Evil Never Dies

“Oh. I can move out of the bedroom and give her some privacy.”

“She can sleep on the couch. She’ll be fine.”

The quiet settled between them while Lizzy waited for di

“If you need any help with anything, let me know,” Salma said.

“I will. So, what’s the deal with you anyhow? Do you have family in the area?”

The girl nodded. “I do. Not that you’d know it. Since they found out I’m pregnant they’re not talking to me.”

“What about the father of the baby?”

“He’s around.”

When Salma grew quiet, Lizzy went to the table and took a seat across from her. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

Lizzy didn’t believe her. “You look much younger.”

“That’s what everyone says.”

“Are you a runaway?”

She rubbed her swollen belly. “No.”

“Do your parents know where you are?”

She shrugged.

“If you tell me where you live or give me a number, I could call and talk to them.”

“Listen, this isn’t something you can just jump in and fix. My father is not happy with my choices—that’s a nice way to put it. The cultural differences between my boyfriend and me make it impossible for my family to accept him. My brother can be a hothead. If they find out where I am, who knows what could happen? So no, no phone calls. If you don’t want me to stay, I’ll leave. I didn’t ask to come here. Your friends dragged me here against my will.”

Lizzy didn’t like the ultimatum. She also didn’t like the idea of the young girl roaming the streets. She needed to think things through and figure out what to do with the girl. With a baby on the way, she couldn’t stay here indefinitely.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A

A tear ran down her cheek.

Standing in the hallway, her only thought was, Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

She wasn’t ready to talk to her husband. Not yet. She just needed a moment to herself to take it all in. She’d never felt so damned happy in her life.

Deliriously happy.

After all these months of staying strong, refusing to cry or show emotions, she was a wreck. Her heart pounded inside her chest. Her hands felt clammy; her legs wobbled beneath her bony frame. It boggled her mind to discover she’d never really seen this coming. It was a miracle. And she knew it.

As she followed the carpeted hallway, making a left and then a right, she recalled taking this same walk through these same hallways two years ago, almost to the day.

She’d been given an upsetting diagnosis that day—told she had ovarian cancer. One year to live was the most they could promise her. Tops.

She’d spent the last twenty-four months of her life doing everything she could to reverse the cancer that had dared to invade her body and turn her life upside down. After getting a second and third opinion, each diagnosis grimmer than the last, she’d had surgery, and then chemotherapy followed by radiation. Not to mention a radical change in her diet. Despite the weakness in her arms and legs, she began to exercise, which consisted mostly of stretching and taking long walks. Every day. When she wasn’t exercising, she was reading self-help books. All very inspiring and positive books: No Fear for the Fearless. You Can Beat the Odds. Don’t Look Back, Moving Forward.

Not once had she allowed herself a pity party. In fact, the minute she had walked out of this same building two years ago, she had refused to accept the verdict. She would not go out without a fight.

And today, she’d learned she had won.

Her cancer was in full-blown remission.

She would live long enough to see her children grow, marry, have children of their own.

She stopped right there in the middle of the hallway and let out a “Yippee!” She blushed when an elderly couple passed by, gawking at her. After they disappeared inside the elevator at the end of the hallway, she let out another whoop, and then she laughed out loud.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed—a real honest-to-goodness laugh that made her insides thrum like this.

Things were going to change, she decided as she continued toward the stairwell at the end of the hallway. She needed to try new things. Live a little.

She spared a quick glance at the elevator as she walked by.

By nature, she’d always been a scaredy-cat. There were quite a few things, in fact, that scared the bejesus out of her, and the top two on her list were bridges and elevators.

After turning away from the door to the stairwell, she turned back toward the elevator. As she bit down on her bottom lip, she looked at the shiny metallic doors in a new light. She’d lost track of the number of times someone or another told her that the elevator was the most used transportation on earth. Elevators required regular inspections and maintenance, they would tell her. Elevators were perfectly safe. Accidents only happened in the movies or on TV. If there was an emergency, there were call buttons for just that reason.

She reached out and hit the red Down button.

Then she waited.

Since he still had plenty of time before his meeting, he’d taken the first empty parking space he could find on the side of the road and decided to head for Capitol Mall to do some people watching. Once his meeting was over, he pla

As he’d walked along the sidewalk, he watched various people pass him by without a second glance. With his neatly trimmed hair and casual suit, he was one of them. Everyone was rushing to work or perhaps to lunch.

After he’d noticed an elderly couple exit an underground parking garage, something possessed him to head that way. It was almost as if he were being pulled by some magnetic force. There were very few cars parked within the garage, and despite it being daytime, the area was dark. Bits of trash were scattered about. No security whatsoever. A black hole in the middle of a bustling city.

The elevator doors to his left opened, startling him. Before the doors could shut again, he rushed over and used his right foot to hold the doors open while he stepped inside. He had no idea where he was going or what sort of building this was, but it was such an odd little hole in the wall, he couldn’t resist.

There appeared to be three floors. A short ride, no matter which button he pressed. He pushed the button with the number 3, hoping to feel a jolt before takeoff.

No jolt. No fun. Not until the doors parted and he found a tiny bird of a woman waiting to get on the elevator. Her eyes were twinkling until she saw him frowning.

“I’m afraid I’m lost,” he told her, bedazzling her with one of his wide grins.

“Are you here to see Dr. Roth?”

“Yes, Dr. Roth. Am I on the right track?”

Her frown bloomed into a smile that made her eyes sparkle again. She pointed to her left. “It’s a bit of a maze, but his office is that way,” she said.

He stepped off the elevator, holding the door for the woman to get on.

“Thank you,” she said after she’d stepped inside.

“Anything for such a lovely woman.”