Eva rotated the image, eyes squinted in ruthless study. Today was a day where the creative muse in her was playing hard to get. Nothing was going right. Not a damn thing. The noise emanating from her usually quiet gallery was not helping matters, either. Didn't people realize she had work to do here? This wasn't a museum or a damn tourist attraction, but a place for art.

Serious art. How the hell was she supposed to get anything done with all that noise?

Then the door to her office swept open and the chaos spilled in like a flood.

"Out," Eva barked without bothering to pull her eyes away from the screen. "And shut the door behind you."

"Easy, Hilter," Jenelle scoffed. "God, were slammed today. I really think we should consider taking on some additional help, if this keeps up."

"Yeah, yeah, so you've said only a dozen times since I got in this morning. Out. Now."

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine today? I'm only back here because you have a call."

Eva's lip curled. More reporters, no doubt. "Take a message."

"As much as I love playing your little grunt," Jenelle narrowed the door behind her, sealing them inside of Eva's tiny space, "you can take your own messages, thank you. Besides, it's your Uncle. Says it's important."

Now Eva did look at her, eyes glazed from hours spent in deep, artistic scrutiny. Otherwise known as the seventh circle of Hell. "Uncle?"

"Jerry," Jenelle said the name slowly and with a hint of reservation.

"Oh. Right." Eva snapped to her feet a little too quick and struggled to regain her calm, placid demeanour. "I'll take it in here."

"Sure. Okay." Jenelle hesitated at the doorway. "Line four. You press that button next to the blinking thingy."

When the door was completely shut behind her, Eva waited for the count of ten before answering the line. "Jerry?"

"Kiddo." The familiar grating voice crackled across the line like pop rocks. A voice she hadn't heard in at least six months. "How's it going?"

"Fine." Sitting on the edge of her desk, Eva banded arm across her chest. "Why did you call here? I thought you were supposed to only reach me on my cell?"

"Tried. All afternoon. Couldn't get through. Wanted to get back to you about your email from last week."

Eva thumbed around her cluttered workspace and found her cell, the screen blank. Her thumb worked the side button. Not so much as a blip. "Oh, guess my battery died. I've been so caught up I forgot to charge it."

"Never you mind. Happens. Got you here, didn't I? We need to talk 'bout a couple of things. Now good?"

"Yeah. Now's fine." Anxiously, Eva peered back to her door, half expecting Jenelle to burst in, or worse, to find her hovering outside, listening to every word. "What's going on?"

"Spoke to Allan, down at the Attorney Generals. They've untangled the mess of your paperwork and are now able to make good on the backed-up funds."

Eva's heart skipped and seized with glee. "Took them long enough!"

"You're telling me. Anyhow, they've cut the cheque and are mailing it out to us tomorrow. Should have it deposited and wired out within a week." She heard the shuffling of papers, a muttered oath. "All...twenty-seven thousand eight hundred dollars and twelve cents."

Legs numb, Eva lowered, very carefully, back into her seat. "Holy shit."

Jerry's laugh barked, dry as dust. "Yeah, right."

Head spinning, Eva answered his abrupt laugh with a weak one of her own. Twenty-seven thousand dollars! The difference this was going to make...finally. Finally they had what they needed for a fresh start. Closure. The means to set down roots-deep, long lasting, unshakable roots. It had only taken four years.

"Still can't believe Nathan had the nerve to hold back on child support." And as always, when thinking of her self-centered ex, Eva's temper spiked. Didn't he care about the girls' welfare at all? How the hell was she supposed to do right by them-support them-when he'd did his level best to tie up everything she had in court?

Because he's selfish, the small and dark part of her snarled, even though on the flip side she understood his frustration and hurt. As a parent, he'd lost everything. Not that he'd ever shown much care or interest when the girls were underfoot. And he could have come along and entered the program, too, she reminded herself.

But Nathan wasn't willing to make the necessary sacrifices required of him and opted out. The house, the business-his friends-were all more important. Only once they were six months gone into the program did Nathan decide to change his tune.

But by then it was too late. The die had been cast, and there was no going back.

"Is he still pushing for access?"

"Course," Jerry sighed. "Still singing the same tune. It was your actions that put the kids in danger in the first place, blah, blah, blah. Sob, sob, sob."

Eva tightly clenched teeth ground together, locked so tight her jaw ached. Bastard would say that, she thought. And she'd agonized and blamed herself enough over the years spent in hiding. Who would have thought a night a bar would have led her down this messy road?

"But facts haven't changed," Jerry continued. "You were sole custodial parent for a solid year before this mess. He doesn't have a leg to stand on. He thinks clearing the funds is going to give him some sway, but the thing is...even if the judge does side with him in the end, there's no way for him to pin you. Not now. Your names have changed and all that paperwork is sealed. No one's gonna find you. Not without deep pockets and serious legal pull."

Because her heart was threatening to burst through her ribcage, Eva settled a hand over it. "Four years," she whispered. "I've waited for this for Four years."

