Heartbreak You - T.L. Smith Page 0,40

for her, I probably wouldn’t have met Atlas. Is that some sort of fucked-up thought?

“Thea, do you want him in your life? I know you did before, but then it ended so badly. But is it still over?”

“We could never work,” I say on a shaky breath. “Never. Atlas only thinks about himself. His actions drive him. There’s never any thought process, purely his actions.”

“Well, maybe he needs to change.”

“I don’t think that’s possible. How can a man change from what he’s become accustomed to all his life? And the last thing I would want is to ask him to change for me.”

“Maybe you should. I’m sure he would… for you,” Tina says, lying back on the couch. My cell starts ringing, and Tina reaches for it. I forgot about it because, well, I was fucking kidnapped, so it was left behind and when I got home it was there waiting for me.

“Hello.” Tina listens, then sits up straighter. She stands and reaches for me. When she hangs up, she looks serious. “We have to go to the hospital. Lucy’s having the baby early.”

“I should go, right?” I ask her.

Tina looks to the floor in thought with my cell still clutched in her hand.

“Tina… I should go, shouldn’t I?”

“Do you want to go?”

“Yes,” I say. “But maybe I shouldn’t. She doesn’t want me there. She only wants Atlas,” I say with a cringe.

“Fuck her. She will be in too much pain to know the difference, and I know you won’t forgive yourself if you’re not there. Come on, let‘s go, and be with your evil bitch of a sister,” she says with an eye roll. Tina walks out of the front door with my cell in hand. I follow and slide into her car, and the security guard does the same in his own and follows behind us. When we reach the hospital, only I am allowed in with Lucy so Tina heads home, and when I go into the room she has already had the baby and is sitting up fixing her makeup.

“Where’s the baby?” I ask.

“He’s early, so he’s in special care.”

“He?” I ask with a smile on my face.

“Yeah, he. Anyway, can you call him? He isn’t answering my calls as per usual, and he needs to know the baby has arrived.”

I look down at my cell as Lucy watches me with skeptical eyes.

“You call him,” I tell her.

She does, straight away with no hesitation, as if he’s on speed dial. Actually, he probably is, but he doesn’t answer.

“See, he must be busy,” she says, picking up her mirror and continuing with her makeup application.

“Will the baby be okay?”

“I don’t know. Gosh, Thea… will you just call him already? Atlas needs to be here for this.” She applies lip gloss and turns her glaring eyes directly on me.

I press call, and he answers straight away. “Atlas.”

“I hated my name until I hear you speak it. Now I quite like it. Or maybe it’s just whatever comes from those gorgeous lips of yours—”

“He talks to you like that?” Lucy’s voice cuts in loud and clear.

Maybe I shouldn’t have put him on speaker.

“You’re with Lucy?” he asks. “Theadora,” he says my name and makes me realize he does care. Atlas knows how Lucy treats me. “Why are you there?”

“She’s had the baby,” I tell him.

“Okay,” is all he replies.

I look up at Lucy who’s staring at me with wide eyes when she whispers, “Tell him to come.”

“Do you want me to come?” he asks.

I turn away from Lucy, taking Atlas off the speakerphone to chat with him privately. “Do you not want to?” I ask him a little confused by his answer.

“No. I helped her because of Benji. I did what I had to do. She has his money. There is no other reason I should continue to be involved in her or her child’s life. So, Theadora, do you want me to come?”

His words confuse me. My hand clutches the cell as I turn around to face Lucy. She’s watching me with a mixture of hope and extreme anxiety playing on repeat in her eyes.

“No,” I reply, then watch her face drop. “Okay, no, maybe you should. It shouldn’t matter what I think.”

“No, you don’t want me to come. So, I won’t.”

I nod, but he can’t see me.

Lucy’s still watching me, waiting for what, I don’t know.

“Goodnight, Theadora.” Atlas hangs up.

Lucy throws her hands in the air. “So… when is he coming?”

“He’s not,” I tell her.

Her eyes narrow.