“Eve?” Faith said quietly. “Are you okay?”
Eve turned. Her face was deathly pale, and her lips were pressed into a thin line. She was staring down at the phone in her hand.
Faith approached her. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Harrison. He—” Eve swallowed. “It’s easier if I just show you.”
Eve handed her phone to Faith. A video was queued up on the screen, but it was too dark to see anything. Faith pressed play. The video looked like it had been taken inside a bar or club. As it played on, the crowd came into focus. Most of the people were dressed in skimpy, provocative clothing. In the background, all kinds of unusual fixtures and equipment could be seen.
Instantly, Faith knew where the video had been taken. “This is Lilith’s Den.”
Eve didn’t respond. She didn’t need to.
The video zoomed in on some seating in a corner, hidden away from the main floor of the club. Despite the dim lighting, the two figures in the seats could be seen clearly. Faith, with a collar around her neck, and Eve, dressed in a tight, revealing corset, her arm around Faith.
Faith’s stomach churned. This was from the last night she and Eve had gone to Lilith’s Den .
On the screen, Eve pushed Faith back against the chair before grabbing her by the collar and planting a forceful kiss on her lips, her hand straying down Faith’s chest. A second later, Faith shook her head and cringed away, speaking angrily to Eve. The video had no sound, but Faith’s gestures and expression made it clear that things were getting heated. After several seconds, Eve grabbed Faith’s hand and dragged her out of frame. The video ended.
Faith cursed under her breath. This did not look good. The camera had captured the exact moment when Faith had gotten upset. While in reality, it had been nothing more than a minor quarrel, the distance and the angle of the camera meant that the video showed a very different scene. It looked like Eve was aggressively forcing herself on a somewhat unwilling woman in some kind of dark, perverted sex club. To the outside eye, the scene presented was scandalous. And Eve looked positively predatory.
Faith looked up at Eve. “What’s this?”
“Harrison sent it to me,” Eve said.
“I don’t understand. How did he get this?”
“He took it himself. He was at Lilith’s that night. Apparently, a friend of his who’s a member let it slip that I go there too. Harrison wanted to see it for himself, so he convinced his friend to take him along as a guest. I don’t know if he was trying to catch me in the act or if it was just a coincidence, but he was lucky enough to find me with you. My nanny.”
It all clicked together in Faith’s mind. Harrison had met her. He knew who Faith was. And now he knew Eve was having some kind of kinky relationship with her nanny .
“What do you think he’s going to do with this?” Faith asked.
“I don’t have to guess,” Eve said. “He told me exactly what he’s going to. He’s going to use this video as evidence that I’m an unfit mother to bolster his case for custody and have the twins taken from me. That is, unless I comply with his demands.”
“He’s blackmailing you?”
“He wants me to drop my petition for custody. Let him have the twins full-time. If I do, he’ll let me have visitation. If I don’t cooperate, he and his lawyers will make sure I’ll never get to see the twins again.”
“But he can’t do that. Not with just this video. It doesn’t show you doing anything wrong or illegal.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Eve folded her arms across her chest, holding them tightly to her. “But image matters in the eyes of family court. Good mothers don’t go to BDSM clubs or have affairs with their nanny. He’s going to use it to paint a picture of me as unstable.”
“But that’s a lie,” Faith said. “And this is just one video. It isn’t any evidence of anything.”
“He has other evidence. From back when the twins were young. Doctors’ reports about my mental state.” Eve’s voice wavered. “I was in bad shape by the time I went to see a doctor. He can use that.”
“That’s the ammunition Harrison has against you?” That was why, this entire time, Eve had been determined to be on her best behavior?
Eve nodded. “It’s nothing damming, but his lawyers, they’ll twist it, make it seem like a bigger deal than it was. Make me seem like a bad mother. ”
“But that was years ago. And all those problems you had, it was because of him and his messed-up family!”
“I can’t blame his family for everything. I’m responsible for the state I was in. I’m responsible for the way I felt.”
“No, you’re not. Lots of women feel the way you did. It isn’t unusual to get depressed after having kids. It doesn’t make you a bad mother.”
“Not everyone understands that,” Eve said. “All a judge is going to see is a mother whose children drove her to despair. Harrison’s lawyers will make sure of that. They’re the best in the business. Pay them enough, and they can get anyone off for murder. All they have to do is spin me as some kind of mentally ill pervert, and that’s it. I lose the twins.”