Redemption(Struggle #3) (18 page)

“If
I were in your place, I would have already run a car over her.”

“Calm down
, dear. We are not going to do anything reckless here,” I said. I was not surprised to see her as angry as she was. My mother wasn’t good in her eyes and they didn’t get along well.

“Why are you acting so soft
, Eva? You should go right now and ask her about this shit. Aren’t you angry at her?”

“I’m very angry
at her. But I want to wait for Nathan. I want him to open up to me.” He chose to be the saddest part of our story. He was the one who should have told me all this. But he didn’t. I wanted him to look in my eyes and tell me that mother did wrong with him and us.”

“Come on, you can’t let her go like this
,” Chloe said in disappointment.

“I’m not letting her go so easily
, Chloe. She thinks she is powerful because of her money. I’m going to wipe out that money from her some day and then I’ll ask her all these questions.” A firm decision was building in the back of my mind: a plan to defeat my own mother. If she thought she had the power, she forgets then that I’m her daughter.

“But Eva, she actually ruined your emotional life. If it wasn’t
for her, you  be in Nathan’s arms right now. Anyway, what are you going to do about him? You know he is innocent now.”

“I’m going to wait until he come
s to me; he should learn his lesson. Don’t worry, he’ll come to me soon. I just need to give him time to think it over.” I wanted desperately to meet Nathan and hug him, kiss him, make love to him, tear off his clothes and suck that beautiful chiseled body in my eyes, but I was going to wait for him.

“Is Martha still in N
ew York?” Chloe asked.

“I think she is
. I’d seen her schedule. What are you doing this evening? I’m planning to go and shop for groceries. Are you coming?” I had some money left with me that Nathan had given me before going to L.A.

“Are you going
in your car?” Chloe asked.

“Yes. Why?”

“Can you drop me someplace? Don’t worry, it is on your way.”

“Sure.”

***

A f
ew hours later, we were driving to the grocery store. “Can you drop me here?” Chloe pointed to Starbucks.

“Do you want to have a cup of coffee before you leave for your meeting place?” Chloe
hadn’t told me about the actual place, so I was just teasing her.

“Sure.” She smiled and we parked the car near the
Starbucks.

As we entered the
Starbucks, I paused, Nathan was sitting there with a girl .

“Is that Nathan?” Chloe asked.

I looked at him closely.
How come he is here?
I recognized her; it was Samantha.
What the fuck?
I dropped my handbag, my body shaking in anger.
What the hell is she doing here?
My knees went weak. I couldn’t bear that lady in Nathan’s life. I was going to fall right there, but Chloe supported me and took away.

“Who was she? And why are you looking so tense?” Chloe asked.

“No one. I just had a moment of weakness. Can we go back home? I don’t feel like getting coffee or groceries. We’ll shop for it tomorrow.” My head started hurting. What was the meaning of all this? Why was Nathan with Samantha, again?

“Okay, but are you sure you can drive?”

“Yes, I can. Don’t worry.” I waved her goodbye and entered my car.
No, I can’t drive this
. And I didn’t want Chloe to stop because of me, either. I let my head fall down on the steering wheel and relaxed. My mind went thoughtless for a minute. I just couldn’t think of any reason for Nathan meeting that bitch, Samantha.

This was the second shocker of the day for me, first Mason telling me about my mother, and then Nathan with
Samantha. The second one was devastating. A numbness spread across my mind. The path of my life was scattered somewhere and I couldn’t find it anymore.

My
cell buzzed. It was someone unknown. I hung up. It buzzed again. I again, hung it up.

Someone knocked on my car door. Without looking up
, I lowered my window, must be a police officer.

“Hello
, Eva.” A feminine voice came through the window.

I looked up
, surprised. To my utter shock, Samantha was standing outside. She looked paler than when I had last seen her. Something was terribly wrong with her; her eyes looked shallow and without life.

“Can
I come in for a minute?”

“For what?”

“I need to talk with you about something.”

“What? Do you want to manipulate me now?”
I was already furious that she had been sitting with Nathan. I had seen her acting like a jerk and she was the reason Nathan had to suffer a lot.
But how could Nathan meet her again? That doesn’t make any sense.
I won’t let her do that again to Nathan. She wasn’t welcomed in my life or my car at all.

“Can you
look at this please?” She handed me something. It looked like a report.

“What is this?”

“Can you please read it once, Eva?” She coughed. She looked desperate.

I opened it. It was a doctor's report; it was her report
, actually. She had stage 4 leukemia. My jaw dropped when I read that. “What the heck? You have cancer?”

“Yes. And that’s why Nathan asked me to have a cup of coffee with him.
I never told this to anyone else, but I saw you looking at us. And I don’t want me to be reason for your breakup.” She paused to take a breather. She was surely struggling with life.

“I’m already burning in hell for what
I did to Nathan. I just don’t want to do that again.” She started sobbing uncontrollably. “I couldn’t say it to him, but I regretted my every action when I read this report. I don’t have much time left in this world and now I’m realizing how awful I have acted with you both. I even took money from your mother to get in between you two.”

She gave me another shock by speaking my mother’s name.

“You took money from my mother?” I asked in horror.

