No-it was hopeless. This was it, she was going to die. She was never going to see her family again-Mom, Pop, Summer and Bella-not even to say goodbye. Jake!
In a massive, roaring silence she followed Sonny into his bedroom suite, wincing as he shut the doors behind her. Why am I going so meekly, she briefly wondered, like a lamb to the slaughter? I should at least try to make a run for it.
Was he going to give her a chance to explain? Could she deny it all and lie her way out…?
She came to a dead halt.
Sonny, who had stayed by the door, was pressing buttons on a remote control panel. While she stood tense and trembling, the room lights dimmed and the draperies covering the French windows that opened onto an ocean-view balcony rolled back.
Eve gasped and then went limp with relief. She couldn’t say a word. She could only stare.
The balcony had been transformed into a tropical bower, lit with hundreds of tiny Christmas lights that twinkled like stars amidst the foliage. Portable patio heaters held the autumn chill at bay while the scent of flowers and the gentle whispers of tropical rain drifted into the room. In the center of this paradise, a table set for two gleamed with crystal and candlelight.
Sonny, coming close behind her, bent so that his lips just brushed her ear, and whispered hoarsely, “Happy birthday, baby…”
Another gasp escaped her, this one accompanied by the sharp sting of tears.
“Hey, what’s this? What’s this?” Sonny’s hands were on her shoulders, gently turning her so that he could look at her face. “Don’t tell me you’re cryin’ again. What’re you cryin’ for? It’s your birthday-be happy!”
What’s this? What’s this? What was this? Happy? How could she feel happy? Her feelings were confused as hell, an overwhelming sadness mixed up with anger and even touches of regret. Why, Sonny? How can you be so sweet, and so evil at the same time? Why can’t you just be one or the other so I can make up my mind to love you or hate you and be done with it?
Because, a voice more cynical than wise inside her head answered, people are who they are and nothing is ever black and white. And all the other clichés you ever heard of. If life was simple, it wouldn’t take twenty or thirty or…hell, forty-three years to get it figured out.
“I thought you’d forgotten,” she said in a quavering voice, laughing and brushing at her eyes with shaking hands. “I thought everyone had.” To be honest, she had. For the last week she’d been so wrapped up in her situation-worrying about bugs, dealing with the isolation, thinking about the danger…
“Forget your birthday? Come on. The day after Halloween-you think I could forget something like that?” Sonny’s voice was jovial as he ushered her onto the balcony and pulled back her chair. But as he was seating himself, a double take made him pause. “Whadaya mean, you thought everybody forgot? What about your family? Your mom…your sisters? Nobody called?”
Eve cleared her throat. Her mouth was dry, her heart racing. “Ah… well, no, they couldn’t, really. I didn’t give them the number. I was going to call-”
“You didn‘t-Jeez, baby, why the hell not?”
“Sonny, it’s your private number. I didn’t think-”
“What’re you talkin’ about? This is family. Family is family-you know how I feel about that. Your family is my family. Hey-” he reached for her hand and leaning across the table, raised it to his lips “-right after dinner you call ’em. Talk to ‘em all night if you want to. Okay? Okay. Now, try some of this champagne. I know you like champagne… and here-I didn’t forget, I got you a straw, see? One of those bendy ones.”
While Eve was laughing at the prospect of drinking champagne with a bendy straw-how could she help it?-Sonny casually drew a flat velvet-covered case from under the tablecloth and handed it to her with a gruff and succinct “Here-this is for you.”
She set her champagne down untasted and reached for the case, while her cheeks flushed hot and her insides curled with a cold that felt like shame. She knew that case, knew without looking what she’d find inside; she’d seen it before, or one just like it, the night before what was to have been her wedding day, when Sonny had given it to her-his wedding gift.
She opened the case, gazed down at the pearl choker. Her throat closed. “Sonny, you shouldn’t have…”
“Hey-” He waved it off with a gesture. “Like I told you. What’s a pearl? Gives an oyster a bad case of indigestion. I had ‘em put a rush on it so it’d be ready for your birthday. It’s supposed to be an exact duplicate of the one that got stolen.”
“It’s beautiful. I wish-” Her hand fluttered involuntarily toward her collar.
“Hey, hey…” He leaned toward her, his voice low and guttural. “The day that damn thing comes off, I’m gonna take great pleasure in puttin’ these on you myself. I never did get to see you wearing it.” His eyes glittered in the candlelight.
Dry-mouthed, she whispered, “I know, I’m so-”
But he reached across the table to stop her with a finger touched to her lips. Then he closed the velvet case and took it from her and said with a grand wave of his hand, “Forget that-that’s just a replacement.” And with the air of an amateur magician producing a floppy bouquet from his sleeve, he handed her a smaller box instead. “Here ya go, babe-happy birthday.”
Eve took the box, moving slowly, as if in a dream-or a nightmare. She opened it and stared down at the twin diamonds that winked back at her from their bed of indigo velvet. Earrings. Exquisite diamond and dropped-pearl earrings. They must have cost a fortune, she thought dully. She felt strange-almost numb. Earrings. She didn’t even wear earrings, not anymore. Once upon a time she’d been the first in her circle of friends to get her ears pierced, but that had been years ago.
“I know you don’t wear earrings,” Sonny said, as if he’d heard her thought, and dismissed it with a shrug. “What the hell-they went with the necklace. I thought maybe someday you might wanna get your ears done, you know? And if not, hell, I’ll get ‘em made so you can wear ’em without.” Once again he reached for her hands, closed them around the earring box and brought them to his lips. “Can’t wait to see you in ‘em, you know that, don’t you, baby? And nothin’ else…okay, maybe the choker…” Then abruptly he let go of her and leaned back in his chair, swearing under his breath. “What the hell am I doing?” he muttered. “Makin’ myself crazy. Jeez, I hate that you have to be in that damn thing.”
Eve’s heart was pounding so hard, she couldn’t speak. She groped for her champagne, got the end of the straw between her lips and sucked greedily, draining the glass. “I won’t always be wearing this collar,” she said huskily. There… that was better.
Sonny refilled her glass, then lifted his to her in a toast. “I’ll drink to that… Reminds me,” he said, wiping champagne from his lips with a napkin, “your doctor called.”
Eve choked and then had to cope with champagne up her nose. Sonny had to get up and come around behind her and hold her steady while she coughed. She did have the presence of mind to say, “Ouch! Ow!” every time the spasms shook her, and Sonny, deeply concerned, said, “Jeez, don’t do that, baby-you’re gonna wind up in traction.”
“You said…my doctor called?” Eve wheezed when she was once again capable of speech. “What…what’d he want?”