Ten seconds later, Eva was still staring at Adam, stupefied, wondering whether she had misheard him.

“Adam, what are you talking about?” She would have chuckled at the absurdity of his declaration if not for the gravity of this whole situation. “How can my mother be your mother?”

She scanned Adam's face, waiting for any twitch, any sign to indicate that this was just his example of an extremely bad joke.

The hard lines of incense remained. Eva looked back at her mother to find the woman sobbing and looking at the floor like she found it very interesting.

Reality slammed into her with an intensity that sent her hurtling right into absolute shock.

“Get her the fuck out of here, Eva!” Adam whisper-yelled churlishly, but his next words were ground out loudly. “Somebody get her the fuck out of here before I lose my shit and do something I'm going to regret.”

His hands were balled into fists, his whole body crackling with rage, like an elastic string stretched beyond the yield point and just waiting to snap. Lucas was by his side, telling him to get his shit together and not cause a scene because they were in a hospital.

“Please let her leave.” He directed at Eva, his eyes filled with some remnants of shock. That shock obviously paled in comparison to what she was feeling in that moment.

Eva slewed around only to find her mother running out of there. She dashed after the woman immediately, head still whirling.

God, Rebecca was Adam's mother, the woman who'd abandoned him, the woman who'd walked out of Adam and his little brother's life without a second thought and had never bothered to look back.

“Mother!” She shouted when they'd run out of the building.

Catching up with her, she caught her by the arm, forcing her to stop. The woman was sobbing more than Eva remembered ever seeing her do.

“Mum, what the hell is going on? Tell me this is just some joke you and Adam are playing or something.” Eva demanded, still finding it hard to wrap her head around all this. “You're the woman who abandoned Adam and his brother when they were little?”

She could barely reconcile the woman Adam had told her about at the cabin with the woman she'd always known, the woman whom had loved her so unconditionally and to whom she looked up to so much.

“I can explain.” Her mother croaked.

“Ah, well then there better be a good enough explanation!” With that, she spun around and stormed away towards the parking lot where they could talk in private.

Her heart was beating so fast. After holding this woman in high esteem all her life, finding out that she had been capable of something so horrendous came as nothing short of a blow. A hard-hitting blow.

Eva entered the driver's side, banging the door shut. She waited for her crying mother to enter, tapping her fingers on her lap rhythmically.

“Well?” Eva didn't waste time after her mum had entered the car. “Start talking.”

Her mother winced at her tone. Eva had never talked to her in that tone of voice, but right now she didn't care whether she was being disrespectful. She needed answers and now!

Tear-stained eyes met hers. Eva looked away immediately as her mother began to speak. “I was born and raised from a filthy rich family, pampered, treated like a queen, thought to only associate with people of my own social status.”

A small pause. “What I was thought didn't seem to matter when I met Adam's father. He was this gorgeous young man, sexy, virile.”

From the corner of her eyes, Eva saw her smile through her tears. “I was helpless against falling in love with him. All my dreams were shattered when I introduced him to my parents. They were instantly against our relationship. We hatched a plan; to get me pregnant. That would cause my parents to finally accept us. My father disowned me instead.”

A bitter laugh escaped her. “It devastated me, but at that time, I was hopelessly in love. I thought that it would be enough so Rudulfo and I got married in a small ceremony. Adam was born some months later. I can say that I was happy. . . until things began to take a turn with his job.”

She wiped her eyes before continuing. “I am ashamed of saying this, but throughout the initial stages of our marriage, I occasionally thought about my parent's wealth and how I'd let it slip through my fingers for love. The thoughts only got worse when Rudulfo began to experience that crisis. I felt like he wasn't trying enough to give me the kind of life I was used to before meeting him.”

“My mother had been keeping in touch with me behind my father's back. She told me one day that my father was willing to accept me back on the condition that I divorce Rudulfo and leave my children with him.”

Incredulous, Eva turned to look at her sharply. “And you did? Just for the money?”

“Please let me explain.” The woman pleaded, eyes beseeching. “At that time, I'd had Guillermo, but my marriage problems with Rudulfo kept getting worse. We were mostly always unhappy. So I decided that it made sense to accept my father's offer but I swear that I never planned to abandon my children. I swear it.”

“I only wanted to go back and make sure my father planned to make me the heiress of his wealth, but I would visit my children frequently behind his back. But when a month later I went to the apartment where Rudulfo and I had lived after I'd gained my father's trust enough, I was told he'd gone back to Mexico and taken the children along with him.”

