Page 48 of Atlas Uncharted

I blinked, staring down at it. He’d paid more for it than I’d been paid to write it.

“You paid $700 for this?” I muttered.

“Yes. I had to have it because it was about me,” he said it like it was fact. Like he knew.

“What?”

He didn’t look at me. “All I Could Do Was Cry. About a woman watching a man she loved marry someone else. That wasn’t about me?”

I swallowed, trying to play it cool. “I didn’t go to your wedding.”

“Maybe not,” Atlas said, finally glancing over. “But did you cry on that day?”

“The Etta James song was my inspiration. You’re going to have to stop thinking everything I write—or wrote—is about you.”

The truth? Of course I had cried. I poured every tear I couldn’t shed into those words.

He left me alone after that.

I stared out the window until we reached the fairgrounds.

Three hours later, I was ready to go. I was used to walking and dealing with crowds from living in New York, but Florida was different. It was hot, humid, and filled with a different kind of crazy than NY crazy.

I should’ve said something before a woman I vaguely recognized approached. She looked at Atlas, then me, then Dion—who was in Atlas’s arms holding a giant teddy bear. She visibly dismissed me and asked, “Atlas? Oh my God, it’s been so long! Where’s Ashlen?”

Her eyes drifted to Dion.

My stomach tightened. I knew this would happen. We knew the same people. They knew Ashlen. People would ask, people would whisper. And here we were, pretending to be a family.

Atlas looked her dead in the face. “Mind your business,” he said. The bass in his voice left no room for anything. “If you want to know where Ashlen is, call her.”

The woman flushed and mumbled something before walking off. I stared at the ground, my face hot.

“That’s going to keep happening,” I muttered. “People are going to ask questions. A few weeks ago, you were a married man mourning your children, and now...” I gestured between us. “Now you have a whole new little family.”

Atlas wiped Dion’s face. “Let them talk. I don’t care. They weren’t my friends. Not really hers either. When the trips and parties stopped, so did they. When the twins happened, she called them. You were the only one who came.”

I said nothing.

We moved on. Despite everything, I was happy that Dion was happy.

When we got home, it was late. Dion was exhausted. We bathed him, brushed his teeth, got him into pajamas, and tucked him in. He was out in minutes.

Atlas fell asleep as soon as he hit the mattress, but I couldn’t.

I slipped out of bed, grabbed my phone, and stepped into the hallway.

I dialed Davis’s number. Straight to voicemail.

“I know you’re still in town,” I whispered. “I need to speak to you. Please, Davis.”

Chapter 34

Kairi

When I was honest and told Atlas I was meeting up with Davis, he wanted me to talk with Davis in front of him, and that pissed me off. So, I was going to make it hurt by holding nothing back. I would talk like he wasn’t even in the room. I took a deep breath, glancing between the two men before focusing on Davis.

"I didn’t ask you here to make excuses or lie anymore, Davis. I’m not trying to get you back either, because that’s not in the cards at the moment." My voice wavered, but I kept going. "I needed to apologize. Out of all the people I’ve hurt, you didn’t deserve any of this."

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