Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 64767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Her hands drop to her sides, and she clenches them. “You were always the special one to Dad, but in those moments when he went crazy, he loved me more. He saw through your bullshit and loved me more. Then Mom went and killed him and herself in the accident. She stole Dad away from me just like you are trying to with Atlas. You’re just like our mother.”
“He was a drunk. He was an alcoholic, Lucy,” I say while shaking my head. He killed our mother when he was drunk and driving.
Yes, my mother let Dad do whatever he wanted—she simply never told Dad no. I didn’t like that fact about her when I was growing up. He would simply brush his knuckles along her cheek, and she was putty in his hand—that whole situation was insane.
“He loved me the most.” She stomps her foot down on the floor hard. “And now Atlas will, too. I need you to leave… leave and never come back. Let me be happy with Atlas and our baby.”
“The baby isn’t his, Lucy,” I remind her.
Her eyebrows pinch together in some sort of cynical stare. “Just leave! He will forget about you.”
“I wouldn’t even be in his life if it weren’t for you, Lucy. You stole from Atlas, and he came after me for your money. Or, have you conveniently forgotten about that?”
“I did it to gain his attention.”
“Well, you got it.”
Lucy bites her lip, and I know she’s trying to hold herself back from saying something she might regret, but then again would she even care.
“Don’t you want me to be happy?”
“No, you can’t play that card. Ever since our parents died, I’ve done everything for you. Every. Damn. Thing. I didn’t go to university because instead, I got a job to help pay for your future. For you, Lucy. Because you couldn’t stop spending, and you didn’t stop for one minute to realize things weren’t free.”
“So, you blame me?”
“I blame you for nothing but me enabling you, just like Mom did with Dad,” I say, my back straightening. “It stops now, Lucy. You can’t come in here rubbing your belly in hopes I will leave. I will not leave, and you can’t make me. I love you, but I will not enable you nor will I come running from now on unless it’s absolutely necessary. You are my sister, and I have to stop being your mother… now, if you will excuse me, I have a dinner planned with my friend.”
Lucy turns her nose up at me as Tina walks back in the door.
“You’ll stay away from him, though? That’s all I ask. It’s all I will ever ask again.”
“I can’t promise that, Lucy. He seems to keep popping up in my life, no matter what I do.”
“I can change his love for you and make it mine.”
Lucy’s words shock me.
His love for me.
Atlas doesn’t love, he possesses. Nothing more.
“You need to leave, Lucy. Just go,” Tina says. “You are a sad excuse for a human and quite lucky to have Thea in your life at all. Yet you use and abuse her kindness. But unlike Thea, I don’t give two shits about you, so get the fuck out of here and take your delusional thoughts with you.”
“Fuck you,” Lucy says then looks to me. “Are you going to let her speak to me like this?”
I throw my hands up in the air in complete and utter dismay. Tina has every right to speak to Lucy like that. After all, she knows exactly who she is and what she has done.
“Did you ever think Atlas wants her because she isn’t a crazy bitch, unlike you, which you can’t seem to help.” Lucy pushes past Tina and walks to the door. Gripping it, she swings it open, then walks out, slamming it shut behind her.
“Aren’t you glad that crazy character trait skipped you?” Tina laughs while walking into the kitchen to begin dishing out the food.
Crazy?
Well, I was crazy to ever get involved with Atlas Hyde.
So, maybe, Lucy and I aren’t so different after all.
The following week the same courier comes to the door, and the same thing is handed over to me—a contract for the business as well as a note.
Theadora,
Accept this deed of sale if you wish to keep the employees currently working for your old company employed. Otherwise, they will all be unemployed when I wind up the business. This isn’t anything but a smart business deal on both our ends. You enjoy this type of enterprise while I do not. Accept my offer, and please meet me for dinner tonight.
A.
I don’t plan on having dinner with Atlas, but the contract? I am going to sign it.
All those women out of work is simply unacceptable to me. They work hard, I know they do, so I have no choice. I sign the form and transfer the required amount to Atlas as described in the deed of sale, then send him a message letting him know it’s done.