Chapter 84

Eliana lay helplessly on the ground with tears running down her cheeks - she felt so very wronged at this very moment. After all, she’d done nothing wrong - the one who’d been behind all of this was Laura. She couldn’t believe that her wicked cousin would go so far as to get back at her - Evan was just an innocent little boy. Eliana hated Laura to the core - alas, she hated Aidan more for being so blind to the latter’s blatant malice and wickedness. “Eliana, stop shedding crocodile tears,” Megan scoffed haughtily, “What’s the point? Evan’s dead and can never come back to life - who are you even crying for?” “Miss Briggs, can you please shut up?” Travis couldn’t help but huff in annoyance - he couldn’t believe the audacity of Megan to try and stir up trouble even at such a point in time. “Travis, why are you speaking up for this vicious woman?” Megan barked, “Didn’t you hear her accuse Laura of being a murderer? What evidence does she even have against Laura? Did anyone see anything, huh?” Travis didn’t want to believe that Eliana would do anything to harm Evan - alas, at the same time, he didn’t know the truth about the situation. Megan scoffed, “I’m sure that everyone here knows just how good of a swimmer Eliana is - she could’ve killed herself if she wanted to. What reason would she have to take poor Evan along with her?” Eliana couldn’t help but feel her heart tighten at this - it was true that she was a good swimmer. Yet, she’d failed to save Evan drowning - there was no way that anyone would believe that she wasn’t at fault for Evan’s death. Just then, Aidan walked over wordlessly to Laura - he scooped Evan’s dead body up into his arms sadly before walking away. Laura sobbed as she followed closely behind. Just before she left together with them, Megan snarled at Eliana, “You psychotic woman, just you wait - I’m sure that Aidan won’t let you off for what you’d done.” Travis remained where he’d been, kneeling where he’d been performing CPR on Evan - he looked up at Eliana, who was still crying bitterly. He was silent for a long while before he got up and walked over to Eliana, “Ellie, let me ask you right now - was it you who’d killed Evan?” he asked her in a low voice. “It wasn’t me,” Eliana croaked in a hoarse, yet firm and certain voice. “It wasn’t me, Travis - I adored Evan. I really liked him - but they held me down. I couldn’t get to him and save him…” “Them?” Travis furrowed his brows, “What do you mean?” “Two masked men appeared earlier,” Eliana explained, “One of them restrained me while the other took Evan away...he threw him into the water…” Travis paused for a moment to absorb this before he asked, “When did they leave?” Eliana sobbed, “They left when Evan stopped struggling in the water.” “Why didn’t you bring Evan out of the water? Don’t you know how to swim?” Travis questioned further. Eliana shook her head as she admitted, “I...I’m afraid of the water now.” Travis gasped, “What? That’s impossible - I remember just how much you loved swimming.” Eliana shook her head again, “They...they tortured me with water in prison...so much that I’ve since developed a phobia for it...I couldn’t move at all, Travis. I couldn’t move at all in the water…” “Why...why didn’t you tell Aidan all of these?” Travis couldn’t help but ask. Eliana felt her heart ache as she sighed sadly, “Do you really think that he would believe me? You should know by now that Aidan wouldn’t have believed me at all...after all, he never believes me…”