“Yes
, I did.” She sighed hard. Now I could see why she looked lifeless from the start; she was regretting every awful thing she had done in her life. “I just want to tell you one thing, Eva. Nathan is a gem and I was a fool to lose him from my life. I don’t know what’s going on in between you two, but don’t make me the reason of anything. At least not when I’m dying.”She took the report out of my hand and walked away.

“Samantha…”
I called her.

“No
, Eva, I’ve said enough. I wish you both a happy life.” She walked away without even looking at me.

Chapter 26

Nathan

I walked into my ho
use without any motivation to work or eat or do anything. Eva wasn’t there and that was reason enough for me to feel demotivated, like my life was a big ball of boredom. And then she saw me with Samantha. It was bad, very bad.
What would she be thinking about Samantha and me? Do I have to care about that? Anyway, she is not coming back and I shouldn’t even be asking her to.

Really
, "What went wrong?” was the question my mind kept searching.
I am going crazy like this. I need to do something or else I am done for.
Dark shadows of hopelessness covered me. My mind was dabbling with all the negative thoughts and I couldn’t stop them.
Is there really a way to stop all this or will I die like this, roaming in the desert of darkness.

I need to box with someone. Yes
, I need to.
I changed into my training clothes and headed to the club. Boxing was the only thing that could save me from all this mental stress.

It was late afternoon and
I thought the club would be quiet, but it was full of people.

“Hey
, dude, what are you doing here?” one of my club mates asked when he saw me.

“A
ren’t I welcome here anymore?” I asked in surprise.

“No
, we thought you are injured and not allowed to play for a month. Mason told us.”

“And where is that jerk
?” Then I remembered he had some crisis in his company.

“He is there fighting with Peter. That’s why we all are here.”

“What the heck?” He told me he had some issue and now he is fucking himself with Peter.

I dashed forward
, making my way through many people. When I could finally see Mason, he was in the air about to hit Peter. In a fraction of a second, his knees hit Peter on his chest. Peter fell down on the ground and Mason was on his chest, punching his head.

“Fuck man, what a crazy match
,” one of my club mates screamed, thrilled.

Even
I had never seen Mason so angry like this, at least not since our college days. He just fucked the shit out of Peter in only one match.

I jumped up the ropes. “Are you going to kill him
, Mason?” I shouted at him. Nobody was stopping him and he might hurt Peter badly; I didn’t care about that, but I wouldn’t have liked Mason in trouble.

Mason looked up in surprise. He looked back at Peter and released him. As he walked out of the ring, two members went inside and helped Peter to get on his f
eet. Many people witnessed the fall of a champion.

“What was that
, dude?” I asked.

“Nothing
, man. Just like that,” Mason replied.

“No
, dude, that can’t be the real reason. There must be something behind all this.”

“Nothing.”

“Did you receive my message about Samantha a couple of hours ago?”

“Yes
, and that is the reason...” He bit his tongue.

“What? You
beat that bastard because of Samantha?” I asked in surprise.

“Nothing
, dude.”

“No
, tell me now.”

“Because of her
, I wanted to beat someone. I was freaking out. I never thought that she would die like this.” He sounded sad.

I didn’t know about his dormant feelings for Samantha.
“I’m sorry, Mason. I didn’t know you still had feelings for her.” Surprisingly, it didn’t feel weird to me. “I’m sorry, dude. But when I met her yesterday, she looked so lifeless. I couldn’t stop myself from telling you.”

“It’s okay
, buddy. I forgot her long ago, but there is still a corner of my heart that does care for her.” I patted him on his shoulder. I sympathized with him.

“I wish
the best for her as well. When I met her yesterday, Eva saw us both.”

“That’s worse. Did you tell her the truth about Samantha? You are ruining your already
awful relationship.”

“I didn’t. And there is nothing
left, dude. She made it clear that she doesn’t want to talk with me anymore. It’s just over because of me. I don’t even know what I’m going to do now. It’s all dark in front of me.”

“I think you better go and think
this over. Anyway, you have a month and more before you can start training again. I’m sure you will find some satisfactory solution in the meantime,” he said calmly.

“I can just hope for the best.”
I sighed. Suddenly, my willingness to fight had vanished. I went back to my house to spend some alone time again.

Chapter 27

Nathan

My cell buzzed and
I woke up from a sound sleep.
What time is it?
“Eva, can you check it?” I covered my head again with the sheet. But the phone continued ringing. “Where are you, sweetheart?” I called her, but she didn’t reply.

Reality slowly sunk in my heart. Eva was no
longer living with me. I was alone and hopeless. I picked my cell. It was from Samantha.” Why is she calling me so early in the morning?” I muttered to myself, but picked up the call.

“Hello
, is this Mr. Brown I’m talking with?” a male voice echoed from other side.

“Yes.”

“I’m Doctor Matthews from BBB hospital. Can you please come here as quickly as possible? Miss Samantha is in ICU and I’m afraid she doesn’t have much time left.”

“Shit. I’ll be there as quick as possible
,” I replied and just took my jacket with me. Before turning my car on, I messaged Mason about Samantha’s condition.

Twenty minutes later
, I was standing with Dr. Matthews, inquiring about her condition.

“How is
she, Doctor?” Samantha had left New York two days ago as far as I knew. Then how come she was admitted in a New York hospital?

“I’m sorry
, Mr. Brown. But her condition is not stable and we are not sure if she can recover this time.” He patted my shoulder.