SWEET TEMPTATION.

ORIGINS.

 In his setting, Linda would reside in Brooklyn for three years after the death of her husband, William Littlejohn, his brother Malcolm, and Malcolm’s wife Yvette. Haunted by the massacre, Linda secretly attends therapy sessions and reaches the realization she is a woman who does whatever someone else wants. Therefore, Linda decides to move to Manhattan with the five-year-old Eve in tow.

Eventually, she gets married to a Wall street stockbroker. Eve is eight years old when the adults go through a long, messy divorce. After the divorce, Linda decides she could use a break by leaving the country for a little while. Because why not? She has the money. The first country they go to is England, staying in London.

It was supposed to be a month-long vacation, but she kept putting off returning home. She didn’t want to house hunt back in New York, she didn’t want to be identified with a scandal, she didn’t want to see any family. So they began living in London and when Eve is nine years old, Linda would decide to go to South Africa.

Eve spent time cities such as Durban, Ghana, Cape Town. Her mother thought the experience would be good for her. While this exposure to different buildings, landscapes and cultures did make Eve happy, she had no stable school life or friendships. So on a social level, Eve was often lonely.

When Eve was fifteen, her mother fell in love with a highly esteemed professor from the University of Cape Town. They all began living together and he begins an inappropriate relationship with Eve. It’s all an act of grooming that Eve isn’t aware of. Linda catches on to it and confronts her lover about his behavior. However, he is offended by the accusations. Even when moving out, he still contacts Eve through phone calls and even picks her up from school at one point without Linda’s consent.

Eve would be faced with loaded questions: ‘did he touch you?’ ‘What did he do to you?’ She was overwhelmed - causing her to give her mother the silent treatment, which in turn caused Linda to decide to move again. This time, they would leave Africa to live in Europe. France, specifically.

CRIMINAL BEGINNINGS.

In France, the mother & daughter moved twice. First to Paris then Lyon. Eve liked Lyon more than Paris, but was much too stubborn to admit it. Part of Eve was worried that if she was open about her love, then her mother would want to move somewhere else. She attended college with a focus on art conservation. 

Ultimately, she did not fully complete her required apprenticeship because she would meet Alexandre DuBois, a con artist she fell madly in love with.

He did not expose his true nature to her at first, but she began questioning the source of the gifts he was continuously giving her. When she reached the conclusion that he was a criminal, Alexandre kept insisting that it wasn’t as much of an issue that she was making it out to be. To prove this he wanted Eve to come with him to a job wanting Eve to participate as well. Eve declined. However, when Alexandre said he didn’t like boring women she found herself agreeing. After their first job together, Eve told herself never again. It would happen again. It was an adrenaline rush for her.

Eventually, Eve and Alexandre were apprehended by law enforcement. Linda bailed Eve out and told her that if she was not going to continue reaching for her career goals then she would send her to America. Eve would fight back, insisting that she was an adult, so she doesn’t have to go to America. Infuriated, Linda kicks Eve out the house so she could live with Alexandre.

The relationship that would progress between Eve and Alexandre was not without its faults. Even when Eve moved in with him, Alexandre was cheating on her. He had his alternate hookups and one-night stands, with Eve simply being his main girlfriend. When women smugly confronted Eve of how Alexandre was nothing but a womanizer, she fought for the integrity of his name.

The relationship comes to an end when Alexandre gains access to an elite party. During their fumbled job, they would be acknowledged by someone who would be very influential in Eve’s future, Gisella Agostini of the Corsican Mafia. The two would leave the scene, fiercely arguing in the car about who messed up. Eve brings up how he’s a liar and manipulator, only for Alexandre to rip the pearls from her neck and kick her out his car. 

Caught in Organized Crime.

While Alexandre and Eve are separated, the Agostini family does research on the two. First, Alexandre is snatched off the street by Agostini goons. In what he deemed as an act of self-preservation he sells Eve out, claiming it was her idea.

When Eve is abducted by the crime family, Gisella confronts her directly. The old woman states that she could fix everything and spare her from her ‘husband’s wrath.’ But the truth is, Gisella’s husband doesn’t do anything in the crime family any longer due to his age and illnesses, but Gisella uses him as a ‘front’ to reign.

Eve ends up working for the crime family and in little moments, she gradually speculates she is in the midst of a female mob boss. 

As the years pass on, Gisella grows progressively attached to Eve. In turn, Eve initially grows to feel like she’s a part of some sort of stable family. Ultimately, their relationship gradually becomes overbearing and toxic. Eve feels like she’s owned and controlled by an old white woman. Therefore, Eve distances herself from dealing with Gisella personally because it was too much. 

Eve continued working for the crime family in regards to assassinations and heists, but she was not eating at Gisella’s home for dinner or talking over tea.

Eve decides to make amends with Gisella by the time she is 31. Little did she know, the woman was on her death bed. They were kind to one another and Gisella lets Eve know she can do whatever she wants. Later that week, the old woman would die. While Gisella’s death comes as a shock - Eve was also feeling relieved.

The Current.

Eve relocates to New York to begin a new, stable life. She thought her family’s home state would have her feel at home and content as it did when she was a child, but she didn’t feel this way at all. She felt like a stranger among her family.

She gets a job working at a museum as an art conservator, but also does her own paintings in her spare time. Admittedly, she’s bored with a quiet life.