Heartbreak You - T.L. Smith Page 0,5
before she turns and stares full force. Sydney is nothing if not intense.
“If I could get rid of her without being fired, I would have no hesitations.” She turns and starts to walk out.
“Thank you, Sydney,” I yell out after her.
She waves, not looking back as she heads into her office.
Just as I’m about to leave, a bunch of flowers arrive. They are all white calla lilies with one red rose in the middle. I open the card.
FUCKING UP MY LIFE
Screwing up my nose in disgust, I scrunch up the card into a ball and throw it using extra force into the bin, and then walk out leaving the flowers right where they are.
Care factor = zero!
No more, Atlas.
No more, Lucy.
Just me.
And it’s about time.
Chapter Three
Atlas
The door to my office is flung open, and Sydney is standing there, hand on her hip and a scowl set deep in the lines on her forehead.
“Give her your number. This is unfair and torturous.” Sydney crosses her arms over her chest. “You can’t punish me like this.”
“I can and I will,” I tell her, smiling.
“I should quit.”
“But you won’t,” I tell her, knowing full well she would never leave me. Sydney likes her excessive salary and her lifestyle way too much. I pay her exceptionally better than she would receive anywhere else.
“Well, give her your number. I can’t put up with her one second longer.” She throws her hands up in the air. “Why you brought that sister back is beyond me. The other one is far better.” She scrunches her lips together like she wants to say more but instead turns to leave, stopping at the door. “She left your flowers, threw the note in the bin with exceptional force and is now gone.”
“Gone where?” I bite back.
Sydney spins around to face me, her hand still on the door handle. “She’s left the country. Guess you really fucked that one up, didn’t you?” She walks out, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.
Theadora left?
Never would I have guessed she would do that.
She doesn’t even have a passport as far as I know. But I guess I’m wrong if she’s leaving the country.
She left.
I despise her, so it shouldn’t bother me. I hate the way she made me feel something, and I despise what she did.
Benji would be alive today if it weren’t for her. I wouldn’t have lost the only family I cared about. My hands clench into tight fists, the anger boiling over.
How could I have gotten so lost in her fucking eyes that I didn’t see clearly? I always see clearly and know exactly what’s going on in my life.
“Lucy,” I say, calling her apartment—I’m not the least bit surprised when she answers straight away. She’s getting what she wants, after all. Plus, I have security at the front to make sure she doesn’t run. Lucy likes to run and then come back to fuck everything up.
“Atlas, the baby is getting so much bigger,” she coos over the line before even saying hello. Lucy likes to get me to bite, to lure me into her, but I am aware of her devious ways.
“Lucy, why have you been making calls to my clients?”
She goes quiet. Lucy’s deceitful, there is no other way to describe her. She worms her way into your life until she gets what she wants. And it’s always the same two things—attention and money.
If you’re paying attention to her and you have money, you are a winner as far as she is concerned.
Just like Benji.
Fuck, poor Benji.
“I want to find out more about you. Is that so bad?” she whines. “You are going to be the baby’s father, after all.”
No. No, I am not.
I pull the cell away from my face before I say something I shouldn’t.
That baby had a father, and he was someone whom I cared for deeply. Benji was one of the only people left in my life who didn’t use me—that was until the day he met Lucy. Then he fell victim to her conniving, calculating, and cunning ways. How he managed to fall into her trap, knowing full well what kind of woman she is, is completely beyond me. Benji was smarter than that.
“Lucy… Benji is the baby’s father isn’t he?” Silence greets my question. At least, I believe he is the father, but then again who really knows with Lucy.
“Yes, but you will take his place, right?” she asks, her voice hopeful.
“I’m helping you because that baby you are carrying