Back from the gym, Alyssa tossed down her gear, swiped a hand across her brow. Last night had been a study in torture with her tossing and turning and tangling up in bed sheets while thoughts of Ethan Davies mouth plagued her dreams. She couldn't recall the last time she'd ever been so affected or turned on. That searing, powerful kiss, however brief, had set fire to a part of her that chemo had all but obliterated.

Scratching behind Cleo's ears, Alyssa ripped off her sweaty clothes and leapt into a hot shower. During her grueling leg session, she'd replayed last night's events in her mind. Over and over, puzzling on what could have gone so terribly wrong to make him bolt like a criminal.

And when she'd spun that in circles that went nowhere, she switched over to another issue gnawing on her insides. Eva. More importantly, Ethan's point about Eva.

Even if the man was a first class idiot, he'd had a point. Too much had happened for either of them to be the same person. And for Alyssa to come here and expect to find Annelise in all her former glory was only setting herself up for disappointment. How could she think Eva could ever be that same person when Alyssa herself was so markedly changed?

To expect that of her sister, then to blow up in her face over it, had been wrong and childish. It was up to her to make amends. Eva was the only family she had left and Alyssa wasn't about to lose her. Not again.

Mind made up, after handling a couple of important phone calls, trusting that her sister would be awake this early on a Sunday, Alyssa pulled up outside Lavender Cottage.

Palms clammy, before she lost her nerve, she unlocked the door using the spare key Eva gave her last week while watching the girls. The dogs, hearing her entry, scrambled to the door with gleeful yips of greeting. Stooping to say hi, she brushed bellies and stroked heads.

The smell of coffee thickly scented the air along with the trickling of voices told Alyssa that Eva was up and she wasn't alone.

"Morning," she said, entering the living room. Jenelle and Eva sat on the couch, papers splayed between them and on the coffee table.

"Morning," Eva acknowledged. "You're up early."

Alyssa cleared her throat. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not interrupting. We're just going over the plans. Marshall took the girls over to his moms for breakfast and Hailey had a sleepover with Samantha. Won't be back until noon."

"No, I came to see you. I wanted to...talk."

Taking that as her cue, Jenelle hastily rose, gathering paper. "I should go. We can go over this later."

"No, you should be here for this." Alyssa spoke up, stopping her retreat. "Or part of it, at least."

Lowering back to the couch, carefully, Jenelle glanced from one sister to the other. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Claiming the side chair closest to Eva, Alyssa dragged her hands over her thighs. Gathering her courage. "I wanted to apologize for the way I've behaved. And not just last night," she added, directing the latter part of her statement to Eva. "I haven't been myself since I got here, and I'm sorry. All this resentment and anger I didn't know I had inside of me sort of boiled over when I saw your neat, orderly life—all perfect and filled with so much love. To know I had been so effortlessly replaced where I had grieved every single day over losing you and those girls." Tears seared her eyes, thickened her voice.

"I missed you. So much. One day you were there and the next you were gone. When they took you away, I called the police station, tried to speak with the detectives and get answers, but they wouldn't tell me anything. Every week I pushed them. I didn't give up until the cancer. I battled it alone. There was no one there to help me pick up the pieces. To put me back together when I broke apart."

Eva swallowed hard, but listened as she told her sister everything. About the cancer and chemo. About the long, hard year as their mother became sick. About the brutal betrayal of a broken heart. And finally, god finally, about losing her job. A final tip the scales to send them crashing down and her entire world with it.

"Oh Lys...I hate that I wasn't there when you needed me most." Scooting forward, she reached between them and took hold of Alyssa's hands, her grip tightening with equal parts of grief and guilt. "You don't have to apologize for this. For any of it."

Alyssa smiled at that, blinked back tears. "Yes, I do. The things I said. There's no excuse."

"Families fight, Lys. You're my sister. There's nothing you could say to me that would ever make me turn away from you. Nothing." Eva smiled at Jenelle before adding, "Someone old and wise told me that."

Scoffing, Jenelle swatted Eva's arm. "Call me old again and I'll have to hurt you." Rising, she rounded the coffee table and gathered Alyssa into a hug. Squeezed until ribs cracked.

"I'm glad you're here. Eva needs her sister. She needs you." With a parting squeeze, Jenelle let her go. "You guys should have some time together. I'll take care of the contractors. The gallery can wait until tomorrow."

File folder and papers in hand, she left with a wink. The house somehow went quieter in her absence. The dogs lazed about, Wiggles and Skittles scampering off in the distance while Selene dozed and LeBron chewed happily on a rawhide.

Weighing some kind of internal decision, Eva slapped a hand on her thigh, mind made up. "I need to show you something."

