"Don't start with me, Roarke. I have to go to work, and damn if I'm going to take a leave.", Eve spat as she marched towards her table, with spiky hairs she had continuously raked with her hands.

Roarke rounded her. "You barely recovered your senses for the past hours since we returned from Italy, and then you suddenly jumped out to go to work? Do you think I will allow that?"

"I'm fine, don't you get it? I know my capacity, and when I say I can manage, I can manage. So leave me alone!"

"The hell with it!"

Summerset and Mira entered the room in their own accord, and witnessed the quarrelling couple in a very distressed and distraught mood. They knew that the two noticed their entrance but nobody paid any attention.

"Listen ace, I might be your wife but have I ever dictated you when to go to your work? Did I ever touch your pies without your permission? No."

She always said that she hated to be called as wife, but when she used that term to herself, it was like a double-slap in his face.

"Don't you ever make me use my authority as a husband, because you will never imagine the things I can do. And you know that, my dear wife, that I'll enjoy it to the fullest.", he growled, releasing his thick Irish accent.

"Uhm...may I have your attention, please?", Summerset interrupted.

"What?!", Eve and Roarke replied in unison and looked at the butler with utmost irritation, a notion that could plant a fear to any mankind.

It was a miracle that Summerset did not buckle down from their intensed glares. "Dr. Mira is here per your request, sir."

They acknowledged her presence, and then Eve said, "I will see Mira, but I did not mean it to be today."

"Don't be a gobdaw, darling."

That comment snapped her.

"Are you trying to impose your cockamamie and that ever-proud manliness you call there?"

"Not if you're civil-minded rather than a hard-headed, sassy one."

Mira knew, even without personal observation, that when these two proud and hard-headed people clash, it would be a no-holds-barred battle. No sane person would dare to go in between and stop them, not even herself.

Summerset offered her a seat and placed a cup of tea beside her. "Would you enjoy an Earl Grey or a Darjeeling?"

"Any would do, Summerset.", she replied with a smile. "It seems that you're used to this kind of...scene."

"I lived with them for years now. Besides, stopping those two is like committing a suicide. I have several years to live by.", he shrugged. "If you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend below. I believe you can handle the situation, but if you'll need assistance, you may buzz the intercom."

Summerset left the room without an impact to the tension inside.

Eve was too pissed for Roarke, much because he wouldn't bulge off. "When you discovered the truth about your mother from a social worker, did you ever have a notion to share it with me - if I did not ask?"

That caught him by surprise.

"This is different, Eve.", he muttered.

"Different? I call this unfair! Dammit Roarke, when you went to Dublin alone, did I get mad at you? When you asked for Brian's aid instead of mine, did you hear me complain?"

He was about to say something that she was handling a serial murder case that time, but stopped himself when he noticed the tears that formed in her eyes.

"You went to meet your family in Clare without me, and I understand your reasons. You needed to seek yourself, and if you lose that one aspect, you'll never retrieve the one we used to know and love.", Eve said, unable to hide her welling tears.

Instinct told him to hug her, but she slapped his arm away.

“You have experienced that feeling with yourself, Roarke, so you must understand why I am doing this. This is not only for me but for you and everyone else as well. I have some questions that I need to deal personally. Just like what you did.”

It hurts him to see her cry. “You’re right. I was an arse and conceited back then, and I agree that facing those pains opened a new perspective in me, but it was painfully sad that you’re not there with me, longed every second of your presence. You never knew how happy I was when you came to me in Clare. I don’t want you to experience that mistake – more for you to experience again what you have in Dallas.”

“I know, and it’s so stupid that I was affected. I shouldn’t have this kind of reaction. Just because that guy is connected to Stella doesn’t mean he knows my past. It’s frustrating.”

There was more, Roarke thought, and if he revealed it to Eve while she’s in unstable condition, he might not forgive himself.

“Why don’t the two of you come here.”, Mira interrupted when their tensions lowered. “The events last night had a great impact on both of you, and whether you agree with me Roarke or not, you also need some help too.”

