Eva was tired. Tired of her mother moving around mechanically like a mannequin endowed with the mechanical energy.

Tired of her friends pretending not to be happy in their personal lives just so she wouldn't feel bad about herself.

Her mother had never been talkative around the table, but at least there'd been something before. Now all she ever did was eat half her food and get up with the excuse that she was full.

Her change in attitude had begun to show at work, and so now Eva handled most of the things she'd always so loved to do by herself.

The sadness in her eyes was always such a mood killer.

As for Adam, he'd moved to live with his father for the time the man had left, and they barely spoke. Eva missed him so much that sometimes she felt bad for being so selfish.

Adam was going through a lot, and she had to be the supportive girlfriend.

She didn't support the choices her mother had made in her youth, but every day Eva saw the guilt in her eyes, watched the regret eating her whole.

She just hoped that Adam would find it in himself to forgive when his emotions returned to normal, if that was ever going to happen.

Right now, Eva didn't think she could stomach any more tragedy.

Forcing herself out of her thoughts, she looked at her computer screen at a file she'd been typing and sighed. She'd made a mess of a whole page. Typing and distractions obviously didn't go hand in hand.

The ringing of her phone made her jump all of a sudden. Looking at the caller ID, she answered when she saw that it was June calling.

“Girl, I'm so sorry. Raul just told me what happened. I can't even imagine what Adam is going through. God, I should've really taken his number.”

The last time her friend had started a call this way, only bad news had arrived. Eva felt her stomach clench with dread at what was imminent now.

“June, what is going on?”

June paused. “Adam didn't call you to tell you this too? Okay, I guess that's to be expected considering it was Guille who called all his friends to tell them about it. God he really must be going through so much right now.”

“June, can you please just tell me and stop beating around the fucking bush?” Eva demanded, irritated and scared.

“Adam lost his father this morning.”

Oh fuck. Talk about not being able to stomach another tragedy.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Eva entered the hall where the funeral was being held. Adam hadn't picked up her calls, and so she'd called Raul for directions. She couldn't hold anything against Adam though; she knew he was going through something tough.

She remebered when her dad had died when she was only six. Eva had been broken, wanting to go with him. It was Rebecca's love that'd nursed her back to sanity. She could only imagine what the experience was for Adam.

She looked at the white coffin placed on a platform and sighed. She hoped that the man's soul would rest in peace.

Scanning the hall, she noticed a crowd gathered around the main man she was after, seemingly offering their condolences. Adam only nodded now and then with no emotion on his face at all. He looked like he hadn't had a shower.

It was only when his eyes fell on her that anything at all crossed his face; gratitude, longing. He pushed past the crowd and made his way towards her. Eva received him in a hug, holding him in her arms protectively.

She'd always known Adam to be this strong, indefatigable extremist. Seeing him like this broke her heart, and in that moment, she wished she had some sort of power to whisk his pain away forever, for him to return to the Adam she knew.

“He's gone Eva. He's gone. I'm never going to see him again.” He spoke into her neck, voice so raspy even if he wasn't crying.

“I'm sorry, Adam. I'm so sorry.” She felt the tears burn the back of her throat as she run her fingers through his hair.

She noticed Guillermo standing beside the wall on one end of the room, and she offered him a sad smile as a tear slipped from her eyes. Pursing his lips, he nodded at her in what seemed like appreciation. His whole face was wet from crying as he held on to his fiancé whom Eva had found out was called Adriana.

The woman looked distraught at the broken state her man was in, just as Eva felt from seeing Adam in this state.

“Do you know what he told I and Guillermo last night?” Adam asked. “He said that he knew that he'd never been a good father, but then we should never doubt how much he loved us. Growing up, I sometimes thought that he was a failure, and now I can't stop thinking about those words.”

Eva pulled him closer, feeling tears stream down her face unbidden. Then all of a sudden, Adam's body went rigid in her arms. Eva was wondering why when he slowly untangled himself from the hug.

His face looked gaunt and haggard, eyes dry yet puffy like he'd cried for a long time and had lost the ability to cry anymore. But that wasn't what caught Eva's attention. It was the look of unfiltered rage in his eyes as it focused on something behind her.

Alarmed, she spun around just in time to see her teary-eyed mother stop dead in her tracks upon coming face to face with Adam? Heck, what was she doing here?

She rotated back on her heels to face Adam. The look of rage didn't even dim when his eyes fell back on her. “You brought her here?” His voice was low and menacing, like he was forcing himself to hold on to every bit of restraint he could find.

“No." Eva said immediately. “I only told her about your father.”

“Yeah, and my dad didn't just die today.” He sneered sarcastically. “You knew how I felt about her Eva.”

Eva was taken aback by the fury in his tone. “I promise I didn't bring her here. I didn't even let her know where this was being held.”

She'd nearly crashed into her mother after rushing out of the office. When the woman had asked her where she was going in such a hurry, Eva hadn't been about to lie. She hadn't expected her mother to follow her though, even though it made sense that she would.

