Iris' rose-gold Bluetooth earbuds sat in her ears as she patted Andrew's hair delicately. After charging her phone in the hospital room's port, she hadn't missed all the calls that she had received from Andrea. Her heart swelled, wondering what had happened to Andrea and that she had left her all alone. 

But she couldn't call her yet; she had Andrew to care for and another call to make. 

Hearing a voice on the other side of the line, she subconsciously stopped patting Andrew and focused on the call. 

"Officer Ackres," she greeted. 

"Ms. Brown, to what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked amicably. 

"I'd like to report an assault. I'd come to the station directly but my son needs me in the hospital," she said. All her worries regarding Andrew were relieved the moment the nurse told her that the cut wasn't deep. 

Now, she was back to business. 

"Is it an emergency?" he asked. 

"No, all of it happened last night and I was too shocked to do anything. I will file an official report but I wanted to keep you in the loop," Iris answered. 

"Alright. How about we start with the details - how and where did you find him and do you suspect anyone?" he asked. 

Yes, her mind thought but she answered differently, "No, I have no idea. He was in the basement to discard his old charger and he was taking too long. When I went down to check, his head was bleeding and there was blood on the wall."

She couldn't let the police know that it was Evelyn, not on her own at least. That would lead to questions such as - why didn't you report her break in and she sure as hell couldn't say that it was because they attacked her first. 

The only bright side of the situation was that Evelyn couldn't complain against them either, not without exposing that she broke into someone's house first. 

"I understand that you need to be with your son but we can't get far unless we see what happened. Get to your house so that we can come and search the basement," he said sternly. 

"I'll see what I can do. Give me about an hour and I'll call you myself," she said. 

She hung up. She stared long at Andrew, resisting the urge to wake him up and reassure him. She looked around before walking towards the door, away from the quiet walls of the white room. 

"Excuse me," she said, waving at one of the nurses, "would it be okay if you watched the patient in room 306? I have some work at the police station."

"Sure, that would be no problem," she responded, keeping her board of papers away. 

Iris walked into the room again, a final goodbye to her son. She traced circles in her palms, hesitant to leave him. Looking at him lying helplessly in a hospital gown brought back memories she'd tried to push down. 

She blamed Evelyn. But deep down, she knew she wasn't entirely blameless either. 

She kissed his forehead, her moist lips imprinted onto his skin. She hugged him phlegmatically, unwilling to disturb his peaceful state. 

"I'm sorry Andrew," she whispered, "I won't let your sacrifice go to waste."

She picked up her bag and stalked out of the room. It would only take her ten minutes to reach her home but she had work to take care of at home. 

She opened the red door of her Mercedes Benz GLS. She turned the ignition on while simultaneously calling Andrea's number. She prepared for Andrea's yelling, to be expected since she had ignored thirty-six calls from her. However, when there was no answer from her side, Iris zoomed out of the parking lot and onto the road in a hurry. 

What happened to you, Iris thought in a panic as she took a wide left turn to exit the hospital's street. 

It was midday which meant there weren't many cars on the street; people were either in their offices are cooped up in their houses to escape from the heat. Either way, it worked in Iris' favor as she zoomed past the empty roads, praying that she would be greeted by another misfortune.

"Fuck Evelyn, Fuck everything," she thought, punching the horn even though there were no vehicles blocking her way. 

She looked at the street ahead; she could see the top of her house, standing majestically beside the other basic mansions. Every time she thought about entering her once-welcoming home, dread filled her skin. 

More than dread though was guilt. She was worried for her son and daughter and she hated how she was the one to put them in a position of danger. Most of all, she felt ashamed that even now, a part of her brain was working on how to get Evelyn in trouble. 

She knew that no matter how hard she tried, a part of her cold heart would always be hell-bent on Evelyn's failures and misfortunes and that was something she could fully blame Evelyn for. 

She parked right outside her house, reluctant to spend any more time away from her daughter. She threw the wide gates open and strode towards the doors. 

Once she was inside, she wasted no time; she ran into Andrea's room, her heart thumping as the door flew open. Inside, Andrea lay in a fetal position, her eyebrows furrowed in worry but otherwise normal. 

Iris sunk with relief; at least one of her children was alright. She left Andrea undisturbed as she walked into the utility room to grab her scarcely used bleach. 

She had one simple task before calling the police - to get rid of Evelyn's blood but leave the rest of her DNA behind. By seeing Andrew's state, Iris was sure that both of them had put up a fight and Evelyn's hair would have fallen somewhere in the room. The police could find that on their own and removing Evelyn's blood would erase Iris from being a part of the scene. 

