Chapter 162

#Chapter 162 – Beach Plans At the beach the next day, Evelyn leans back, enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin.

Though Delia had paid for the hotel, and its quality reflected her therapist paycheck, Emma had sprung for the beach facilities and here her wealth was…evident.

The three women stretch out on lounge chairs in a beach cabana, little tables next to them sporting their morning cocktails. Evelyn had borrowed a suit from Diana but Emma had insisted on buying one for Ian, and he played a few feet away in his swim trunks and rash guard t-shirt.

It wasn’t as hot as it would be in the summer, but there was a warm snap currently and the women were five hours south of their home city. To them, the sunlight and moderate heat is paradise on a February morning.

“Let’s just stay here,” Delia murmurs, her eyes closed behind her sunglasses. “Just live on the beach until the money runs out. And then we’ll swim into the ocean and become mer-people.”

Emma frowns at her, turning her head slightly in her direction. “No more breakfast cocktails for you,”

she says, but Evelyn laughs. She can tell that Emma’s joking.

Evelyn sighs a little, enjoying the physical sensation of being on the beach. Part of her can’t believe that she’s stretched out in the sunlight, smelling the salt air with her sister and her best friend. If someone had told her yesterday that this would be her reality, she’d have called their bluff in a moment.

But here she was.

The comfort and safety of this day, this moment, offers Evelyn a little space in her mind to consider her next moves. Although Delia’s idea sounds appealing, Evelyn knows that she can’t stay here forever.

Nor can she return to the city with Delia – Victor would find her in a moment and she was determined –

absolutely determined – to stand on her own two feet once again.

For a moment, though, laying there in the sun, Evelyn considers her determination.

Was it, really, what she wanted?

She bites her lip, knowing the answer. That if she could go home, that if Victor would accept her apology, that she’d do it again in the minute.

But he had banished her. He doesn’t hold her paperwork – she’s still part of her father’s pack – but if he did, he would surely make her Rogue. In essence, even without the paperwork, it was done already.

Evelyn was on her own again – no matter what she wanted, she couldn’t go back home. And if she couldn’t do that, then whatever she did, she wasn’t going to live by anyone else’s rules.

“What are you going to do next, Evelyn?” Emma says gently, sitting up a little on her beach lounger, perhaps intuiting the sense of her sister’s thoughts.

Evelyn sighs, looking at her companions. “I don’t know,” she says, sitting up herself and shaking her head. She picks up the mimosa sitting next to her and takes another sip, enjoying the sweetness alongside the bubbles. “I can’t go back, that I know for sure.”

“Really?” Delia asks, sitting up herself. “Evelyn, are you sure? When I was at your house the other night – he was so in love with you, I could see it – “

Evelyn shakes her head, not wanting to remember. “He told me to go and leave the kids, Delia,” she says. “In…in that very Alpha way that means that their word is law. He banished me.”

Delia’s mouth forms a shocked little o as she leans back on the pillows. “Geeze, Evelyn,” she murmurs.

There’s a beat before she says, “that must be a record. How many banishments is that, two? An impressive lady, most people can only manage one at best.”

Evelyn can’t help but laugh at this and Emma, once she sees that Delia knows how to play Evelyn’s heartstrings, joins in.

“Yeah, well,” Evelyn says, taking a big gump from her drink and finishing it. “Maybe I can go back to dad’s pack and get banished from that one too. That would be three, if I can count getting banished from the same pack twice. Technically, he holds my paperwork.”

Emma sighs with chagrin. “Whatever you do,” she says, “don’t go to daddy’s pack. You might not want to hear it right now, but honestly I’m a little jealous of you. What I wouldn’t give to light out on my own, disappear. Live however I want.”

Evelyn doesn’t miss the little glance that Emma throws Delia’s way at this.

They’re silent for a moment, but then Evelyn speaks the thoughts that come to her mind without really considering them first. “Well, why don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Evelyn,” Emma murmurs, picking up her own mimosa and taking a sip. “That’s impossible.”

“Why?” Evelyn asks, frowning.

“Because I’m an Alpha’s wife,” Emma says, looking over the tops of her sunglasses at her. “I can’t just disappear. He’ll notice. He’ll…call me back.”

“You did it this weekend,” Evelyn says, shrugging. “Or are you going to tell me that Joyce really knows where you are?”

