The Villain
Weave stopped by a couple times as well.
He kept his distance, since he didn’t have a super immune system, but he brought her some new books and comfort food.
He also did a super thorough bug search as per Whisp’s request. Since we were meeting here so frequently, we needed to make sure no one was listening.
Eva came by every day, too. They watched a criminally offensive amount of cheesy rom-coms. The more time I spent watching Eva, the more I doubted she could be behind the betrayal. Especially now.
I still had at least one of my shadows following her at all times. After V fell asleep, I called them back with a report. Watching the scene play out nearly broke my fucking heart.
Eva was sitting on her couch with her knees curled into her chest, going through a photo album of the two of us. Tears were streaming down her face, flowing harder with every page she flipped.
“I’m sorry,” she kept whispering.
She picked up one of the photos. We were seventeen, standing on the front porch of the house we grew up in.
I had my arms thrown over her shoulders, chin resting on the top of her head, grinning like an idiot in my suit.
She was in a floor-length gown—the picture was in black and white but I knew that dress was navy blue—flipping off the camera with both hands and her tongue stuck out.
I almost laughed. God, that felt like so long ago. That photo was taken prom night.
Eva’s mom scolded her for ten minutes for her double middle finger stunt. I nodded along, adding my own points.
“You’ll make sure she behaves herself, won’t you Matts?”
I grinned. “I always do, Mom.”
She got all watery eyed, like she did the first time I’d slipped up and called her mom at eleven. I’d tried to take it back but she insisted it was fine. I’d called her Mom ever since.
“Such a good boy.” She sighed looking at her daughter. “You could learn a thing or two from him.”
“Yeah, how to kiss ass,” Eva mumbled under her breath. It took everything I had not to laugh.
“You’ll also keep all those disgusting teenage boys away from her, right, son?”
“You got it, boss.” I saluted her dad. “No one gets near my sister and lives.”
Eva elbowed me in the gut while I nearly died laughing. Her parents—our parents—scolded her some more before our friends arrived to take more picture. Eva ripped me a new one once we were in the limo, but I didn’t care, I was too busy laughing.
The emotions hit me like a fucking hurricane. No one gets near my sister and lives. I kept that attitude well into adulthood. I hadn’t lied to V when I told her all but those two scars were from bar fights. Fights for Eva. My sister.
“Aus?”
Violet’s soft voice broke me out of my spiral. She sat up in bed, rubbing her hands over my shoulders. I ducked my head away from her to wipe my eyes.
“You should be asleep.”
“I felt your pain.”
I met her gaze. She was still in rough shape, pale, non-existent appetite, dizzy spells, on and off coughing fits. This was the most aware I’d seen her since we got back from the cottage.
“I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. And that’s okay, you don’t have to hide from me.”
I shifted to face her. “I’m just… Me and Eva have been inseparable since we were kids. I’ve never gone more than a day or two without talking to her, and now…” I ran a hand over my face. “I don’t know what to do, V. It’s killing me.”
“I know, baby.” She rested her hand on my cheek, using her thumb to wipe a few stray tears. “But we’ll figure it out together, okay?”
I leaned into her touch and let my eyes fall shut as I nodded.
“I don’t know what I would do without you.” I kissed her palm, then her wrist and up her arm until I got to her shoulder and pulled her into my arms. “I’m so fucking lucky to have you,” I whispered, continuing to kisses her.
She wrapped her legs around my waist and arms around my shoulders. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
We were a week into the new year before Violet was back to full strength.
I was worried for a while that she’d need to be hospitalized.
During one of Whisper’s visits, she’d run to the bathroom, threw up, then passed out on the floor.
I had no idea what kind of sickness she’d gotten or where she picked it up but I was glad she was finally feeling better.
The hospital gave her a few extra days off to fully recover before she had to get back to work. I took us up to the cottage. Whisper said he would cover for us so she could go call-free for a few days.
Having Violet all to myself for three whole days was such a fucking treat. We spent the whole time watching movies tangled up in bed. She only left to use the washroom, shower, or soak in the bath. I’d pre-packed meals for three days so I just had to heat them up when she got hungry.
As soon as we got back, life went back to business as usual. She was back at work, constantly being harassed to go out by her friends and by her check-ins.
She surprised me with a romantic candlelit dinner for my birthday.
