When Eve woke up, her head felt heavy, and she lay there on the ground for several minutes, feeling the occasional cold breeze on her skin. As she opened her eyes, it focused on the burning bright fire not too far from her.
"…." Eve pushed her hand on the muddy ground before sitting upright. She noticed the cage she had been put in. This was enough to snap her out of the sleep she had been having.
"Good, you are finally awake. I was wondering if I would have to throw the coal to wake you up," Vincent said, which sounded eerily strange to her.
"Vincent… why am I here?" Eve asked him with a deep frown. It was unlike him, and she said, "You aren't Vincent…"
The person in front of her chuckled, and he said, "Seems like I didn't use my ability well," and his face transformed to the one she had seen through the memories that the Gauntlet's family graves had shown her.
"Erasmus…" Eve whispered, feeling a shiver run down her spine.
Her mind quickly paced as it tried to understand what had happened in the last few hours. The person who had come in front of the drawing-room, the person she had sat in the carriage and spoken to, was not Vincent. She had spoken to Erasmus. But she still didn't understand and stared at him from the cage.
"Looks like you are already familiar with me, Genevieve Barlow," Erasmus walked towards her cage with a maddening smile, as if the goal he had been working on until now would finally see its life. "Or should I call you Marina or Nerissa?"
Eve would have denied knowing those names, but she had already spoken his name and there was no going back. She only stared at the man, who continued to smile at her wickedly.
"I was wondering where I heard the name Barlow and it has been itching in the back of my mind," Erasmus said to her and paused walking when he stood before her. He continued, "It was your mother. She was a Barlow."
"You knew my mother?" Eve asked him, and the man nodded his head.
"So well," Erasmus raised his hands before holding them, "So well that I heard her scream in pain when I killed her." He watched Eve furrow her eyebrows, and he said, "Let me make it easy for you, shall I?"
Erasmus's face started to transform again and this time it took the appearance of Noah's uncle. James Sullivan. Eve's heart dropped in her chest when she finally realised the truth. This man… this was the man she had been looking for all this life. To take revenge against him for her mother's death.
How could she have missed this?! She had crossed paths with him so many times before, how did she fail to identify her mother's killer?
James Sullivan was the one to kill her mother… and the more that thought sank into her mind, the more her hands clenched into fists.
"How could you kill her?" Eve asked with anger beginning to coarse through her mind. "She did nothing to you."
James chuckled at Eve's naive words and asked, "How would you feel if the pet that you had been feeding and taking care of decided to bite you?"
"My mother wasn't your pet! She was a person!" Eve lost her cool, before she pushed herself to stand up and glared at him.
Wanting to get out of the cage, Eve touched the metal when she felt a sudden zap in her body, making her step away from the criss-cross metal rods.
The cage that she had been placed in was no ordinary metal, and by the look James was giving her, he had planned everything before hand.
"I will kill you," Eve's voice had turned cold.
"It would be best for you to not touch the metal and think you can escape from what I have built just for you. This cage has been awaiting for your arrival. To think that I failed to recognise you," James clicked his tongue before his appearance turned back to Erasmus's face. He said, "IT is because you never gave me anything to doubt, considering how you had a family and were working for the Moriarty family. Do you know how I solved the mystery of where Nerhys's daughters were? Not in the carriage."
Erasmus then said, "It was when Vincent Moriarty married you. I don't think you know, but the descendants of the Gauntlet's sons will end up gravitating near Nerhys's daughters. Then there was Noah."
Wait, Eve thought as another realisation hit her mind.
Erasmus continued to speak, "My son was smart, because he hid you for so long. He knew that I was looking for you and he tried to come in my way. But Noah should have known that nothing could stop me. Not even him."
"You are Noah's father…" It wasn't Jeffry Sullivan? Eve asked in her mind.
"Mm, that's right. He was trying to protect you, but look what happened? If only he followed my instructions. Isn't it strange that every person who has tried to protect you, ends up dead?" Erasmus clicked his tongue with disdain, and he said, "It is fine though. When the aspiration is big, a few sacrifices can be ignored. It is fate that brings us all together, and it is I who will end the long curse."
Eve could barely keep her mind straight as the revelation had her ponder. Erasmus or James's words about Noah had her turn quiet. He knew… All that time when she had hidden about her true self or the past, Noah knew all of it, but hadn't mentioned a word to her.
She didn't know how to feel about this… Betrayal was the first thing that she felt.
Noah had the answers Eve had been looking for, and he knew everything. But neither did he help her, or this man who stood in front of her. She knew if he wanted to, he would have helped Erasmus long ago.
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