Evelyn • Tony Stark

|CHAPTER 28: BROKEN STRINGS|

It's simpler to destroy something you love, than it is to watch it leave.

• • •

Having dropped her keys on the coffee table, she took off her uncomfortable heels, opening the door to her bedroom, only to realise that he was waiting for her.

"Hey. Where've you been?" He chuckled nervously, feeling suddenly very awkward that he was waiting here for her, on her bed, for the past two hours.

"I was with Jace. Well, and Mom and Dad, but that doesn't matter. What are you doing here?" She smiled genuinely, but she instantly replaced it with a frown once she saw his facial expression.

"Let me get this straight. You were with Lucas and Diana. And Jace." He narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, I took him to meet them tonight. I thought I told you." She pursed her lips, trying to recall if she had.

"You...took...what?" He paused, his breathing getting heavier, "So, what're you trying to say, is that he met Lucas and Diana."

"Yeah?" She gave him a weird look.

"Why in the world would you do that?" He growled.

Her brows were up in surprise, his tone was anything but calm, and it surprised her to no end.

"I don't see the problem here, Tony. He's my friend, and I took him to meet my parents. It's no big deal."

"That right here is the problem! The fact that he met Lucas itself irks me. It means that he's a constant." Tony gulped down his insecurities, and looked down at his Christmas present in wonder.

When Jace takes his place in the family, would Lucas ask for it back?

Would he give it to him?

Would he prefer Jace because he hadn't hurt his daughter?

The elegant watch remained rested on his wrist, as he watched it in pain, and wonder.

"He's my friend, I don't need a reason to-"

"And, that right there, is another problem. He's your friend, he's a part of your life, and it bothers me, it bothers me that I used to be your life. I was your past, your present, and I was going to be your future. It bothers me because I don't know where I stand with you." His shoulders slumped in defeat at how his evening took a massive turn.

"I thought we decided that we would stay friends, Tony." She sat next to him on the bed, the mattress dipping down with both their weights.

"No, you decided. I vaguely remember me being against that point. And you took him you fucking took him to..." He trailed off, sadness glistening in his eyes.

"I don't understand why this is eating you up so much, it's not like he was asking for my hand." She laughed, but he didn't.

He didn't find it funny because she just voiced his deepest darkest fear, and made a joke out of it.

She placed a hand on his, a manner he found very soothing, and she smiled.

An indirect way of asking him to explain.

"You don't understand because you don't know..." he dropped his head down before moving from the bed, getting on one knee, taking that same hand in his.

"These people. Lucas, Diana. They're more than just my parents' friends. They're more than just people to me. These people are my family, Evelyn. You guys are my family. Lucas, he was everything I needed in a father and I couldn't stop comparing him to mine. He was there when my dad never was. I still remember how much I envied you for having the one thing I lacked the most.

I would have been okay with not having that much money as I grew up as long as he at least gave me some type of..."

"Affection." She continued, having realised that he wasn't proposing to her like her stupid mind had suggested.

"He's my father, Evelyn. Lucas is my father, and Diana is my mother. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but I see them as parents more than I ever saw them as anything else. So, you can't. You can't ask me to be okay with another man being seated at the very spot I sat at, after school for my whole life.

With another man washing the countless dishes Diana would force him to clean. With another man listening to Lucas' childhood stories, and how he met your mother. How he met my mother. You can't ask me to be okay with another man eating the food, Diana used to force me to eat. You can't ever expect me to be okay with that." Snatching his hand from hers, he stood up and started pacing.

He hated that look.

He despised it.

He knew it the minute he saw it.

Pity.

"I'm sorry, I...I didn't know you felt that way about us." Her voice was relaxing, soothing, the familiar tone of her kindness bubbling out of her as she spoke some random words quietly.

"You didn't know?" He had a hard time believing that, "Evelyn, you were everything. You guys are everything. I would give up anything, and I mean anything, just for you."

"Tony, Jace is-"

"Can we choose another topic? This isn't exactly my cup of tea." He sassed.

"You need to understand." Her words were painted with guilt, and grief, which made him wonder as to why it was the way it was.

"Jace...Jace stood by me through the hardest times of my life, he was my rock. He still is my rock, and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable with what I'm saying, but...I can't keep this from you anymore. You deserve to know, and I'm done hiding from you. It's time to face it," She lifted her eyes, and they levelled with his, "all of it."

"After I left New York," she avoided the use of the words 'after we broke up' because she knew it would make it harder, "I was going through a very rough patch, and he was there. Every time I would feel like I'm drowning, he would lift me up, and ask me to try again. He would ask me to be strong, and go through this."

"I'm sorry I did what I did. I'm sorry you went through all that because of-"

"It wasn't you."

She gulped.

She was going to tell him.

She was going to ruin their relationship, tarnish their past, destroy their future, but most of all, break both their hearts.

"What do you mean?" His brows were drawn together in confusion.

"One year ago..."

Inhaling deeply, she forced herself to say those next words.

The words that would forever haunt her, and remind her of what she had lost.

"I was pregnant, Tony."