Well, the day after. She spent most of my birthday at the hospital because of a last minute visit from Ghost. I was there the whole time, mostly because Ghost freaked me out and I didn’t trust him near my girl or the kids.
He could turn invisible and walk through walls and had no qualms about killing anyone and everyone.
She apologized profusely for having to cancel our dinner plan, no matter how much I insisted it was fine.
But the next day, she had Whisper keep me busy with a string of dead-end leads regarding the unknown numbers. I was so frustrated by the time I walked in the door I’d been ready to scream. Until I laid eyes on my perfect, wonderful, stunning girlfriend.
Dinner was incredible. She let the steak and veggies for the fondu marinate all day.
The oil had been set to temperature and was ready to go the second we sat down.
Once the meat went in, the oil basically went into rebellion, making way too much noise while it cooked.
I ended up dragging Violet’s chair to my side of the table so we could talk better.
She laughed, called me ridiculous, clingy, and needy, but didn’t complain.
So what if I was clingy and needy? She was too, she was just better at hiding it.
She asked about my day, how the search was going, if I learned anything new. I didn’t have anything to report so I switched the focus to her, and she gave me a very detailed account of her day.
Scarlett was doing significantly better, they were even talking about sending her home—I was really glad to hear that.
Kelsey had stopped by with a basket of muffins to check on her.
Apparently, Angry Icicle had heard she was sick and wanted to do something nice.
She left the muffins in the breakroom and tossed his note in the trash.
Then, if that wasn’t enough, Jessica handed her a written warning about inappropriate hallway conversation between coworkers.
“I threw that out too.” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t even that bad. All I said was that murder was hotter than stalking. It’s not my fault she happened to walk by, missing the whole context, and couldn’t take a fucking joke.”
I propped my elbow on the table and leaned my head on my fist, a permanent smile stuck on my face. I could listen to her talk all day.
“What a bitch.”
“I know! But wait I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet. Later, Maddy was asking if I could host everyone again. It was Abby’s turn, but she just had her baby— Oh! She’s so cute, they named her Juniper. I have pictures, do you want to see?”
I nodded. She excitedly grabbed her phone and started flipping through a hundred photos, narrating each one.
“Oh, these next ones are my favourite. They brought her by 49th today. I stole her.”
The pictures ranged from Violet holding Juniper to them playing peak-a-boo. There was also a video of her stealing the newborn and scurrying away while the two parents laughed.
“Do you want kids?” I asked.
Her smile grew as she continued to flip through pictures.
“Yeah. One day. Probably in the next few years.” She looked up, eyes still shinning. “What about you?”
I’d never thought about it before. I liked kids well enough, but my dad was so shit, and I didn’t remember my mom, I just figured I’d be terrible at it. If I was being totally honest, I was worried I’d turn into my dad if I had my own kids. But looking at Violet… Fuck, I’d do anything with her.
“One day.” I smiled. “Probably in the next few years.”
Her smile turned shy. “Well, that’s good then.” Her focus returned to her phone. “Where was I? Oh, right! This one…”
She continued with the photos, I listened to every word but my eyes stayed on her. Soaking in every smile and laugh, the happiness in her voice, the candlelight dancing in her eyes. She was breathtaking.
She set her phone down and looked at me.
“I was saying something else before the baby fever hit.” She smiled awkwardly. “Do you remember?”
“Maddy asked you to host,” I reminded her and reached forward to play with one of the loose strands of hair framing her face.
“Right! Thank you! So Maddy asks me to host and Jessica is walking by. She had the audacity to ask me what day I was planning! I just stared at her in total disbelief. You wrote me up an hour ago, for literally no reason, and now you want to come to my home? Fuck off, bitch.”
“Do you want me to kill her?”
“No.” She sighed. “At least not yet.”
“You let me know if you change your mind.”
“You’ll be the first. So anyways…”
She continued on, complaining that Ashley insisted that Jessica should be invited.
So V told Ashley to host instead. Maddy and Amber eventually convinced her to let Buzzkill come.
They promised bottomless sangrias and pizza, and my girl didn’t need much convincing after that.
Apparently the fun-killing monster was tolerable after a few drinks.
“How long, hypothetically, should one wait after meeting the love of one’s life before it’s acceptable to propose?”