She opened the door and turned the light switch on. The stairs were illuminated by the light exiting the basement walls and Iris walked down, struggling to keep her legs steady. She didn't want to face the place where Andrew was injured but she had no choice, not if she wanted to make Evelyn pay.

She was on the last step but she could see the room clearly and what she saw was worse than she had expected. 

Turns out, she didn't have to fear seeing Andrew's blood again. 

The entire room was spotless. 

⋆ ★ ⋆

If Evelyn was a workaholic before, she didn't know what to call herself now. 

She left no time for coffee breaks, random urges to go on a drive, or even think of going home. 

After talking to Levi, she called a cab to take her to her office. Since she wasn't the one driving, she wasn't left alone with her thoughts and instead reached for her laptop to set up a meeting with a few of her colleagues. 

Levi, she thought before chiding herself, snap out of it!

There was not a single thing she trusted herself to think about without drowning in her pool of tears. She had to keep her emotions closed off, at least for the next week. After that, she could do all the crying she wanted to. 

It seemed that exhausting all her brain cells and preparing the case was the only thing she was able to do without fearing a breakdown. 

She paid the cab driver as he pulled up in front of the much too familiar office where she knew she was going to coop herself for the rest of the day. She exited the cab and walked straight to the interns' cubicles, hoping to find the only person she could semi-trust. 

"Hello Addy," she said, her tone impatient. 

"Ms. Turner, do you need something?" she asked. 

"Yes. If you don't mind, I'm going to need you to do me another favor." Evelyn said, biting her lips. She hated dragging someone else into her schemes but at least this time, it wasn't illegal. 

"What is it?" Addy asked. Evelyn could hear the hesitation coming from Addy's side. 

"I hate to ask, but can you deliver this to the police station anonymously?" Evelyn asked, placing a sealed, brown paper bag on her table. Coleman Arson Case was scribbled on the top with a black marker and only Evelyn knew what she kept inside. "Also, don't look inside," she warned. 

Turns out, going in a cab can be a lot more productive since she had time to google some things. As it seems, fingerprints can be imprinted on wax and she was pretty darn sure that neither the vial nor the boots had been scrubbed off correctly. 

If she was lucky, Andrea's fingerprints would be in there somewhere. Then, all she had to do was throw the case slightly towards Andrea and pull Levi away from the crime scene. 

That, she was confident she could do.

"Uh. Okay, I guess," Addy replied, reluctance lingering in her tone.

"I know my requests sound odd right now but I promise, one day I will explain everything," Evelyn said. She hoped she didn't sound as ingenuine as she was because everything she had done was a secret she could never tell. 

"Don't worry about it," Addy said although her face said otherwise. 

"Thank you so much! Also, Once you're back, come to my office. I'm having a meeting related to the Coleman case," Evelyn said, unintentionally eyeing the paper bag, "I want you to be a part of it."

"Really?" Addy asked, showing the slightest hints of a smile for the first time in the entire conversation. 

"I mean, what better way to see how it's done?" Evelyn asked, "And, you've more than earned it."

"Thank you!" Addy exclaimed happily as she picked up the paper bag. 

She smiled at Evelyn warmly before walking to her Subaru Outback. Evelyn watched as she entered the car and thanked her silently as her car drove away. 

Evelyn looked around; everyone was doing something or the other and she couldn't force them to show up to the meeting early. She opened the glass doors of her cabin, dismayed by the fact that she was left to herself. 

She placed her laptop on the table but she couldn't look at the screen. Her mind kept wandering to Addy and what she sent with her and every time her mind went to the vial, her mind was back in the basement. 

Stop it, she pleaded with herself but it wasn't something she could throw away. 

She lay her head on the wooden table and her ears wouldn't stop buzzing. When she was a child, she used to do it all the time in school. She had noticed that every time her ear was placed on the table, any motion done on it appeared louder. It was an obvious observation now that she thought about it but back then, it made her feel like a genius. 

She tried hard to cling to sweet memories from the past but even the louder noises reminded her of Iris and Andrew's conversation and how helpless she felt. 

She felt as trapped as she did in the basement. Every thought turned into her fears and she could reach no solace. 

She tried to think of Levi; the words he said were ingrained deep in her heart. She could feel the heat color her cheeks but instead of responding, she had run off. It would have been a fond memory she could hold on to if it weren't for the circumstances. 

