The Long Term Plan (With Short Term Fixes)

XVII

"What are you doing here?"

"Employees retreat?" Cole shrugged with a goofy smirk. "It's a hotel, right?"

Her blood began boiling. "This is my home, Cole. The hotel is about twenty miles out from the coast."

"Your home?" he asked, attempting to maneuver around her because she was blocking the foyer the best she could. "You bought it?"

"Well, no. I didn't buy it."

"Your name's on the lease?" He made it past.

"It's been paid off for years," she huffed.

"Tell me again that it's yours."

"It is mine. Now, get out! You're trespassing. End of story."

"My apologies, Mrs. Stahl," he said coolly. "Though, I was indeed invited to stay here: on this night only."

"His luggage is still in transit." Noah cleared his throat as he emerged. "That is, it's somewhere around Spain. An unfortunate mistake on a bellboy's part: surely he'll be terminated this evening."

Evangeline felt Noah's arm creep around her waist instinctively. He was upset with her, most likely regarding what she'd said about making mistakes, for here was her worst of all, haunting her these days. She leaned into him, greeted by a cold shoulder. Literally.

Cole swallowed. "Yes, that's right."

"Can you handle showing him to a room?" Noah bit.

"I suppose," she sighed. Cole followed her upstairs, around a few corners to an outdoor hallway. She opened the door at the end.

"Nothing much for the lower class?"

"I suppose," she repeated numbly.

"Very well," he grumbled, inspecting his surroundings.

This room happened to be a selling point of the latest addition to the Stahl's Italian place, except that it wasn't finished. Granted, the walls had been painted a dismal toffee, like the exterior hallway, and the bed had a spread and all, but it lacked any other furniture or decor. The wind went straight through it because of the large windows carved straight through the stone walls. Without a formal apology for the room's state, Evangeline turned to leave him there.

"That's all then? Do I get a say in anything?"

Evangeline whirled around on her heel and seethed, "Absolutely not. I don't care if you murdered everyone else to get here, you will never be a part of this."

"Biologically, Evan, I already am."

"My irritable temper and furious nature right now are an automatic confirmation of paternity in your eyes?" she scoffed.

"Well, no," he admitted.

"You aren't, is what you meant to say before. You meant to agree with me and leave me alone, to suffer in peace."

"Suffer?" he laughed. "You're suffering?"

"My husband loves me! He loves me but I don't love him because... because I don't love anyone! No one! It's a miserable existence, Cole!"

"Nobody condemned you to a miserable existence, Evan. You're only married under a contract, by force of law honestly."

"He loves me," she repeated. Cole shook his head.

"I could never love someone who didn't love me."

"That's not true," she spat. "You love me. You loved me."

"He could never love someone who doesn't love him in return."

"Cole," she cried, her voice trembling. "No. You're wrong, Cole. He loves me. He does. He loves me."

"If you raise that child, you're signing your divorce papers ahead of time." Cole took a step forward as Evan backed up, almost into the wall. "If you can't love your husband, if you couldn't love me, how will you love that?"

"No. No!" she argued, heaving and pressed against the wall as her chest tightened.

"It will tear the two of you apart," he whispered in her ear, his hand flew out and his palm his the wall right on the other side of her head. "In a matter of nine months, you'll be back with me, where you belong. Or so help me I will raise Hell upon your precious 'family.'"

"Cole, y-you really tipped off our lawyers? Right from under us? You... but why?"

"Everything I did, I did for you. You should know that."

"Evan? Evan?" it was Noah, probably just rounding the corner.

"To be with you," he continued, his breath bathing her face and neck. She shuddered. "To be with you in the way I am supposed to be with you."

"I don't belong with anyone," she hissed, shoving at him.

"Not even your child," he agreed. Noah opened the door and Cole smirked, finally stepping out, off of her. "It's only a matter of time, Evangeline."

He left Evan in the room. Once Cole was gone, she ran into her husband's arms and caved into a fit of unexplained hysteria.