"For Christ's sake, Eva. Please allow me the luxury to joke about the situation. We are not planning a bloody trip right now."
She blinked several times in rapid succession after Warren spoke and jumped to his feet. He'd been kidding. She hadn't even picked up on it. Her arms became covered in goosebumps and her hair fizzed with embarrassment. She knitted her eyebrows together as Warren began questioning her, and making sure that she knew he could be petty and vengeful. Her stomach flipped and she turned her face away from him as he closed the distance between them.
"Tell me. How much of this time have you been fretting about Ronan? Tell me, Eva. I don't know whether to hope for his speedy recovery or kick the door down and strangle him with a power cord."
Evangeline sneered and then frowned her disapproval. He was pushing his angelic luck now. Her nostrils flared. "I care about him. Whether you like it, whether I like it - I just do. I'm not going to apologize for that. I didn't want these things to happen to him, just as much as I didn't want them to happen to us. But they're happening," still. Zap's fists were clenched and she felt her leg muscles tightening to brace herself, as if she were about to be attacked. It felt that way, apparently. "I apologized to him in the car - for hurting him. That's all I wanted to do; let him know I never meant to hurt him. Or you, or our daughter," or herself. But she'd succeeded in doing all of those things and more.
Her shoulders fell, suddenly. Her muscles relaxed. Her eyes were teary. "Why didn't you, then?" Fight for her. Get angry. Yell, scream, throw things, go crazy. "If you're so capable... Why not? Why didn't you go yell at him? Go threaten him? Draw a line? He showed up at the manor one day. He went down on me in the formal dining room. Right there on the table. But you hugged me and told me we should go to Rome for the long weekend... Like some disconnected, old money, arranged-marriage socialite." Her lower lip quivered. "I went for Ren. I'm trying for Ren..." Eva blinked and her eyes spilled tears down her reddened cheeks.