(John’s POV)


The phone rings, and I vault across the room to get to it.

"Hello!"

"Hello, John... it’s Evangeline."

"I know."

I stay silent, waiting for her to talk. I don’t know what to say to her, I can’t think of a way to justify my actions to myself, much more any one else.

"I told Layla about what happened. You don’t have to worry though, she’ll be discreet. I just needed someone to talk to."

"Okay."

She sighs in frustration. "Stop doing that, John! Say something other than I know and Okay. Say something meaningful."

"Evangeline, I don’t know what to say to you right now. I want this all to go away. I want things to be right between us, but I don’t know how to do that."

"John, earlier, I was really mad at you. I still am a little, but I can appreciate the fact that you told me of your own accord. But John we won’t work unless we both trust each other. I have trusted you totally and completely, but I couldn’t help feeling like you didn’t tell me because you didn’t trust me."

"Evangeline, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to have to carry around this secret. Please believe me when I say that I’m not trying to make excuses. This has been such a big burden to carry around all the time. I told you because I realized today that no one has the right to play God. Not me and not Cris."

"Did you speak to him?"

"Yes. He’s adamant that I shouldn’t tell anyone, but Natalie, Antonio, Carlotta and Adriana all have right to know. I’m going to tell Natalie first thing in the morning."

"Well then, I’ll meet you at the hospital tomorrow at 9. You’re going to need some support."

"Thank you."

"I want you to be clear John. I don’t understand, and I don’t fully forgive you. And I don’t condone what you did either. I’m going to be there tomorrow because I love you, and only because I love you."

"I love you too Evangeline. More than you’ll ever know and for more reasons than you will ever be able to understand. I’ll see you tomorrow."

"Bright and early. Goodnight."

She hangs up, and I do the same, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. I contemplate staying up a little longer, but decide against it. With the day I’m going to have tomorrow, I’m going to need a lot of rest..


(The next morning- at the hospital)

I’m sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, my back to the entrance, sipping a cup of coffee. It’s horrible and weak, but I need it. I didn’t sleep very well last night, thinking of everything that happened yesterday. I’m glad that Evangeline knows nothing of what she said yesterday, only the things that I repeated back to her. All night, every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing her rocking back and forth, in incredible pain and anguish, and I can’t do a thing about it. I’m tired of people, namely Evangeline getting hurt from the things that I do. Which is why I made the decision to stop keeping John Doe’s identity as Cristian Vega a secret.

My head turns at the sound of heels clicking on the linoleum, accompanied with the smell of spring flowers that can only be Evangeline. She’s wearing one of those jersey dresses that cling to her figure, a sleeveless cut with a light blue geometric pattern, and her hair is swinging freely behind her.

"Good morning."

I smile at her uncertainly before answering, "’Morning Evangeline."

"You ready to do this?"

"As ready as I’ll ever be. Thank you for being here. You really didn’t have to."

She smiles. "I know." She studies me carefully for a few seconds and then kisses me lightly on the lips.

"What was that for?"

""For luck. For strength. Because I wanted to. You choose."

"For all three then."

She sits in the seat that I was previously occupying and says, "I’ll be out here, waiting. I don’t think that I should be in there when you tell Natalie."

"Yeah, I wouldn’t want you to get hit in the head by any stray objects."

"Because I’m weird enough as it is, right?"

She laughs and waves me on. After giving her one more grateful smile, I walk up to Natalie’s door and knock.

"Come in."

I take a deep breath and push open the door. "Good morning."

"Good morning! I didn’t expect to see you here, though I can’t say that I mind. Come in. Sit down."

I do as she says, choosing a chair that is moderately distant from the bed. More than I don’t want to get decked by Natalie, I really don’t want to get decked by Evangeline.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I’m ready to take on the world. How’s my hero feeling?"

"Evangeline? She’s great."

She rolls her eyes. "I meant...you know what? Never mind. Hey, do you think you could do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Can you please tell Michael that I feel fine and I don’t need to spend another 24 hours in the hospital?"

"I don’t think I’m qualified to make that decision. Natalie, I have something important that I need to tell you."

"If you want to tell me that you and Evangeline got back together, I know already. Michael told me. It’s okay though John, you don’t have to feel guilty. I’ll still be here when she breaks your heart again."

