“Yes,” Thorn said, reaching for the TV remote. “In case she is still upset when she wakes.”
“Good idea.” Tommy nodded. “If she’s not awake by mid-afternoon, text me. I’ll switch out with you.”
Thorn turned on the TV and settled back. “We should likely make her take some time off work. She insisted she would return on Monday, but she needs to work through all of this, not avoid it.”
Nissa nodded. “I’ll make sure the contractors send all design requests to Tommy until she’s ready to come back.”
“And I’ll talk to her,” Tommy said, glancing down the hall toward Evie’s door. “She needs the time, and she needs to get back in with her old therapist as soon as possible.”
Chapter Thirty-Six: The Slow Return
Evie ended up taking all of January off work as a depression settled over her that was so heavy she struggled to get out of bed or shower most days. Tommy, Nissa, and Thorn kept a close eye on her, letting her wallow in her grief for a little while, then began showing up and making her leave her apartment, first by bringing her up to Tommy’s penthouse or Thorn’s apartment for meals or to watch TV, then by getting her out of the Tower for grocery shopping, farmer’s markets, and short outings.
By the third week of January, she managed to get an appointment with her former therapist and started going twice a week to work through her feelings surrounding her mother, how she hid her alcoholism and cancer diagnosis from her, and her death.
By February she was back to work, and Lana and Cole started including her in their preparations for the baby, with Lana insisting on her coming shopping with her and asking for help to decorate the nursery, since she was starting to find it difficult to manage things as she entered her third trimester.
Even Aaron and Paula rallied around her, with Paula opening up to her about being adopted and reconnecting with her mom after bringing her coffee and offering condolences about Della, which made Evie choke up a little while thanking her.
“My mom was only fifteen when she got pregnant with me,” she explained hesitantly, sitting down on the edge of thechair across from Evie. “Her family was really dysfunctional, and she gave me up for adoption hoping to give me a better life. I was able to track her down just before I went to university, and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her now.”
After that conversation, Paula warmed up to her significantly and began sitting with Evie if she was eating alone in the lunchroom, joining her in the gym occasionally. She also stopped getting upset with Aaron when he spoke to her, so Evie felt more comfortable when he came into her office and talked to her far longer than he needed to.
All the support she received helped her feel less alone, and therapy helped her work through her feelings of hurt and resentment surrounding her mother. Her therapist explained that every time she found out her mother was hiding something, it was immediately followed by Evie having to look after her, which made her feel like she couldn’t confront her.
“Evie,” Dr. Monroe said gently, “you didn’t spend your whole life taking care of your mother, but when your father was sentenced and you discovered her alcoholism, you were thrust into a caregiver role. Then when he died, you were not only navigating complex feelings of grief, loss, and guilt, you were managing his estate and suddenly responsible for a parent whose choices had contributed to that loss.”
“That’s an impossible weight for anyone, especially someone still so young. Every time you learned something painful about her afterward, the relapse, the hidden diagnosis, the things she kept from you, you didn’t get to react. You had to solve it. Detox. Hospitals. Hospice. The paperwork. It all fell on you.”
“So, when Tommy stepped in and handled the last thing you felt responsible for, finding a place for her ashes, your system finally let go. It wasn’t the ashes that broke you. It wasthe moment you realized you didn’t have to be the strong one anymore.”
“But Tommy helped me with everything,” Evie protested, her fingers twisting anxiously in her lap. “He used his money and influence to speed things up, smooth transitions, and just made things so much easier. If I didn’t have him, I would have crashed and burned trying to get her into detox.”
“You’re right,” Dr. Monroe nodded. “Tommy did help you every step of the way. He handled the logistics, the money, the connections. He made things move faster and easier in every practical sense.”
“But emotional responsibility isn’t something another person can take away from you, Evie. Even with his help, you were the daughter. You were the one making decisions about detox, rehab, hospice. You were the one she confided in and relied on.”
She leaned forward slightly in her chair, holding Evie’s gaze. “Tommy could carry the process, but he couldn’t take away the grief. He couldn’t carry the history between you and your mother, and he couldn’t take away the guilt or the anger or the fear you felt.”
“You still had to be the strong one emotionally, even while he handled the practical side. And when he finally took the last practical burden off your shoulders, the ashes, your body responded to the emotional load it had been suppressing for months. His support didn’t erase your pain, Evie. It just meant you felt safe enough to finally feel it.”
“You’d been carrying the emotional load for so long that the second someone carried you, everything you’d been pushing down rushed in at once and overwhelmed your system.”
Evie fell quiet, thinking over what she had just been told. “So… it’s not so much that Mom’s death caused the breakdown, it was her death that freed me from being responsible for her, and my body was… what? Overwhelmed with relief?”
Dr. Monroe shook her head softly, her voice calm but warm. “Relief is part of it, yes, but it isn’t the whole story.”
“Think of it this way, Evie. Your mother’s death didn’t just free you from responsibility. It stopped the cycle you’d been trapped in: something terrible happened, you had to fix it, and there was no room for you to feel anything. Your system was trained to stay in crisis mode, to cope, to manage, to survive.”
“When she died, the crisis ended. But your body didn’t know what to do with that sudden lack of urgency. Everything you’d been pushing aside came rushing in at once. That kind of emotional whiplash can feel like drowning.”
She paused, letting the words settle. “So yes, part of your breakdown was relief, but the more profound truth is that for the first time in years, you weren’t bracing for the next emergency. Without a crisis to keep you numb and focused, your emotions finally had space to surface.”
“It wasn’t just relief, Evie,” she finished gently. “It was the weight lifting all at once, and your system collapsing under everything it never had the chance to process.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Welcome, Colton
On May 1st, Cole and Lana welcomed their son, Colton, into the world. He was a big boy at nine pounds, eight ounces. He came quickly, with only four hours passing between Lana realizing she was in labour and giving birth, which resulted in tearing so bad that Evie decided that when she had kids, she would schedule a C-section.