"Took longer then I expected, but what can I tell ya, kiddo. This ain't my first rodeo."

"What about...?" She couldn't bring herself to finish the question. Not that she needed to. There were only two things Eva ever asked whenever they had these clandestine check-ins. The first was, apparently, no longer an issue. As for the second...

The line hummed with silence. "Can't discuss the case. You know that."

"Come on, Jerry." Finger curling around the cord, Eva sank on the corner of her desk. "I need to know if it's...over. Is Randy gone for good?"

"I'd've told ya if he was. As it stands now, don't think that's going to happen for a while yet."

"How much longer can he possibly drag this out?"

"Let it go, kiddo, okay? Live your life. Leave the rest of the worrying to me. Nathan...Randy...both of them are not your problem anymore."

Let it go, the simple words haunted her during the drive home from the gallery. Leaving her mind a tangled mess of the past clashing with her fragile present.

Let it go. Easier said then done, especially since Jerry knew all the pieces of the sordid puzzle where she'd been deliberately left in the dark. No information, no details, nothing to assuage the gnawing fear and curiosity. That was the price of entering the witness protection program; her silent and willing compliance to go along and not ask questions. To abandoned everything and everyone she'd ever known and start anew.

Not all of it had been such a raw deal.

There hadn't been much in the way of a life for her in Toronto to leave behind. Only one point caused her any pain, and that was the loss of Alyssa. An identical twin she'd been forced to severe with all the ruthless efficiency a wartime doctor would a bomb-shattered leg. And like any other phantom limb, Eva still suffered the loss of it, felt it move and ache and twitch.

To lose a sibling was devastating. But there was something brutally unnatural about separating twins.

Eva's thoughts tumbled down that long forgotten path, wondering what her sister was doing. Did she stay with Sebastian? Did she get married? Have kids? A lot could happen in four years. So much had changed for Eva.

Would her sister even recognize her now?

And the girls...Hailey had been seven when they cops had burst in, whisking them away. Payton and Lucy would have no memories of life before the program. The loss was only a wound both she and Hailey endured, the scar tissue leaving thick, silvered ridges over the tender flesh of their hearts.

Hailey never spoke about the past. Never asked questions, or mentioned old names. How much she remembered, Eva could only guess. Hailey's memories would fade with age...and, hopefully, disappear.

But not for Eva. The penitence for each and every crippling failure meant that the past would always remain razor sharp; ready to slice to the bone at the slightest touch. She'd gotten really good, over the last couple of years, of burying it all away, like boxes in an old attic. For the most part she managed to get through her day-to-day, unscathed.

But some nights she relived it all.

Eva had been Annelise, back then. She and Nathan had gotten tangled up together in high school and, like a couple of horny, stupid kids, got knocked up at seventeen. Her mother had been furious. Livid. And above all, disappointed. But despite the threats and passive aggressive posturing, Eva hadn't given in to scare tactics. Even if it meant leaving home and moving in with her terrified quasi-boyfriend.

A year later, Hannah was born. Beautiful, perfect and loving Hannah. Annelise's pride and joy.

Fast-forward a handful of years and a wedding later, was it any wonder their marriage had about as much substance as a helium balloon? While she stayed home and played the missus, Nathan poured himself into his father's business. She'd stuck around and supported him, giving up on school to accommodate his long hours and not-so-secret affairs.

Why? Because she was young, foolish and naïve. Insecure. Maybe also to prove to the world-and her mother-that having Hannah had not been a mistake. His parents came from a bit of money, so she and Nathan hadn't been as hard up as most teens would have been in their shoes, but his parents had expectations for their boy.

He was to inherit the family chain of restaurants. Learn the trade. And Nathan was only too happy to leave both her and Hannah tucked away at home with another on the way.

Alone. Isolated. And so damn tired of feeling lonely. No friends to call on for help, or an ear to listen to her problems. Only Alyssa. Only ever Alyssa.

She'd prompted Eva to take that shaky step into single parenthood after Patience's birth. Held her hand and gave Eva the grit to stick it out in the face of judgement and scrutiny. Helping her battle Nathan in court and obtain sole custody. And even coaxed Eva into celebrating the triumph in a night of fun and frivolous enjoyment, the first ever, with the girls.

Even now, Eva wanted to scream at her old self to walk away from that handsome stranger who'd bought a round of martinis. Begging her to see the twisted, evil snake hidden behind the beautiful mask.

Six weeks. They'd only dated for six, pitiful weeks. By all accounts it should have only been a blip in her life. A moment taken for herself. Something to help Eva regain her lost confidence.

How was she supposed to know that Randy Kincaid was crazy? That he'd go all fatal attraction? Stalking her for years, and later, threatening her? Her kids?

And she'd done everything-everything-possible to get him to back off. Begging him to move on and leave her alone, calling the police when he wouldn't. Even having him arrested and locked away-twice-for criminal harassment and probation violation.

Nothing had gotten through to him. Nothing had made a dent.

Fear and shame had driven her back into Nathan's arms, and another pregnancy.

That's when things with Randy got really ugly.