Chapter Five
1060 Words
"You're a very hard woman to find, Eva, but I told you once that I don't lose things that belong to me," he said.
The basket of purple stalks slipped from my fingers.
"Did you really think you could just walk out of my bed and vanish into a hole in the dirt, Eva?" he asked, his voice cutting through the quiet of the afternoon, and he started walking toward the fence with a slow, predatory grace that made me want to bolt for the back woods.
"I don't know who you are, you're trespassing on private property, so please get back in your car and leave before I call the local police," I said, my voice shaking despite my attempt to sound firm, and I stepped back, my heels digging into the soft earth of the garden bed.
"Don't lie to me, I have spent every single hour of the last three years and millions of dollars tracking your scent across three continents, and I didn't come all this way to play games with a woman who thinks a change of name makes her a stranger," Lugard replied, his hand gripping the top of the wooden gate and squeezing until the old timber groaned under his strength.
"I left because I didn't want to be your project or your prisoner, Lugard, and I have a life here that has nothing to do with you or New York or that night," I told him, finally finding my breath even as the panic surged through my veins, making my skin feel cold in the heat of the sun.
"You belong to me, I told you that the night I saved your life, and I don't care how many years you spend hiding in a garden, that fact hasn't changed," he said, and he pushed the gate open, stepping into my sanctuary with an arrogance that made my blood boil.
Before I could move to block his path, the front door of the cottage creaked open and Mia ran out, her dark curls bouncing as she shouted for me, her small boots thudding on the stone porch. She stopped abruptly when she saw the tall stranger standing in the middle of our yard, her eyes wide with a mix of curiosity and caution, and I felt the world tilt on its axis as Lugard froze, his gaze dropping to the child who looked exactly like a smaller, softer version of himself.
"Mama, who is the tall man?" Mia asked, her voice small but clear, and she walked closer, stopping just a few feet away from Lugard, tilting her head back to look up at the face that shared her own dark, heavy-lidded eyes and the stubborn curve of her jaw.
Lugard didn't speak, his face going pale beneath his tan as he looked at the girl, his hands twitching at his sides as the realization hit him.
He looked back at me, his expression shifting from a cold rage to something far more dangerous, a possessive fire that told me I had just made the biggest mistake of my life by letting him see her.
"She's….two years old? Eva…" he whispered, his voice low and vibrating with a sudden, deep emotion that made my knees weak, and he reached out a hand toward Mia, his fingers trembling for the first time since I had met him.
"She isn't yours, she’s mine, I met someone in Paris after I left you and she has nothing to do with you," I lied, the words tasting like ash in my mouth, and I moved to scoop Mia up into my arms, pressing her face into my shoulder to hide her from his piercing stare.
"Do not lie to me about my own blood, I can see myself in every line of her face, and you are going to pay for every second you kept her from me," Lugard growled, stepping closer until he was looming over us, his shadow covering both me and the child.
The sound of another car racing down the path interrupted us, the screech of tires on gravel loud and jarring, and a silver SUV swerved to a stop behind Lugard’s sedan, the door flying open before the engine had even fully cut out. Ken stepped out, looking disheveled and frantic, his suit wrinkled and his face flushed with a desperate kind of greed that made my stomach turn instantly.
"I knew I'd find you eventually, Eva, you think you can just kidnap my child and run away to France while we're still legally married?" Ken shouted, waving a thick stack of papers in the air as he marched toward the gate, ignoring the way Lugard turned to face him with a look of pure, lethal contempt.
"What are you doing here, Ken? You threw me out, you gave me divorce papers three years ago," I said, my voice rising in a scream as I clutched Mia tighter, the child starting to whimper against my neck.
"Those papers were fake, a scare tactic to get you to behave, but we are still husband and wife in the eyes of the law, and that girl is legally my daughter," Ken sneered, stopping at the fence and pointing a finger at Mia, his eyes landing on Lugard with a flicker of fear that he tried to mask with bravado.
"I don't know who this guy is, but he needs to get away from my family right now before I call the authorities and have you both arrested for desertion and kidnapping."
"Your family?" Lugard asked, his voice dropping to a level that was so cold it felt like ice, and he stepped toward Ken, his height and build making my ex-husband look small and pathetic by comparison.
"If you touch a hair on this child's head or speak to Eva again, I will spend every cent I have to make sure you spend the rest of your life in a hole you can't climb out of."
"You can't threaten me, I have the marriage license and I have the law on my side," Ken barked, though he backed away a step as Lugard’s hand balled into a fist.
I stood between the two men, holding my daughter while my ex husband argued with the father of my child over who should own us.
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