**Please note I made slight changes to the ending of the previous chapter, so if you have read 'Karma' already, you may want to go back and skim over the slight adjustments to the last few paragraphs. After reading all of the amazing comments, I inserted a bit more to flesh out the conversation and Jerry's character.**

Exhaling heavily, Alyssa slumped back. Holy shit. Holy shit! Holy...shit...

A laugh trickled out of Alyssa but she smothered it behind her hand. "Sorry." Like hell she was sorry. Randy had loomed over her family like an ominous shadow of the boogeyman. He was a constant chill on her skin that made her leap and look around for ghosts in the shadows. She could only imagine how much worse that had been for her sister. And now he was gone.

Gone.

"There's one more thing," Jerry said, tapping restless fingers against the table, his gaze skimmed over to Eva as his knee bounced under the table. "The Feds want ya's to come out with me for an on-air interview. Something to help clean up the mess from the last year."

"Why the hell should she?" Marshall snapped. "Eva's been through enough."

"Don't shoot the messenger." Jerry pushed back in his seat, stuck up his hands in defense. "I'm just sayin' the Feds asked me to make the request is all. But think about it, Kiddo. This could bury the entire mess for all of us."

"He's right; you need to go, Eva." Alyssa spoke up, casting her gaze from Eva to Marshall. "For closure. Both of you."

Marshall rolled his eyes. "I don't think—"

Alyssa silenced him with a swipe of her hand. "It's the only way to stop the flood of reporters from swarming to Haven again, camping out on your doorstep. Meet them on open ground, Eva, answer their questions and this will all go away—quickly. That's what you want, right?"

As the weight of Alyssa's words settled around them, Marshall grudgingly nodded his agreement. "Fuck, she's got a point, babe." Stroking a hand over Eva's shoulders, he looked to the woman he loved. "What do you want to do? Whatever you decide, I'm with you on this."

Eva settled under his touch, her body drawn to him and seeing it made Alyssa's heart expand and contract all at once. They loved each other so completely, so fully, it was breathtaking her see.

"How long would we be away?"

"Day or two at most." Jerry jerked a shoulder. "There'll be a press conference tonight, and an interview tomorrow morning. Nothin' crazy-like."

Eva nodded slowly as she processed. "Who'd be interviewing me?"

"Miz Clear from CTV is comin' to handle the coverage."

Marshall's lips set into a thin line. "Of course she is."

[Alyssa processes the name – and sums up the back story for clarification.] "Can't we request someone else?"

"She's the face of big news. The Feds want her."

"I can handle Catherine," Eva said, her voice stony. "If I do this then I don't want to take the girls with me. Hailey only just stopped having nightmares a month ago and Payton's finally talking more...I can't have this all dragged back to the surface."

"When's Nate bringing them home?" Alyssa asked, swinging her sister's attention around to her.

"Tomorrow afternoon," Marshall answered, his hand stroking circles across Eva's back. "I'm sure we can ask him to hold them for another day, babe."

"No, I'll look after them."

"Are you sure you're up for that, Lys?"

"It's my last chance to have some alone time with them before I head back on Tuesday. It'll be fun."

Something tightened in her sister's features that Alyssa couldn't quite make sense of. "Okay. Alright."

"Good." Bursting out his seat with a grunt, Jerry reached for his phone. "We can catch the afternoon boat out and I'll have an escort meet us at the shore to take us down to the station. Gotta make a few calls, let 'em know we're moving ahead."

"Come on," Alyssa said, taking Eva's hand she tugged her from her seat while Jerry handled logistics and Marshall called Nate with the slight change in plans. "Let's get you packed and organized. We don't have much time."

Though her movements were leaden and heavy, her sister followed and the pair of them managed to make it upstairs without toppling over. By the time they were inside Eva and Marshall's room, Alyssa's head felt clearer and secured firmly to her shoulders.

Looking to her sister, she cupped Eva's face and angled her gaze to meet hers. "You still breathing?"

Eva's lips quirked. "Barely." And the pair of them collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles.

"I don't know why I'm laughing so much, but I can't stop." Eva sat up, her eyes bright and smiled wide. "It's so wrong to be happy about someone's death."

"No it's not." Alyssa snorted. "He was a bad guy. A really bad guy who brought it on himself. I don't feel a lick of sympathy." Slapping her sister's thigh, she bounded to her feet and whirled around the room, plucking up what she needed and setting it all on the bed in a pile that grew and grew and grew.

