Evening move
792 Words
Alina landed at Teterboro .
The jet door opened and cold air hit her face. Her driver waited on the tarmac with the black car. No words. No questions.
She slid into the back seat and closed her eyes.
Her phone buzzed again. Same number. Same crew.
“The girl is alive,” the voice said. “She woke up this morning. No name. No memory.”
Alina’s eyes opened. Sharp. Cold.
“Alive?” she said. “That’s not what you said.”
“The body was gone,” the crew said. “We cleared the scene. We did not find a body. We assumed—”
“You assume wrong,” Alina cut in. “Fix it.”
“We can’t,” the crew said. “She’s in Mount Sinai. Under guard. A man is with her. Tall. Dark hair. He signed as John Doe.”
Alina sat up straight. “John Doe?”
“Yes. And the police have no case. No car. No blood.”
Alina leaned back and closed her eyes again. She did not speak for a long time.
Then she said, “Find out who he is.”
The call ended.
Alina looked out the window at the dark runway lights. The city was a glow in the distance.
She had not felt this way since Monaco. Exposed. Out of control.
Darian had betrayed her once, if her guess isn’t wrong. Now he was protecting the one person who could break her.
She would not let that happen.
---
Darian left Eve’s room.
He needed air. He needed to think.
The hospital lobby was quiet now. Fewer people. Dim lights. The night shift nurse nodded at him as he passed.
He stepped outside.
The evening air was cool. Fresh. It cleared his head a bit.
His phone buzzed. Unknown number.
He answered it.
“Darian Kingsley,” a cold voice said. “We need to talk.”
Darian knew that voice. He had not heard it since the night he walked out.
“Alina,” he said.
“I know you’re with her,” Alina said. “The girl. Eve.”
Darian’s grip tightened on the phone. “Don’t say her name.”
“I know everything,” Alina said. “I know you lied on the form. I know you’re hiding her. I know you’re trying to protect her.”
“And?” Darian said.
“And I’m telling you to stop,” Alina said. “Walk away. Now. Before this gets worse.”
Darian laughed. It was not a kind sound. “You hit her and left her to die. And you tell me to walk away?”
“She was in the wrong place,” Alina said. “At the wrong time.”
Darian went quiet. Then he said, “No one is in the wrong place when they are trying to live.”
Alina was silent for a moment. Then her voice turned sharp. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Darian. You don’t know what she can do to us”.
“To you,” Darian said. “Not to us. There is no us, Alina.”
The line went dead.
Darian stood in the evening air for a long time. The hospital doors opened and closed behind him. Nurses came and went.
He did not move.
He had made his choice.
He would not walk away.
He would not let her win again.
He went back inside.
---
Eve was awake when he returned .
She was sitting up. The board with her new name was in her lap.
“Darian,” she said. “You look upset.”
Darian sat down. He did not lie. “A call came.”
Eve watched him. “Bad call?”
“Bad,” Darian said. “Someone who wants me to leave you.”
Eve frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know all of it yet,” Darian said. “But it has to do with what happened to you.”
Eve held his gaze. “Will you leave?”
Darian thought of the girl on the road. Of her hand in his. Of the blood on his hands.
“No,” he said. “I won’t.”
Eve nodded.
She set the board down and lay back.
“I’m tired,” she said. “But I’m not scared.”
Darian pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. “Sleep, Eve.”
She closed her eyes. “Stay.”
Darian sat in the chair. He did not sleep.
He was scared of what Alina could do to Eve, he knew he won’t always be around.
Can a girl with no memory outrun the truth long enough to stay alive?.
- Writer