She felt ashamed; her heart was so willing to utter those words back to Levi but her brain caught her just in time. She was wasting Noah's time and betraying him and to her, that was just as bad as thinking about the basement. 

I'm such a fucking mess, she thought, her lips curling downward and her nose turning red. The tears she had been holding in for more than twelve hours had finally reached the surface. She scrunched her eyes, hoping she could keep them down for a few more hours when she heard the door pull open. 

"Noah," she said, startled as she quickly rubbed her face with her palms. 

"I knew it would be a fool's move to expect you to be home," he said. The usual friendliness in his tone was gone. 

"I was going to come eventually," she said, standing up so she could face him. 

"And then you'd walk straight into bed, not even acknowledging my existence. It's what you've been doing for days now, Evelyn," he said. 

To say Evelyn was shocked would be an understatement. She always knew her behavior would come up, especially after what she had just done but she never expected Noah to do the confronting. He was a man who avoided it at all times when it came to his personal life. 

"You didn't even bother to tell me that you were on good terms with your parents again! I know how much that means to you, I would have been ecstatic!" Noah exclaimed. 

Evelyn knew what was coming up. She had tried to not address the fact that she hadn't responded to the text regarding the Tavern because what could she say? Seeing the date, she knew it was when she gave Levi the phone and he probably saw the messages by accident. A lot happened after that and she couldn't blame Levi for forgetting about it. 

But there was no way she could explain that to Noah, not without him asking why she trusted Levi enough to do such a thing. That was something Evelyn didn't want to discuss. 

"I know I'm repeating this but you could have simply told me you weren't interested in going to the Tavern! When have I ever forced you to do anything? But no, you left me on the lurch simply because you can," Noah spat angrily. 

"That's not true I-" Evelyn began, swallowing the lumps that had formed in her throat. 

"Oh, shut it! You know, I get you're not interested in being with me. You could never hold a semi-romantic conversation with me and to be fair, neither could I! But that doesn't mean you should stop caring about me as a person!" Noah said, hurt taking over his anger. 

Evelyn's heart ached to reassure him. She cared about him a lot, he was the only one in her life for a long time. However, she didn't know how to show him that, not when there were so many things pointing to the contrary. 

"I would have been fine just being friends with you. But you made the first move and why the fuck would I say no? Evelyn, if you like someone else, just fucking say so!" Noah exclaimed. 

"Noah, it's not like that," Evelyn said. 

She tried to pull the strings that held their relationship together but they were way out of reach. Her small stature was of no help and with every second, the strings flew further away. There was nothing to hold on to and no reason to do so. 

"Evelyn, I'm not an idiot. I'm not here to make assumptions but I know you're interested in someone else. What sucks is that you didn't even try to treat me as a person, let alone a friend," Noah said. 

"Noah, I am so sorry for never being around. It's not that I want to get away from you but I just have a lot of work. And you're right about me not treating you as a person and I am extremely sorry! How can I prove any of this to you?" Evelyn pleaded. 

"You don't fucking need to. I'm done with you, Evelyn. This relationship was a total trainwreck and I finally see how ugly you can be," Noah said before adding, "I'm sorry if I hurt you, Evelyn. I truly do care for you but what's the point if you don't feel the same?"

Classy Noah, she thought. 

He could never say what's exactly on his mind without feeling sorry about it. 

"Noah, I know I've never acted like it and you didn't deserve any of that but you are my best friend. I don't want to lose you," she said. 

Noah scoffed, "well it's too late for that, isn't it? If you're only going to care about how you made me feel when I am leaving, maybe you only cared about having someone to rely on. Don't you worry now, you're parents are back and you clearly have someone else so I'll just fuck off."

"Noah-" she began. 

"Like I said, Evelyn. I'm done with you and I'm done with this fucking conversation." He said. 

He hadn't moved much further from the door so within two footsteps, he was out of the confined place with Evelyn. She stared at him but didn't dare to follow. There was nothing she could say anyway. 

She slumped onto the chair, her body buzzing with emotions. What just happened was long overdue and to her dismay, it didn't make her feel light. She couldn't get Noah's words out of her head and he was right; she was so ugly to him. 

She hoped their break-up would make her feel less guilty about Levi. However, she felt so much worse than before. Another thought clogged her mind and she was officially out of space for the good memories. As she prayed for them to return miraculously, a single thought lingered in her mind:

maybe I deserve every single thing that I received.