Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
“You pushed her away.”
Kareena looked at me, and the guilt in her eyes became a reflection of mine. I’d pushed Atlas away too. “I knew she’d never leave my side. It was the only way.”
Yeah, that was the excuse I made too. I told myself that Atlas was better off if she hated me, but really, I was just afraid of what was happening between us. I’d never come this close to falling in love before.
And I’d done fuck all to show it.
“So…is my daughter happy? Is she safe?” Kareena inquired. She peered up at me from the bed like she knew my interest in her daughter exceeded that of a boss.
I cleared my throat. That nervous feeling crept down my spine again. “She’s good. I haven’t exactly been making things easy for her, but you should know your daughter can take care of herself.”
Kareena searched my gaze, and then warm fingers weakly trailed down my cheek, and she smiled softly. “Something tells me she won’t need to.”
My heart skipped a beat as a thousand responses came to mind, none of which I was brave enough to voice.
Kareena’s eyes drifted closed, and I watched her chest rise and fall until I was satisfied that she was only sleeping. The picture she’d been clutching earlier caught my eye, and I carefully freed it from her slack grip before looking at it.
It was a picture of Atlas when she was around eight or nine. She was jumping on a trampoline, and right there next to her was the man who must have been her father, jumping with her.
Tyler Beck was too far away for me to make out his features other than his average height, muscular frame, long dread locs, and light skin tone. Atlas was smiling hard at her dad like it was the best day of her life while her long black pigtails flew in the air around her.
Setting the photo on the white nightstand, I moved away from the bed to look around Atlas’s room. It was as girly, soft, and feminine as I’d pictured in my head.
There were more pictures hanging in the mirror over her dresser, so I moved over to it only to suck my teeth when I saw most of them was of her hugged up with her ex.
I had a mind to pay him a visit while I was in town. Just in case Atlas ever thought about doubling back.
I didn’t know if she was telling the truth or if she was still with him, but I didn’t give a damn. Their situation was dead once I stuck my dick in her.
Grabbing all four pictures, I ripped them to shreds and let them rain over the dresser before moving to the chair by the window overlooking the bed and settling in for a long night.
I sopped up the syrup on my plate with the last of my homemade pancakes before standing and rinsing my plate in the sink, then sticking it inside the loaded dishwasher. I then turned and faced the frail woman sipping herbal tea and staring out the window.
“Thank you again for breakfast. You sure you don’t need anything before I go?”
Kareena waved me off. “It’s the least I could do for keeping me company last night while I slept. You’re very sweet, young man, but if I wanted someone fussing over me, I would have told my daughter the truth.”
I snickered at Kareena calling me sweet. If only she knew her daughter wouldn’t agree with her.
“It’s nothing. You shouldn’t be alone at a time like this.” I hesitated before saying, “My mom…uhh…I went through something similar when I was Atlas’s age, and even though it was my fault she shut me out, it killed me that I couldn’t be there for her.” It’s been a minute since my mom’s accident, and I still didn’t like talking about it.
Kareena touched her throat with a shaking hand as she let my words penetrate. “My husband was sick for years before he passed, and my daughter spent her final year of high school visiting her father in the hospital every day instead of spending time with her friends and getting excited about college. I watched the light in her eyes dim every day, and I just…I can’t do that to her again.”
“Is it fatal?”
She looked at me and smiled sadly. “Very.”
My next breath rushed out of me. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ve had my entire life to make peace with it.” She paused, and then, “I have the same illness my husband had. We were both born with it. It’s why we—” The teacup rattled in Kareena’s hand. “It’s why we never wanted to take for granted the gift God gave us. Atlas was the bright light in our darkest hour.”
“It’s genetic,” I guessed aloud. And then I sucked in a breath, feeling like the floor had been swept right from under me. “Is Atlas—”