Read The Eve (The Eden Trilogy) for Free Online Page A

at West.
    “Yeah,” he said with a roughness to his voice.  A long, heavy silence followed for a few moments.
    “You have to understand, Eve,” Dr. Beeson continued, desperation rising in his voice.  “No one wanted you disposed of.  But we had no idea what you were capable of anymore.  We thought it was you that attacked West.  You shorted out and killed all those people.  Given that was in no way your fault, all mine, but we were on the verge of the biggest medical breakthrough in history.  I hate to say it, but you were a liability. 
    “You were supposed to be dead.  I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re Eve Two and not Eve One.”
    His honesty was brutal, but I appreciated it.  It was better than soft lies.  “My sister,” I looked back to Dr. Beeson.  “You only wiped one of our memories, right?  Mine.”
    He nodded.
    “So she’s still out there somewhere,” I said, imagining her running scared through the desert and forests like I had, on her own.  “And she remembers everything we went through at NovaTor.”
    “I would imagine so,” Dr. Beeson said as he started picking absentmindedly at his roll.  “Your sister had an impeccable memory.  I’m sure she remembers every little detail.”
    I nodded, processing the implications of that.  “Is it true?  That he and I hated each other?”  I felt West’s eyes jump to me, but I didn’t look back at him.
    Dr. Beeson suddenly chuckled, his bright teeth in stark contrast to his darker skin.  “I don’t know that hate is the right word, but you two fought every time you were in the same room.  You always had to one up each other.  You each thought you were better than the other.  Given that toned down a bit once your chip was in place, but the animosity between the two of you never went away.”
    I glanced over at West, just a moment.  His eyes were locked on mine, and I could tell the past, our childhood, was playing through his head.
    “It does explain a lot between us,” I said, looking back to Dr. Beeson.  “The way I would black out every time we were together.  Too much emotion—hate and interest—going on in my head.  Even if I didn’t understand it or why.  But he and my sister, they liked each other?”
    “Yes,” Dr. Beeson said, his eyes dropping to the roll he had now demolished.  “Your sister was very unattached to everyone at the facility, except West.  She didn’t always like to cooperate with us, she was colder and more removed than yourself.  But with West, she was different.”
    I looked at West again.  His eyes were on the table, and there was moisture pooled in them.  He squeezed his eyelids closed and shook his head.
    While West looked conflicted, I simply felt relief.  Half of the tie and pull I had felt toward West was because I thought there was history that grounded us together.  The weight and guilt I had felt was clipped away.  My entire body felt lighter.
    “You see why I made the decision I did?” I asked quietly.  “What would have happened if I picked you?”
    Dr. Beeson cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably.  “Is there anything else you wanted to ask me, Eve?  I sense that the rest of this conversation needs to be just between the two of you.”
    “No, that’s all.  For now.  Thank you for your honesty,” I said as he stood.
    He nodded his head, and turned and left with his tray of food.
    West and I were quiet for just a moment after he was gone, neither of us meeting the others eye.
    “So I guess this is where we finally have the non-break up conversation,” West said, twirling a salt shaker on the table with one hand.
    “It’s just a lot more complicated and simple at the same time,” I mused, grabbing the salt shaker from his hand and setting it on the far edge of the table.  It required everything I had in me to take his hand in mine and calm his shaking.  He was instantly still.
    My eyes locked on our hands together on the table