I sat up straighter. “She couldn’t?”
“No. She had an abnormality in her uterus. We tried to have a child at one point, but she never got pregnant. We went to specialists a few years into our marriage, but—” He shook his head, avoiding my stare. “She couldn’t have children, Anna.”
“But you’ve thought about it, haven’t you? You’ve wondered if it could be true, ever since Madaster claimed it yesterday. That’s why you immediately said the thing about my birth certificate, because you’ve been going over it all in your head since then, reassuring yourself it was impossible.”
“I spoke with the doctor back then, Anna. About Elizabeth’s medical tests, I know she couldn’t have children.”
“Then why did you ask me if I was adopted?” I asked bitterly. “Evan?” I asked again when he didn’t immediately respond. “Did Madaster tell you who he believed my father was?”
His face became that death mask I hated with all my soul. His shook his head once, as if to clear it.
“Noah Madaster is a liar. He’s trying to get to you. To us. We have to try to resist it. This is all my fault. I should never have brought you here. I should have known how dangerous it would be, for you to speak with Noah.”
My head dipped and wavered. My neck didn’t feel strong enough to support it anymore. My throat felt raw from being sick. I felt so sore. All the certain truths, and the possible truths, battered at me from every direction.
“I’m the one who went to meet him, even though I promised you I wouldn’t.”
“What’s done is done. You’ve been sick, and you’re weak,” he said, gently cradling my head. “You need to lie down. Can you stand?”
He helped me get to my feet and escorted me to the bed. I lay there, appreciating how hollow I felt. How empty. Evan came out of the bathroom carrying a glass of water. He sat down on the bed next to me.
“You’ve remembered other things, haven’t you? About your meeting with Madaster?” he asked me reluctantly.
I experienced a sharp pain in my thumb, and winced. Tears sprang to my eyes, as if Madaster was there, cruelly pinching it all over again.
“Noah lies easier than breathing,” Evan said. “You’re safe now. And you’re never going to have to see Noah Madaster again. Or listen to his lies. He wanted to poison you. Not just with a drug. With ideas. Delusions.” Evan’s gaze drifted over me, anger hardening his jaw. “And he’s succeeded, Anna. Partially. Don’t continue absorbing the poison by believing him.”
“He’s been doing his research. He knew about me. About us. He said you launched an attack on him by bringing me to Les Jumeaux, and he had no choice but to launch a counterattack.”
His expression darkened. “I know. I got that, from when he was ranting at me.”
Did he tell you what he told me? Do you loathe me now, Evan? Are you forcing yourself to touch and comfort me? Is that why I see that new wariness in your eyes?
Because I’m unnatural.
The thoughts were too heinous to dwell upon for long. Instead, I landed on a memory—a suspicion— that was nearly as terrible.
“Do you know when I first fell in love with you?” I asked him.
His head jerked up. I saw his surprise at my question. His vulnerability.
“No,” he replied gruffly.
“When you took me, with so much confidence, to my favorite painting in the museum. It was the most incredible moment of my life,” I said with stark honesty. “I felt seen by you, Evan.”
His mouth fell open. His eyes shone with emotion.
I leaned up on my elbow and took the water glass from him. I swallowed some of the cool liquid, trying to steady myself against a truth I didn’t want to hear, but knew I must.
“One of the things that Madaster told me yesterday was that he’d been in contact with Tommy Higoshi,” I said. “That part of his research into us was getting information from Tommy about how we met… how you put your plan into place.”
“Tommy talked to Noah? Why wouldn’t Tommy tell me that Noah had contacted him?”
“I don’t know,” I said, handing the water glass back to him. “Madaster said he forced Tommy to talk to him. You said that Madaster either manipulates or blackmails everyone he meets. Maybe he had something on Tommy. Something business-wise. They’re both in the medical research field, and Tommy had met him before at a conference, remember? You’d have to call Tommy, to know for sure. That’s not what I’m trying to find out,” I said. I saw Evan’s puzzlement, and got to the point.
“Did you enlist Tommy’s help in bringing me into your life? Did you ask him things about me, things to give you an inside track? Things to make me fall in love with you? More specifically, was Tommy the one who told you what my favorite painting in the museum was?”
“No,” he roared. I was so empty, so exhausted that I didn’t even jump at his furious response.