I think I’ve just had my first ‘Oh no she didn’t’ moment. I stare at Natalie and wonder if I ever really knew her, or was the Natalie I knew just the Natalie she let me see.

"That’s not what I was going to tell you. It’s about Cristian."

Her top lip wrinkles in disgust. "You mean that imposter? I don’t want to hear anything about him."

"What if I were to tell you that he is the real Cristian Vega?"

"What? John did you hit your head or something? You’ve been acting weird since last night. Maybe you hit your head in the well. You should let Michael check it out for you."

"There’s nothing wrong with my head, Natalie. Cristian Vega is alive. There’s DNA that proves it."

Natalie stares at me silently for a few seconds before blurting out, "That can’t be true. Evangeline put you up to this didn’t she? So I would be once again occupied with an imposter while she tried to get you to fall in love with her?"

I won’t even touch half of that statement. It’s amazing what a near death experience can do to some people. I guess Natalie decided to show her true colours from now on.

"Evangeline didn’t put me up to anything Natalie. She didn’t even know until last night."

"Why did Evangeline know before me> Cris was...is? my husband!"

I stare at her, flabbergasted. Did she really just ask me that? As Layla said when I tried to trick her into tasting a bagel with cream cheese and honey, ‘I peep your game’. It had to be explained to me first, but it applies perfectly in this situation.

"I just got the feeling that you’d use that information to get between us, Natalie."

"I don’t believe you John. I can’t believe that you’d do something like that to me. You need to leave, John. I don’t know why you would make this up, and I don’t want to know. When you can tell me the truth, you can come back."

I try to speak again, but one look from her and I know it’s hopeless. She won’t listen. Natalie lives in this fantasy world where everything is either for her or about her, no one else matters unless you can do something for her.

"Bye Natalie. Get well...soon."

I leave the room and walk over to Evangeline, who’s whispering to Michael and laughing. I hang back for a moment to enjoy her looking more relaxed than she has been in a while.

"Hey, what are you two laughing about? Not me I hope?"

"Dude, not everything is about you. We were talking about.. You know what? None of your business."

I roll my eyes at Michael and turn to Evangeline, who touches my hand lightly and asks, "How did it go?"

"How did what go?"

"None of your business Michael. It went badly. I’ll tell you about it later. Evangeline."

"Well, we’re off to Capricorn. I’ll talk to you later Michael."

"Capricorn this early in the morning?"

"We’re not drinking Michael," Evangeline replies, standing up and grabbing her bag.

"Speak for yourself Evangeline. I could use a stiff drink right about now."

Michael and Evangeline fix me with glares so icy, I shiver. I hold up my hands. "I was kidding! No drinks, I promise."

Twenty minutes later, Evangeline and I are sitting in front of Antonio, waiting for him to respond to the news we just gave him, and I’m really starting to wish that I hadn’t promised that. He opens his mouth a few times, but he doesn’t make a sound.

After about five minutes of agonizing silence, Antonio clears his throat and says, "Well I guess I’ll be working with you two to help Cris get out of prison."

As hard as I try to stop it, my mouth drops wide open. And Evangeline is just as shocked, if not visibly so.

"Huh," is all she can utter.

Antonio smiles slightly at Evangeline. "You’re wondering why I’m not mad, aren’t you? You can’t understand why you’re still mad at John for not telling you, and I’m not?"

She nods. "To say the least."

"I know what it’s like to wish that you could become another person so that all of your actions that are hurtful will no longer hurt your family and the people that you care about. That’s how I felt last summer. It’s bad enough for John Doe to deal with having killed one man, even if he wasn’t altogether innocent, but he also has to deal with the fact that he tried to kill me. As Cris, he has to deal with him betraying his wife and family, killing his cousin and attempting to kill his own brother. I can understand him not wanting to claim being Cristian Vega."

"Okay?"

"And as for John, I see why he wanted to help Cris. He felt partially responsible for Cris being in prison, he’s the one that first thought that he was an imposter. So of course he’s willing to do anything to remedy that situation. And if it means keeping Cris’ identity a secret, then so be it, right?"

"Antonio, you’re wasting your time with this club. You should be some kind of shrink."

And the weird thing is, I mean it. I would not joke around right now.

"Yeah, I guess. So we’re going to have to do a lot of work to get Cris out. He’s going to be stubborn."

Evangeline rifles through her briefcase and pulls a few files out, putting them on a table. "Well then let’s get to work."