“I searched for them desperately. It took four years for my PI to finally find them. I'd married your father by then. When I went to see them, Adam and Guille weren't around. Only their father. He kicked me out, saying he didn't want his children to have anything to do with a woman like me. I was devastated, but I swore to not give up, to fight for my children. When I went back the next day, they'd moved again. They kept moving from place to place until tracing them became hellish. At that time, the guilt was also eating me up, and I decided that perhaps, my kids were better off taken care of by him.”

Silence settled in the car for minutes after Eva had looked away, feeling utterly bombarded. This was too much, and she didn't even know what to think of Rebecca anymore.

“Your children were supposed to have come first.” Her voice sounded emotionless to her own ears.

Her mother broke down all over again. “I know, I know! You don't know how much guilt I've been living with all these years, Eva. I wish I could turn back the hands of time and right all the wrongs that I've done. I'm so sorry.”

“You've done me no wrong. The ones you should be saying that to are Adam and Guille.”

“Adam doesn't even want to see my face.” Rebecca said, voice choked though her tears.

“Well, then you and I perfectly know that you deserve it.” Eva bit out much harshly than she'd intended, glaring at her. Her mother nodded solemnly, and Eva sighed. “Did my father know?”

The crying gave way to a sudden tensing up. Eva didn't have to hear anything. The woman's silence had answered her question. Disappointed beyond measure, she opened the door and got out of the car, ignoring her mother's calls as she walked away from it, heading back inside.

Adam was fiercely hugging his brother who seemed to be crying when Eva got back to the foyer. A young woman she hadn't met before was standing by them, judging by the way she was looking at Guille with teary eyes, they seemed to be having a thing going on.

Adam opened his eyes, the brown orbs turning wary the moment they fell on Eva. Eva hated it.

Guile finally pulled away from Adam only to be received into another hug from the young woman standing by. Eva noticed the ring on her promise finger.

She stopped in front of Adam, feeling her whole body burning with shame. God, she couldn't even look him in the eye. “Hi.” She said awkwardly.

“Hi.” He said back, voice scratchy.

Eva gathered the courage to finally look up. His eyes looked exhausted. “Adam, I'm so sorry about your father.” She threw her arms around him. He stiffened, and didn't return her hug.

Pulling back, she cupped his cheeks. She intended on a light peck on the lips, but even before their lips could touch, Adam pushed her away all of a sudden.

Eva's arms fell to her side as she stared at him in shock. Was he going to reject her because of her connection to his mother?

“Why are you trying to make things difficult for us, Eva?” He said gruffly.

Eva was taken aback. “Adam, I'm not to blame for Rebecca's... ”

“No.” He cut her off. “But unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that we're...” His face contorted painfully. “...that we're siblings.”

Eva blinked. “What is wrong with step siblings kissing each other?”

Confusion marred his brows. “Step siblings?”

It hit Eva right then that'd she'd never told Adam about the fact that Rebecca was only her step mother. Her biological mother had died giving birth to her and her father had married Rebecca a year later. She called her mother because the woman had always been nothing short of a mother to her.

“Adam, Rebecca is not my real mother. She's only my step mother. I'm so sorry I've never told you this before. Sometimes I even forget that myself. I...”

“Okay, can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?” It was Guillermo speaking, wiping his eyes as he stepped away from his woman. “Adam, why would you think that Eva is our sister?”

He was looking at Adam with a demanding gleam in his eyes. Adam sighed, then his eyes hardened as he answered. “Because little bro, turns out our mother is Eva's mother. Stepmother.”

Disbelief coloured Guile's cheeks, but before he could say anything, Adam was rushing towards an approaching doctor. The rest of them including Lucas, Raul and June followed.

“No need to go to your office, doctor Andrews. Tell me whatever news you have here.” Adam was saying. Eva had never heard his voice so shaky. “You have the results of the tests you ran, right?”

“Yes, Adam.” The woman answered.

“And so? What's happening to my dad, doctor?” Adam asked with a farce of impatience in his voice, but the anxiety was barely concealed.

“The alcohol overdose has done much more damage to your father's liver and some other vital tissues in his body. There's nothing more we can do. Not even medication can sustain him.” She pursed her lips in a way that suggested more bad news was about to follow.

And it did. “Adam, I'm afraid your father has a maximum of a week to live.”