This is the first in a series of stories about consequences.
Thanks to Angel Love for her comments and editing.
My name is Eve. I'm married to a man named John Constantine. We met and married when I was twenty-three and he was twenty-six. He has a brother, Robert, a little older than he and they both lived with their father Salvatore and their mother, Charity. Bobby was married and his wife Celina lived there with him. They were a wonderful, close-knit family.
I have no family. My mother and father both died of cancer when I was still in my early teens and I was raised by an Aunt Flossy that took me in only because she felt it was her duty and she wanted the money from my trust fund. There were no grandparents on either side so she was my only living relative. She raised me as a strict Catholic and made me go to church every week. I know she hated me so I did as she asked and worked very hard to stay out of her sight. In that way, we tolerated each other until I was eighteen. On that wonderful day, I packed up my few things and left. She didn't even bother to say goodbye.
I knew that when I turned eighteen, my trust fund would be under my control. It had been paying my aunt a nice sum each month since my mother died. She followed my father within a year of his death and before she died, she had all of their assets converted to a cash endowment that she set up for me. When I met the banker who was in charge of it, he told me that it would give me a nice allowance if I continued to allow him to manage it. I told him that was fine and he could continue in charge if he promised me that Aunt Flossy would no longer get anything. He assured me that was the case.
But, he informed me that I could go to college and the fund would pay the tuition and living expenses if I chose, or I could just take the money. I decided to let it stay and only took enough to go to a local trade school where I trained to be a dental hygienist. I wanted fast and local and I wanted to be able to make my own way. I took a job with a dentist close to my apartment and began my career. True to his word, the fund paid the tuition and still gave me a small allowance each month.
Salvatore and his sons worked in construction, Sal as a supervisor and his boys as laborers. John was a bricklayer and Robert was a finisher. They worked well together. They had always worked as a team. They wouldn't take separate jobs and they went where Sal went. He in turn kept them working and made sure they always had jobs. It was a tight family.
That's how I met John. I was going to school downtown next door to one of the projects they were working on. I came out of the building at lunch and breaks to get some air and get away from the other students who were all older than me. That's where this cute well-built guy saw me and began to talk to me. He told me his name was John and we began to look forward to seeing each other on my school days. We hit it off very well and one day he asked me out on a date. I refused the first time he asked but accepted the next. We enjoyed each other and we became a couple. We dated for eight months before John asked me to marry him and I said yes. We were married in a big ceremony with all of his friends and family and I became Eve Constantine, wife of John Constantine.
Rather than live with his parents, John moved into my apartment where we lived for the next several years until we were able to purchase a small house. We had a good life, me working four days a week and him bringing in good money. We talked about kids but decided to wait. We were happy and we enjoyed each other and his family. I especially like Celina, Bobby's wife. Bobby and Celina were at our place almost as often as we went to John's parents. Celina once told me she just enjoyed getting away form Sal and Charity once in a while. She loved them but wanted some privacy.
Robert, John and their father Salvatore Constantine had started a small construction business soon after John and I were married. It had been a dream for all of them and now that both sons were married, Salvatore decided the time had come for them to join him and build a business that would provide for their children. Celina and I agreed and we both took jobs to help out during that time. Celina worked in a law office with fourteen lawyers as a receptionist and I still worked as a dental hygienist. We made enough to help our men through the startup and were happy to do it.
Things were rough for the first two years but as the quality of their work became known, jobs became more steady and the profits began to build. They were able to hire some additional laborers and the company continued to grow. After two more years we were finally able to make some life decisions. John and I had been married now for just over five years.
Bobby and Celina became pregnant and she quit her job when she was five months gone. As the business did well, I dropped down in my hours until I was only working one or two days a week. I tried to keep my hand in while John and I worked on making a baby ourselves but without success. We were having fun trying though so we were content. Things continued unchanged for another year or so before disaster struck.
We had been married now for a little more than seven years and we were no further along in trying to start our family. Bobby and Celina's little girl was sixteen months old and a bundle of energy. Celina was a great mother and she and the baby were at our place all the time. I loved that little girl and Celina and I were as close as sisters. Things were great.
It was sometime during September of that year when Celina told me she was pregnant again and she wanted to tell her folks in person so she was going to take the baby and visit her mother in upstate New York. It was a four hour drive and she wanted me to go with them but I had already agreed to work another girl's shift since she was to be in her sister's wedding. It was too late to back out and I stayed behind. Celina couldn't wait to tell her mom so it was that they left early that morning without me. I would wonder about that over and over in the next few years and I often wished that I had been with them. But, I didn't think any more about it then.
I only worked a four hour shift that day so I was home by early afternoon. I still remember John coming home from work early that day. I asked him what he was doing home so early and he just looked at me. His face showed so much pain that I immediately went to him to see where he was hurt, but he just reached for me and pulled me tightly to his chest. He held me that way without saying anything until I started to become afraid. I pushed back and asked him what was wrong. I remember his exact words.
"They're both gone, Evie. Celina and baby Jess, gone. So quick, so very quick. Bobby is devastated. He's almost going crazy but mom and dad are with him. But they're both gone Evie. They're dead and gone."
John was crying and still holding me tight against his chest but I pushed back and tried to grab his arms to get some control.
"What are you talking about? Celina and baby Jess were going to her mother's place. They're not gone, they're just off visiting. Calm down baby."
