. Or maybe I was just tired and wanted that cozy, little family life everyone talked about. He only met them twice. Then things got...bad." Eva rolled the remaining contents of her glass, knocked it back with a bracing swallow and shudder.

"I didn't know it, but he was into drugs. Taking. Selling. And when I found out-tried to break things off, he got angry and attacked me. I left, told him I was leaving to stay with family in England when really I was at my sisters. He started messaging me. Tried to locate me in the UK, harassed my relatives who didn't have a clue what was going on. It just got so extreme, spiralled so far out of control. My sister convinced me to call the police, to get a restraining order."

"Smart sister."

Eva smiled though her guts were slashed to ribbons with grief. "Yes, she is. So, we called, filed a case. Then the detectives approached me about an open investigation. Pretty serious and heavy stuff. Wanted me to testify as a character witness. Don't know why I just didn't keep my nose out of it. But I thought if I do this-he'll be gone. He'll be out of my life. For good. So I testified."

Marshall shook his head. Protective temper spiking in his belly. "Take it things didn't pan out so smoothly?"

"I was nervous and couldn't get my thoughts together. The lawyer punched a hole through my testimony and then ripped me to shreds. The case fell apart, and he walked. By this point I'd crumbled, emotionally. Went back to Nathan in a moment of weakness. Got pregnant again. That's when the threats started."

"He threatened you?"

"I wish it had been just me." Eva slid her eyes to him, glistening with guilt and grief. "He threatened the girls. Said he was going to track me down, kill them right in front of my eyes. Make me watch as they died. Payment, he said, for the lies I told in court. For betraying him. There are worse things than death, he'd said, and he wanted me to live knowing they were gone because of me."

"Son of a bitch."

"I called the detectives immediately, but they weren't concerned at first. Months later, they told me to pick up the girls and head straight to the station. And to tell no one." She'd never forget that day.

The way the sun had seemed too bright. The air too still. The way her body went flush with heat and cold at the same time.

"I don't remember driving, only getting there. That's when I first met Jerry Harrows. Uncle Jerry. He's my Witness Protection liaison. Used to be a homicide detective, working deep undercover, before switching departments. They told me that Randy was coming for them. Not me. The girls," she said, words tight with so much frustration and helplessness. "And I had a choice: go into protection, or lose them to the program."

"They'd take your kids from you?"

Eva nodded. "If I wasn't willing to cooperate, absolutely. I had an hour to decide. Not that I needed it. They're my babies. Mine. They took us that afternoon, wouldn't even let us go back to the apartment or pack our stuff. I couldn't call anyone to say goodbye. Just like that," she snapped her fingers, "everything we were, everything we knew-was snuffed out. Gone."