“Give me your phone!” I shout at Kash. She likes him. She’ll answer for him… right? The panic I feel gets worse as his call goes straight to voicemail too. Putting my back against the wall, I face them, her lack of answer written all over my face. The urge to hurl his phone at the wall is overwhelming. This can’t be happening.
Sliding to the ground, I feel my head spinning.She couldn’t have heard,I tell myself. Perhaps she decided to go ahead first and will send me the addresslater.
Pulling my phone back out, I quickly type a message and hit send.
Me:
Hey. Where’d you go? Answer your phone.
Please.
Both messages remain undelivered, and it confirms my worst fear. She heard us. Banging my head against the wall, I know I’m screwed.
“Fuck!” I shout.
“Watch it.” Emma points at me, but I can’t find it in me to care. “Someone better start explaining right now.”
“Cora overheard us.” Four sets of eyes swing in my direction.
“You don’t know that,” Rhett says softly.
Scoffing, I show him my phone screen. “My phone call went to voicemail, and now my messages are undeliverable. What does that tell you?”
“What did she hear?”
No one answers her at first. The guys all look at each other, no one wanting to explain.
“We were talking in the kitchen,” Seth offers.
“Okay, and?” Emma’s arms are crossed as she looks between the four of us.
“And we may have expressed some concerns about Atlas being with Cora.”
Emma’s eyes narrow as she asks, “What concerns?”
“She shouldn’t have been listening in on a conversation that was meant to be private,” Seth spits out.
How the fuck could he blame Cora? Pulling myself off the floor, I lunge at him and punch him in the jaw.Fucker.
“Are you serious?” I scream at him. Kash comes to grab me, but I don’t stop. “That’s your defense? She shouldn’t have been listening. Fuck you, Seth!” I don’t even know why I’m still here. I have to figureout how to find her. She’s got maybe a fifteen-minute head start.Shit, that’s a lot.
Rhett helps Seth off the floor, and I take immense satisfaction in the way he works his jaw and winces. Good. I hope it’s fucking broken.
“Atlas!” Emma yells. “What’s gotten into you?”
Shaking out of Kash’s hold, I grab my coat and gesture toward them. “They all thought I should watch how deep with them I was. Apparently, I’m Noah’s daddy now, and they don’t think I should be,” I spit out, glaring at them. “I’d be so fucking lucky to call that kid mine, along with Cora, and now it’s ruined because she probably heard me say I wasn’t his fucking father because I’m not!” I shout. “We hadn’t talked about it yet. I want themboth.”
My entire chest feels like it’s going to cave in with that admission, and I don’t know what to do.
“If he was my son, I never would have left him! I never would have chosen drugs and alcohol over either of them.” Judging by the looks on their faces, I can tell they didn’t know. It doesn’t matter, though.
“Atlas, we didn’t know,” Kash says softly.
“It doesn’t matter what youknew,” I bite out. “It doesn’t matter that onlyIknew her parents treated her like shit her entire childhood, just to use her as a caretaker for Noah as a baby and an ATM until they were too fucked up to take care of him. She only has custody of him because they’redead. Got plastered one night and fucking wrecked their car. It’s only a miracle they didn’t have Noah with them.”
Shaking my head, I glare at them.
“She’s raised him on her own forfivefucking years, and then I happened. I met them both, and she let me in.” My voice breaks. “She let me in, and now, after hearing what she did, she has the wrong idea.” We just talked about trust, and how easily it’s broken. I feel like I just shattered what trust she had in me.