Eva flopped down on the bed as Alyssa laid out toiletries, several outfits and rooted around in her closet to hunt down a couple more with shoes to match.

"I'm not going to need half of this stuff."

"I'm giving you options." Alyssa brought over a slim grey suit to join the black on the bed. "You won't know what to expect until you get there and I want you prepared for anything. To look your best."

"It's only a press conference for Randy, not some publicity stunt."

"Every single second you spend in front of a camera is publicity for the gallery," she corrected while sweeping her hand over a pair of black slacks before rolling them to avoid creases. "You are your brand, Eva. The two will always go hand in hand. Trust me—this kind of thing is my job."

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving so soon?" Eva asked as she worked, rolling and tucking and folding each garment.

"It was a last minute change," she said, working a hanger out from a blazer and chucking it aside as she told Eva all about her phone call with Gerald Moser, followed by the subsequent events of this morning with Ethan.

"Lys..." Eva's hand curled around hers after she'd tucked in the last bit of folded clothing into the carry-on sized suitcase. "Do you need me to stay?"

"Stay?"Alyssa blinked at her sister. Forced a smile. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I've got all kinds of packing to do myself, tonight. Then tomorrow the girls and I'll camp out in sleeping bags and watch some bubbly princess chick flick with lots of popcorn and pizza. It'll be great."

"You know that's not what I meant," she said, holding tight when Alyssa would have pulled away. "After everything you've just told me...you might say otherwise, but I know you're hurting over Ethan. I don't want to leave you like this."

"I'm fine. Trust me." She smiled. "I was only here for three months; I have to go back home at some point. At least now I will have everything I wanted waiting for me when I get there."

Eva tried to smile, but couldn't quite manage it. "I knew you were going to go back at some point, but it's been so nice having you close by again. To have that dynamic shift back into place between us after so many years apart. To be a team, with all that we've accomplished together." Tears thickened Eva's voice as her hands took hold of her shoulders.

"Now you sound like Ethan," Alyssa sighed.

"I would never ask you to give up your dreams for me. I would never be selfish and ask you to stay for my sake, but I don't think I completely appreciated how much I'd missed you until we were reunited. I don't want us to go back to...that. I don't want us to fall apart and lose one another again."

"You'll never lose me again. Ever. I'll visit so often we'll be sick of each other inside of a year." They laughed together, both knowing that would never be true. Gathering her sister into a firm and fast embrace, Alyssa held on tight. "I love you."

Eva sniffled and warm tears slid down Alyssa's shoulder. "Love you, too."

#

As soon as Eva and Marshall swung out the door, mind set on the matter, Alyssa called the main office line at Schulman to confirm her flights with Marissa. Within the hour the flights were finalized and her itinerary in hand. She was going back to Toronto in less than two days' time, which didn't leave a lot of time to ensure all the balls she had up in the air didn't come crashing down on someone else's head.

Alyssa had spent the rest of her early afternoon drafting a list of items she needed to complete before leaving Haven, and was surprised by how long a list it was. Had she really taken on so much with the gallery in such a short span? There were orders to confirm, documents to send out, meetings to defer or rearrange, spreadsheets to adjust, invoices to approve...and that wasn't even the half of it.

But as far as priorities went, nothing she did was going to matter worth a damn if she didn't have someone in place to slid in where she left off, which meant following up with the candidates to interview. Opening up her laptop, Alyssa got in touch with the HR company regarding the new hires she'd handpicked and confirmed interview slots for next week, noting the details in both Jenelle and Eva's calendars.

She'd spoken with the prospects and had good impressions of both, though she was sure to make detailed notes which she'd typed up and emailed to both Eva and Jenelle.

Packing had been...strange. These cozy four walls had started to feel oddly homey and familiar in the last couple of weeks and now as she stripped everything from cabinets and cupboards, bagging up whatever she planned to throw away, boxing whatever she'd planned to store for future use.

Alyssa scrubbed out the fridge and stove, mopped and swept floors, folded laundry to be packed away in her suitcases. In between the cleaning and folding she'd shed a few tears and dialed Ethan's number at the precinct more than once but never hit 'call'. What would be the point? She was the last person he'd want to speak to and it was best she left him alone rather than make it all worse by doing something stupid like admitting she loved him.

Was going to miss him.