Emma doesn’t confirm or deny, but instead just gives Evelyn a little look that clearly says don’t push it.

“Seriously,” Evelyn says, sitting up fully now and putting her feet down on the sand. “What the hell is stopping you? You hate your life, Emma. Why don’t you just leave him?”

Evelyn reaches out a hand to take her sister’s. “Come with me, Emma. I know how to disappear. We could do it.”

Emma scoffs at her, pulling her hand out of Evelyn’s grasp and looking over to Delia for support. Delia, however, is biting her lip, worry and a little excitement on her face.

Shocked, Emma sits up fully. “Wait, are you two actually serious? You are being ridiculous. You have to let this go.” She shifts in her seat, clearly uncomfortable, a hen with ruffled feathers.

“Emma, why not,” Evelyn says, laughing a little. “Maybe it was fate that I found you on this weekend –

came knocking on your door by mistake in the middle of running away myself. Maybe the universe is telling you ‘screw that i***t husband – RUN.’”

Emma just shakes her head, but Evelyn continues, excited now.

“We have everything we need,” she says, laughing a little. “My car is stocked with like…an embarrassing amount of cash that I took out of the bank yesterday –“

“You left cash in the car –“ Delia gasps, spinning in her seat and looking towards the little SUV parked in the lot.

“It’s fine,” Evelyn says, waving a hand. “And Emma, you could do the same. Stop at the closest bank –

drain your account before Joyce has any idea what’s happening – it will be so much easier than the last time I did it with our combined resources in my pocket. We can go! We can disappear!”

“No,” says Emma, firm. “I can’t leave my home. I can’t leave…” her voice fades off, but she again looks to her other side, at the woman sitting there.

Evelyn reads her sister’s face like an open book. I can’t leave Delia.

“Well,” Delia says quietly, after a moment. A small smile creeps onto her face. “I could…come. If I’m invited? If this isn’t like,” she points a finger and lets it dance between the two of them, “like some kind of sisters-only thing?”

Emma stares at her, shocked. “You would…do that?”

Delia smiles gently and looks at Emma with such love in her eyes that Evelyn’s heart swells. “I’d have done it a lone time ago,” Delia says. “I just…never thought it’s what you wanted.”

Delia smiles at Evelyn too now. “What the hell do I have going on at home? The two of us can start a therapy practice anywhere. People are having mental breakdowns all over the place.”

Evelyn laughs, clapping her hands at the plan. “Amazing! Emma, come on. Let’s do it.”

Emma says nothing, looks at neither of them for a long moment, just staring out at the sea.

“Emma, please,” Evelyn says softly, leaning forward. “Run away with us.”

“Run away?” Evelyn jumps to hear her little boy’s voice right behind her. She turns, smiling at her son, putting out an arm to encourage him to climb onto the beach lounger with her. “Come on, Ian,” she says, smiling at him. “Convince auntie to run away with us.”

“Run away?” Ian says again, frowning up at his mom. “Are we leaving already?”

“Soon,” Evelyn says, squeezing his little shoulders. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“But we’re going to stay here for a little bit, right?” Ian asks, a little bewildered and worried, his eyes glancing between the three women. “Because daddy will be here soon and –“

“What?”

Evelyn goes stock still at this, staring down at her boy, taking his face in her hand and turning it so that he looks at her. “What did you just say?”

He blinks, confused. “Daddy will be here soon. He’s on his way.”

Evelyn’s body floods with fear and adrenaline. She jumps up off of the chair. “We have to go. Now.”

“But mama –“ Ian says, a little whine in his voice.

“No,” she says firmly to him. “I’m in charge now. You follow my instructions.” Then, she turns her head to Emma and Delia. “I have to go, right now. You need to make a decision.”

Emma sits stock-still in her chair for a moment, Delia clearly holding her breath. Then, slowly, Emma gets up from her seat and walks slowly towards the ocean, taking nothing with her but her phone.

Frustrated, Evelyn almost calls after her but Delia puts out a hand, stopping her. “Wait,” Delia says.

“Just wait.”

As the three of them watch, Emma stares at the sea. Then, she winds her arm back and, as hard as she can, hurls her phone into the sea.

Then, perfectly calm, she comes back to join them at their cabana. She gives them a happy little smile.

“Do we have time to stop at the bank?”