36 • What Is Love

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warning: uncomfortable content towards the end of the chapter. not graphic or explicit violence, but trigerring nonetheless

	Eva felt the cool kiss of the pendant on the skin of her chest as Vincent fastened the chain behind her neck

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Eva felt the cool kiss of the pendant on the skin of her chest as Vincent fastened the chain behind her neck.

“It’s beautiful,” Eva murmured, grazing her fingertips across the delicate chain hanging down her collarbones. “Thank you.” It looked like Eva’s style; thin, and simple, and not carrying even the slightest shine. But she felt nothing when being gifted it by Vince – not the way she’d have felt if this was the first year of their relationship.

Back then, he would put a studded ring on her little finger, or a pair of floral gypsy hoops through her ears. Eva had never liked loud accessories with floral patterns, or the uncomfortable weight on her fingers no matter how delicate the ring was – but there’d been something about being given those little trinkets without asking for them that made her feel remembered and thought of. There’d been something about her being spent on that told her she was worth someone else’s resources and attention.

That allure had worn off over the years though. Like waves that washed over a rock over and over again, chipping away little bits of it over time until it just wasn’t the same anymore. Eva’s wedding ring felt like a leash now – the chain sitting around her neck, a collar.

But wasn’t this all there was? Eva bit her lip as Vincent eased himself back into the seat opposite her, a smile on his face that reminded her just how handsome he’d been when she first caught a glimpse of him all those years back – how handsome he still was. He looked an entirely different person at times like these. He looked like someone that loved Eva – and that mattered. A lot.

Vincent had seen something in Eva that nobody else had – and he still continued to do so. It was why he’d chosen her all those years back, why he stood by her still. No matter how much he made her feel pain – searing, blinding pain – he never turned her away. He still gave her his roof, his bed, his arms. Wasn’t that a testament of his love? Who else could love Eva that way? Her own mother had left her behind. But Vincent never, ever had. Eva remembered her mother telling her how much she loved her, but at the end of the day, her words meant nothing because her actions hadn’t lived up to them.

Vincent was different. He always told Eva he loved her, and she knew he always meant it. He stood by his words, despite all the ugly parts of her. Despite the numerous times she’d made him angry, made him upset. Despite all the times he responded by hurting her back. What love was greater than that which stayed and never left?

He’d taken her in when Logan had dusted her off his hands and discarded her from his huge mansion like dirty laundry. Vincent had always been there.

“What are you thinking about?” Vincent asked, leaning across the table and taking her hand in his. They were in some fancy restaurant that Eva had never been to before, a place that Vincent said he’d come to know of when one of his colleagues threw a farewell party. They weren’t inside the restaurant – Vincent had taken a more romantic approach and booked them a table in the private garden behind the stone building. There was only one other couple there, but they were seated too far away to be within earshot.

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