"Get a fucking grip," she grumbled, resting back on her knees with a soapy sponge in hand she'd used to scrub down the baseboards because they were filthy and not because she was deflecting. Or hiding. Oh hell, who was she kidding? Or course she was hiding.

Disgusted with herself, Alyssa chucked the sponge back into the basin of sudsy water, peeled off her gloves and hauled the whole mess to the kitchen sink where she dumped the water down the drain. As the murky suds filled the basin and spiraled down the drain, Alyssa heard her phone ring. Heart in her throat, she checked the screen and all her tension oozed away as she saw the name on the screen.

"Indy," she said, a smile filling her voice. "Thank God."

"Saw your email," she said. "Congratulations?"

"Why the uncertain tone of voice?" Alyssa asked, deciding that she'd earned a large glass of wine after a very long and productive afternoon. Phone wedged between her cheek and shoulder, she rooted around in a packed box of bottles for an almost finished bottle and poured out the contents into a mug.

"What happened to the stud? How's he feel about all of this?"

Alyssa frowned into her wine as she slid down onto the couch. "Seriously, I don't want to go there right now."

The line hummed with the sound of her best friend's knowing silence. "That bad, huh?"

"Bad enough to know he'll hate me for at least the next three months."

"It's not too late to change his mind with a bit of makeup sex. But first, tell Moser he can take his offer and shove it up the darkest part of his lily white ass."

Alyssa snorted with laughter at the image, slapping a hand over her mouth. "Jesus, Indy."

"I mean it, babe. Turn the job down. Tell him to fuck off and be done with it. Screw the corner office and the fancy title—to hell with living the corporate high life. It's not worth it."

"I can't believe you of all people would say that."

"I know. It's blowing my mind, too. But in all seriousness you've been through the gamut, babe. You deserve a bit of happiness. Are you sure coming back to the corporate shit-show of Schulman's is really what you want?"

"Yes."

The line hummed again. "Fine. Okay, I know that tone. So be it. Learn the hard way."

"Indy."

"No, forget I asked. I'll just mark down this conversation in my calendar with a follow-up notice of 'I told you so' two weeks from now." And though the statement was said in teasing, Alyssa could hear the threads of annoyance underneath as well.

"How's your sister holding up? Have you spoken to her since this morning?"

"A brief call," Alyssa confirmed, glad for the shift in subject. "She sounded...calm. In control. Which makes me happy since I'm not there to hold her hand."

"She's a tough chick. She'll pull through."

"Yeah, I know she will. I'm crazy, stupid proud of her Indy."

"So where are the kiddies? Spending the night with you?"

"No, Nate has the girls. It was his weekend with them," she said, tucking her legs underneath her. From the corner of her eye she saw Cleo prowling, her green eyes wide and movements restless.

Every now and then she'd flinch—jerking her head up in alarm then quickly return to restless pacing. Poor thing, she mused, hating that her tense anxiety had obviously left Cleo so unsettled.

"He's supposed to have them back by ten tomorrow morning. Eva asked him to bring them straight to the house instead of having me meet him at the dock."

"Nice of him."

"Yeah, he's surprising me. That's for sure. How are things working out on your end?"

Indy sighed. "Busy as always. You won't believe the bullshit I've had to put up with the last week and a half. Turns out the seniors want me to partner up with Juarez for the Orvana Holdings matter. Working beneath him. Answering to him. Can you believe that shit?"

No, she couldn't. And knowing her best friend, there could be no bigger hit to her pride than having to bend the knee to the man who'd systematically screwed her out of the lead position on the case.

"You should have seen his face in the meeting. Smug son of a bitch loved every glorious second, but I won't give him satisfaction of seeing me squirm. I'll do my job—kick ass at it, and when the time was right, I'll bury him."

"Atta girl." Alyssa's was interrupted by a firm knock at the door. The sound startled Cleo enough that she bounced three feet in the air with a yowl before bolting from the room with a mewling hiss. A reaction that was so uncharacteristically like her beloved cat, Alyssa mused, and wondered what the heck had her so rattled as she rose to answer the door.

"What was that?"

"Someone's at the door and Cleo's having a meltdown. Hold on a sec," Alyssa said to Indy as she flipped the locks. As she swung the door open it took her a second to process—to believe. Her breath seized, her heart stopped, numb fingers unfurled from around the phone and it slid from her grip to clatter at her feet.

A single word jerked past her lips in a gasping breath of terror. "Ethan..."