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The captain’s throaty voice boomed through the speakers again, startling me. “
Flight attendants, prepare for landing.
” Followed immediately by, “
Ladies and Gentleman, we have just been cleared to land at the LaGuardia Airport. Please make sure one last time your seat belt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabins to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining unwanted items. Thank you.
”

My skin prickled. My stomach twisted and turned. My heart raced as though I’d just finished running a marathon.
This is it, Evangeline. You’re twenty-two. It’s time to grow up.

****

My nerves eventually settled when I spotted Connor waiting for me inside the airport lounge. Dressed in a fine dark, three-piece Armani suit, a charcoal dress shirt and a bright red, silk tie, my brother looked suave. A huge smile stretched across my face as he ran up to greet me with open arms. Catching me, he spun me around and planted a huge kiss on my cheek, causing his stubble to tickle me in the process.

“Evie, it’s so good to see you. Look at you, I’m loving this new hair,” he’d said once I was back on my two feet. He picked up a chunk of my hair and grinned, causing the dimples in both his cheeks to pop out. Oh, how I missed that grin.

“And you look exactly the same, Con. Still unkempt and hideously dressed.” I winked and gave him a cheeky grin.

He snorted, rolled his eyes and playfully punched my arm. I enjoyed teasing Connor about the way he looked, because the truth was he was always impeccably dressed and well groomed; he would never leave the house otherwise.

Connor was the splitting image of my father during his younger years. His short, dark, stylish hair was a nice contrast to his deep green eyes. I, on the other hand, with my naturally wavy, light brown hair and hazel eyes, took after my mother, as did our oldest brother, Alexander.

Through my teenage years, I often thought my looks were the reason behind my father’s resentment towards me. Thinking that perhaps he wasn’t able to handle staring into the face of someone who resembled what he’d lost so dearly.
Or maybe it’s because he knew you killed them!

“Come on sis, Amelie is very excited to see you.” Connor took hold of my hand and we began making our way through the lounge.

Amelie was an old high school friend of Connor’s from Newport. She was now a highly successful interior designer and also my brother’s gorgeous fiancée.

“Wait until you see what she has done with your apartment, Evie. It’s brilliant. You’re going to love it. But unfortunately you don’t get to see it until tomorrow because she’s planned a big dinner over at our place to celebrate your arrival.”

“And we both know how she gets if we’re late to one of her dinners.”

We gave each other a knowing look before breaking out into a laugh.

“Oh and before I forget, Derek took the night off just for you,” my brother added.

“Really? He lied to me and told me he wasn’t going to be able to see me for days.”

“He’ll be there, Evie. When have you known him to miss a party?” Connor made a very valid point.

We both chuckled at the expense of my friend Derek. The huge, flamboyant African-American liked to party more than he liked to change his underwear. Gross, but it was a very true fact.

Derek Wright was a very old friend from high school. Besides my grandparents, Connor and our younger twin cousins, Hunter and Willah, the only other person I confided in was Derek. We became friends after we had to partner up for a Science project one year. It wasn’t an immediate friendship, since I was quiet and liked to keep to myself while Derek was loud and was friends with just about everybody, but over that summer our friendship grew. Most importantly, he never pushed me into telling him about the accident— although, years later he confessed that he’d gone to speak with Gran and Pop, promising it was only so that he didn’t end up saying the wrong thing around me.

Derek had recently moved to NYC six months ago to chase his dream of Broadway… and partying. So far he loved it, but was overly thrilled when I’d called to say I was coming to stay in New York indefinitely. He now had a partner in crime to drag along to all the exclusive shows and after parties he got invited to. I didn’t bother mentioning that I had planned to stay in my apartment the entire time I was visiting New York. When it came to Derek, some things were best discussed face to face.

A lot had changed in New York after twelve years. The streets were far busier with traffic and tourists, there were new buildings on almost every block, and it seemed that the city had become overrun with giant posters of half naked models. Whether everything had remained the same and I was just unaware of these sorts of things as a child, or I’d chosen to block out all the memories I had of New York after the accident, I still couldn’t quite understand the logic of covering the city in posters using the same four models for every advert. Surely there were many beautiful faces to choose from? Not that I was complaining about the one very mouth-watering view I had of a large billboard with a sexy male model in only Dolce and Gabbana briefs just outside my balcony.

“This is beyond amazing, Evan. I can see all of Manhattan from up here and look, Central Park!” shouted my best friend, pulling me out of my dreamy state.

I rolled my eyes and kept a close eye on Derek standing by the edge of the balcony. He stood very straight with his back to me and his arms stretched out either side of him, impersonating a scene from the movie Titanic.

“
I’m the king of the world!
” he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, reciting one of his favorite lines from the movie. Besides the sounds coming from the loud traffic below, there was no other response. We were up too high and also living in the penthouse apartment meant I had no neighbors to worry about shouting obscene words at him. Thank goodness.

“You’re mad. Get down from there before I end up having to scrape you off the sidewalk below, Jack Dawson.”

He shot me a glare from over his shoulder. “That’s nothing near anything Rose would say, Evan. She would join him and they would fall down together,” he said, making a face as though my words had hurt him. That was my best friend for you: over dramatic about everything.

Derek also had the habit of calling me ‘Evan’. A nickname he chose because he knew I didn’t like the name ‘Evie’. The nickname reminded me so much of what I had lost: my family. The only exception to the nickname was my brother, Connor.