Roarke and Eve obliged, and then sat at the long couch while Mira grabbed a stool and faced them. When Roarke pulled Eve closer, she didn’t bulge anymore.

“Listening at your discussions, I realized that both of you were protecting each other in a very selfish manner. Eve, you can’t deny Roarke not to worry for your welfare. He loves you, we love you, and seeing you in this state is a heart-breaking.”

“But Mira, I can handle it. Yes, I made an inappropriate reaction – ”

“Your reaction to this scenario was pretty normal to me, so don’t worry if it burdened you. You’ve been wounded for years, Eve, and a new perspective like Don Miguel shook your core. We understand that you needed space; however, shutting those people who deeply cares for you is a bad move. You were projecting again to your old self – one wherein you’re alone with no friends or family. But let me reminder that we’re here for you, and whatever happens, we’re always a family. You’ll always be our Eve.”

Her eyes stung again, so she burrowed her head to Roarke’s shoulder while trying to contain her emotions.

“With you, Roarke – you knew all about her pasts, her childhood struggles and nightmares, and personally witnessed her horrors in Dallas when she learned about her mother. It became your instinct to protect her, and because you had this similar withdrawal as she stated before, you empathized her. But I agree with her reasoning that there were some things that must be personally answered. I’m not saying that you’re caging her; you’re too sensitive in terms of her welfare that you started to doubt if you’re doing a right decision. Just like concealing certain information because it might be too much for her to handle. Yet.”

“What certain information is she talking about?”, Eve asked him.

She knew that he and Don Miguel had a long past, and learning the possible linkage between the Don and her biological mother impacted him much.

Like her, he’s too cynical, and no matter how truthful the Don’s confession was, he wouldn’t take its face value immediately.

Like her, he would instigate a connection between her and the Don by digging out old or even confidential files. She knew him well enough, and no doubt that what he discovered there were genuine.

“You checked our medical records.”

It was a bulls-eye, and Roarke never wondered how she came up with that conclusion.

“I won’t deny the fact that Don Miguel was like a mentor to me, and he’s the one who taught me some secrets in creating an empire…and the dark side of it.”, he explained. “He encountered several incidents on bogus identities about his estranged child with DNA proofs, but he was able to uncover it, not because nobody except those he had personally confided like us had seen the sole picture of his real heir, but because he falsified his blood records. He’s a slick man that even I had a difficulty to trace which was real or not, but when I used your records and matched it, I got a 99.99% result in his two records.”

“But you’re unsure whether that two records were also falsified or not.”, she responded, and felt her gut tightened.

“Unlikely, but in no time I can verify its authenticity. Besides, I got hold of his actual specimen for lab testing. It’s from the glass he used in the yacht.”

There was a deafening silence that lasted for a minute, in which both Roarke and Mira looked at Eve’s pained reaction in closed eyes. When the stomach knots settled, she shifted her position and looked at them with clarity. She gazed at Roarke in eye-level.

“When will be the results?”

“Latest will be tomorrow.”, he replied.

It was a great help that Mira was there. He didn’t know how to react if Eve made a violent reaction after knowing his secret DNA testing. He knew that an idea of a sibling had occurred on both women, but a probability of giving birth in two consecutive years for a junky was low, and added to the fact about Eve’s latest flashback…

“What if the results became positive?”, Eve asked again.

“Then your real father is Don Miguel.”

She went silent again that Roarke wanted to cursed loudly.

“If it’s a negative?”

“Then the story about the Don’s missing daughter is either a myth or it never happened.”

“I don’t think so.”, she murmured. “You have a credible judgement in character, Roarke, and I can also see that the Don is not an easy man to be played with. Stella might have a child with him, but it’s either she sold it somewhere, or died. Or, the mistress was not Stella.”

That’s why she wanted to go to Central and re-open McQueen’s case. Roarke might got hold on Stella’s autopsy results, but it was her job – and damn, her rights as well – to know if Stella carried a child, and whether it was a success birth or an abortion, and if how many times it occurred.

For her fucking peace of mind.