"I've been busy, but not for all the reasons I led you to believe." Cocking up a foot on the end of the coffee table, she rolled the baggy denim up to her knee, exposing the joint and the webbed scar tissue over the cap of bone. "I've got another six months of physical therapy on the mainland, and counseling sessions twice a week for Hailey to help her sort through the emotional trauma. There's a few details I couldn't tell you. Complicated details." As she spoke, Eva's fingers hiked up the left side of her shirt to reveal a long, vicious scar over her ribs.

A sound tore from Alyssa's throat as she pressed a hand to that puckered seam. "Oh my god...Eva, what the hell happened?"

Dropping the hem of her shirt, Eva scooted back on the cough, sighed. "The night that man came out here to kill us, what you don't know is that he'd gotten a hold of Hailey, had her at knifepoint by the cliffs." Alyssa's hands shot to her mouth, but she didn't interrupt.

"He wanted me to watch. To see my children die before my eyes. Those were Randy's instructions. The hired hitman was well known with the FBI and they used me and my girls as bait to draw him out. Ethan was the first on scene and shot him. He'd dropped the knife and Hailey got away. I could have stepped aside and let the police do their jobs. Arrest him. Haul him away. But I didn't." Eva's eyes shifted to hers, glittering with fury and determination. "I couldn't risk that he'd escape, as he vowed he would, and come after my children. Or God forbid—you, if he couldn't find us. So I tackled the bastard off the cliff."

Dazed, Alyssa slumped back. Her thoughts a tangled mess as Eva worked through the sordid details of the FBI cover up with the media. In part to mitigate as much damage to the bureau in the face of public backlash for using a woman and her children to suit their agenda. She'd know about the attempt made against her sister's life, but all of this was too much to comprehend. To process.

"I was pretty busted up. Am seriously lucky to be alive," Eva finished. "I don't think I would be if Marshall and Ethan hadn't dove after me."

"All this time," Alyssa croaked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I know you, Lys. You'd take it all on and blame yourself for not being here to protect me. You can't, by the way, fix everything and make it all perfect. I don't think would have made it much longer if we hadn't landed on Haven when we did. Jenelle and her family, they saved me. And yes, they filled a void—but they never, not once, replaced you. You're my sister. My twin. No one could ever replace you. Not here." Eva laid a hand over her heart, held it there before fishing out a delicate gold chain from the breast pocket. An oval locket dangled from the end and Alyssa's heart clutched as Eva set it in her palm.

She had one as well. Given to them as children. And didn't need to open it to know what was inside.

"I spilled blood to keep this." Eva smirked in memory. "Knocked some detective's teeth in when she tried to take it off me. No jewelry, no personal items are allowed in the program. Nothing identifiable, but I'd've cut off my hand before I let them take this from me."

Alyssa's fingers closed around that simple piece of jewelry. That one tangible link to the past, for both of them. To know Eva had held on to this one small piece of their old life, to her said everything she'd need to hear. To know.

"You've been so....casual. I thought you didn't care."

"Of course I do, Lys. You're the most important person in the world to me. I thought—I was trying to show you that I've grown up and that I'm not that kid who needs someone to constantly fix things anymore. You've always been so strong. So capable. I wanted to make you proud for once. I never stopped to think that maybe I was as vital to your life as you were to mine," Eva laughed at that. Sighed. "We've both held back so much out of misguided intentions of protecting the other. No more, Lys. From now on we talk about everything. Anything, just as we used to. I can't lose you again."

"Okay," Alyssa whispered. "I promise."

Eva exhaled heavily, nodded. "Good. So we start over."

And in the spirit of starting over, before doubt could weigh in and sway her, Alyssa pulled out the envelope from her purse and handed it over to Eva. Annelise written across the front. "Sorry about...the name."

Taking it, Eva tore along the sealed edge and dumped out the contents into her lap. A large glossy print photo of a man's face, a signature scrawled across the front, and accompanied by a business card.

"What is this?"

"It's Glen Hetricks. The Glenn Hetricks," Alyssa said. "I handled some branding for this reality show—a makeup effects one. I showed him some of your work from the early days and he offered to put you in the hands of some people in California, to get your foot in the door with on-set experience. I made a call after I booked my flights here and he confirmed to have you down for a weekend to visit the set of his latest production with James Cameron in San Diego this summer." Alyssa chewed her lip, anxious as Eva turned over the picture, her brows perking up over her eyes.

"I know this isn't your area of interest anymore, but I figured since Hailey's really getting into theatre that we could make a trip out of it with the girls. Together..."

"I can't believe..." Too moved to speak, Eva pressed a hand over her lips. Tears spilled. Reaching for her, she pulled Alyssa into her arms with a sob, and a second later Alyssa felt it. A weight had been lifted. A veil had been pulled away. Whatever their rift, this final gesture healed it.

Gone was the past, and now, holding on to her sister, Alyssa found she didn't miss it.