“Yeah well, I’m nothing like Rose and I’m not willing to move my butt off this seat,” I replied, pointing to the white leather, outdoor day bed I was lying comfortably on. “Anyway, do I need to remind you that it was Rose who selfishly kept the
large,
floating piece of wood all to herself?” I grinned, staring at him through the dark lenses of my Christian Dior sunglasses while I waited for his response.

Derek let out an exasperated sigh, then dropped his arms and slowly made his way over to me with a scowl on his face. “Yeah, that bitch! I hate her. There is no way I could’ve let that hot piece of ass go,” he said, dropping down on the other day bed beside me.

“Oh
really
? You would’ve just held on to him until they came along to save you? The
both
of you?” I lowered my chin so that I could see him from over the top of my glasses and raised an eyebrow.

“I would have tried to move over at the very least. Perhaps offered to lay on top of him to provide an extra layer of warmth,” he replied, pointing a long, bright orange fingernail at me.

I threw my head back and laughed as an image of a huge, muscular, black man squishing poor Leonardo DiCaprio in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean popped into my head.

“Amelie did a fantastic job with his place,” he said after I’d settled down. “That girl has as much style as a gay man.”

“What does that even mean?” I said slightly confused.

“It means she has a brilliant sense of style.” He gave me a look as if it were general knowledge.

“Not all gay men are stylish, Derek Wright.”

“Oh please, girlfriend. Name one.”

I looked up towards the sky, thinking of an answer. “Jamie Benson! That’s one,” I said, saying a name of a guy we both went to school with.

Derek scowled again. “Jamie Benson didn’t know what he was.”

“I really liked Jamie…” I started, drifting off into one of the few nice memories I had of school before Derek cut me off.

“Don’t start. How did that scrawny little pest come into the conversation anyway? I was complimenting your apartment.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. The only reason Derek hated the poor guy was because he was in love with him and Jamie turned him down one summer when we were sixteen.

I sat up and looked over my shoulder towards the inside of my apartment, smiling proudly. Amelie
had
done a fantastic job. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be staying in New York for but Amelie insisted on redecorating the apartment. I let her of course; not realizing her plan was to completely renovate the entire floor.

She’d transformed the kitchen, adding a black marble patterned counter top, glass and stainless steel appliances and it now had a huge pantry big enough for both Derek and I to hide inside if we wanted to. The open plan living room consisted of a huge, flat screen television mounted on the wall, a white leather seven-seater and a large, red shaggy rug under a circular, glass coffee table. An entire wall was turned into a bookshelf filled with favorite classics and the authors I loved, while large abstract paintings hung around the walls, color coordinated with a few items placed around the room.

My bedroom was amazing. Everything I could ever want, Amelie managed to find, but it was the en-suite attached to my room that was my favorite room in the house. It shone of gold and white marble and sported a deep bathtub with jet spas and a luxurious shower. I didn’t know how Amelie managed to complete the entire project in a matter of weeks, but I was glad that she did.

The sound of my cell ringing jolted me back into the moment and I spun around to reach for my phone sitting on the bench beside me. It was my brother calling.

“Hey, Con,” I sang cheerfully into the speaker.

“Hey, Evie…”
Oh no.
My mood changed as soon I heard his troubled voice on the other end. “I think it might be best to come and visit Dad today. He hasn’t been feeling very well.”

My throat suddenly felt dry. I knew agreeing to come to New York meant that I would need to go see my father at some point but I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. I hadn’t even worked out what to say to him yet.

“I know it’s stupid of me but―”

“It’s alright, Evie. I know it’s hard and it’s a big ask. You’ll see him tomorrow though, right?”

“Okay,” I agreed, feeling my body begin to relax a little. “I’ll do it tomorrow, I promise. I just need to prepare myself. I shouldn’t be feeling like this, he’s our father…”

“What you went through was traumatic enough and it wasn’t fair that he deserted you like that, especially when you needed him the most. But you’re right, he is our father and he needs you now, Evie. Just don’t leave it too long otherwise it might be too late and you’ll regret never getting the chance to forgive each other.”

I nodded even though Connor couldn’t see me. “Will you be there with me tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

After I hung up, I turned to Derek, who was staring at me with wide, questioning eyes.

I filled him in and even though he tried cheering me up, nothing was helping. After a while of silence passed, I excused myself and told Derek that I wanted to go and lie down. I needed to be alone and have time to think about the situation I was in.

****

“Alright, this is silly. It’s your second day in New York and you’re mopping around in your amazing apartment, while I’m eating everything edible that you own.”

I lifted my head just enough to see Derek’s dark figure approaching the bedroom. He flopped down on the bed beside me.

“Sorry, but I don’t feel well.”

“It’s only because you feel bad. Do you want to see your dad?”

“I’m afraid―”

“So then, you see him tomorrow like you planned. But tonight we party,” Derek interrupted. I frowned. “And don’t even give me that crap about being afraid. No one has seen you in years and they probably wouldn’t even recognize you now. You deserve a night out, Evan. You look like a mess,” he added quickly.

“Jeez thanks,” I grumbled.

“Just telling you how it is, baby girl. Now, are you going to come with me or do I have to drag your sorry ass along?”

He stood up off the bed and pointed a straight arm out the door. I sat up. Bossy Derek always got his way but he also managed to make me smile. “Jeez, you’re bossy,” I teased. “
Fine.
But one drink, okay?” I answered, slowly getting to my feet.

“Two drinks, and I promise we will leave if you start having one of your freak outs.” Derek winked and slapped my ass as I passed by.