“You know what?” Adam growled lowly. “I don't care about that. Just get her out of here. Tell her to leave or else I'll drag her out myself.”

“No, Adam. Please son, don't kick me...” Her mother began, her heels sounding closer.

“You have no fucking son!” This time it was a scream. Eva didn't even have to look around to know that they'd drawn the attention of everyone in the hall.

“Adam, calm down. She...” She flinched, cutting of her words when his intensely cold glare was directed back at her.

“Why did you bring her here? You knew how much I hate her, how much I can't stand her. It's her fault my dad is soon going to be six feet under.”

“Your dad died of a disease, Adam. Please...”

His eyes blazed indignantly, furiously. “He died from a disease caused by his drinking for the last two decades. He started drinking because of her. Because she broke him, because of her greed, her selfishness. Her disgusting love for money.”

“She regrets it Adam. She's changed. She's no...”

“Her fucking regret isn't going to bring my father back! ” Another scream. People were inching towards them. “And what did you say? She's changed?”

Suddenly, he let out a laugh so mirthless and bitter that she flinched. “Do you even know what she came to my house for the day I found out she was my mother?”

His eyes looked at her challengingly. Eva's stomach clenched at his imminent words. “She came to offer me ten million dollars in exchange of me kicking you out of my life.”

She felt like cold water had been poured right on her. Slowly, she turned to look at her mother who had covered her mouth with her hand while she cried.

“Mum, tell me he got it all wrong.”

“I was only testing him.” The woman croaked, voice despearate. “I wasn't sure that I could trust him. I needed to know whether he truly loved you and wasn't only looking to take advantage of you. I needed to know whether he was right for you!”

“Oh wow, how motherly!” Adam sneered, clapping cynically. Suddenly, he stalked past her and stopped right in front of his mother, glaring daggers into her eyes. “What changed, huh? I'm suddenly right for her because you found out I'm your fucking son? A son you abandoned when he was only six years old? Please get out ma'am. I don't know how long I can control myself.”

“Bro, no.” Guillermo made to step close to Adam. “Dad forgave her. He said he wanted her to be here when he died.”

“Shut the fuck up, Guille. Idiot who swallows everything this dispicable woman tells him like a guillible fool!"

“Adam, dude, calm down.” Alfredo standing beside Lucas, Raul, June and Victoria said.

Adam glowered at him. “Just shut up, Freddy boy. Don't you have a fucking fucked up lovelife to sort out?”

Eva gasped seeing the startled and hurt look on Alfredo's face. She walked towards Adam, hoping her touch would soothe him. “Sweetheart, come on. I know you're upset right now and all...”

Once again, her words were cut off when he spun around to face her. “Has it ever even occurred to you that she's been manipulating you all your life. 'Yeah, I'm not your mum but I've loved and taken care of you as if you were mine'. And so she has you wrapped around her finger, making you feel indebted and getting you to do things. Or wait, perhaps she never really had to manipulate you because she's groomed you into a mini version of herself. Just as greedy.”

Eva flinched, not believing that he'd actually said that. Still, he didn't stop.

“Perhaps that's why you still wanted to marry Brandon even though you had feelings for me. To suck out his billions. If you and I are to get married, you're probably going to abandon me and our children when times get tough. After all, the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.”

Every utterances of his cut through her heart painfully, making her chest hurt. Still he'd never spoken to her like this before. She told herself that it was the pain speaking, the anger.

“We'll just talk about this later when you're calmer.”

“I don't have any freaking thing to say to you!” He growled. “You know what? Just freaking get out of here. And don't forget to take her along with you.”

“Man, you're gonna regret this.” It was Raul who spoke.

Adam looked at him dangerously. “Keep your mouth shut and just make sure you know better than to puke on girls just when they're about to let you fuck them.”

Eva felt her throat constricting, more tears brimming in her eyes and threatening to spill. Before they could fall, she spun on her heels and run past him and out of the hall.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Eva stepped under the shower, feeling the warm spray beat down on her skin soothingly. Adam's words from yesterday rang through her head, and she let out a sigh. It still stung, but it didn't hurt as much as it'd done yesterday.

She couldn't believe she'd missed his father's burial because of them.

She should've known that it'd been the pain speaking. Adam would never say those things to her otherwise. She should've stuck around and waited for him to calm down and not leave like she'd done. Right now, he was going through a lot and he needed her support.

After her shower, she dried off and changed into a black dress to show Adam that she was with him in his grief. She drove to his building, then took the elevator to his penthouse.

She pressed on the doorbell and waited patiently for Adam to open the door. Her heart skipped a beat as the door clicked and opened slowly, only for it to stop beating entirely for several destructive seconds when it parted completely to reveal a woman she'd never seen before.

The top she was wearing barely deserved to be called a top, more like a bra. And the shorts she wore didn't even reach the middle of her thighs.

What. The. Hell?