Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Dad caught the golf club before he could take him out with it, then said, “Go back over there and swing, son. I like my kneecaps where they are.”
Forest listened to him, and for the next two hours we talked, and acted like Dad wouldn’t disappear tomorrow.
I ain’t never flirted. I just talk. It’s not my fault that everything I say is smoother than the cream cheese on your bagel.
—Text from Gable to Atlas
ATLAS
I drove to Kilgore after I got off shift at two.
If I timed it right, Pepper and her brothers and their families would be out to eat, giving me enough time to run by the home that their father was in and introduce myself.
I hoped that he was still lucid when I got there.
When I arrived at the facility that was caring for Emmanuelle Solomon, I found that I was in luck.
“And who are you?” the front desk attendant asked.
I offered her my hand, and she took it. “My name is Atlas Carter. I’m hoping to ask Mr. Solomon a very important question while he’s lucid enough to give me an honest answer.”
“Ahh,” she said, as if she knew exactly who I was now that I’d mentioned my name. “You’re Pepper’s.”
I flashed her a grin. “Yeah, I’m Pepper’s.”
“That boy of yours is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” she jerked her head at me. “Follow me.”
I did, chatting lightly with her about her own grandkids and Forest.
When we got to the room, she patted my arm and said, “You’ll be okay.”
It was as if she knew what I was there to do.
“Good luck,” she confirmed my earlier thoughts as she bustled back down the hallway.
I turned to find the man I was searching for already looking at me.
“Sir,” I said as I offered the older man my hand. “My name is Atlas Carter, I’m…”
“The man who stole my baby’s heart.” He stood up.
He didn’t look sick.
He looked just like any other older man.
Like my own father did.
Something broke inside of me for Pepper.
How hard had it been having to deal with her mother’s passing, while simultaneously having to deal with a father who couldn’t remember the importance of that mother?
It sounded dreadful.
“That’s me,” I said quietly. “She told you about me?”
“She told me everything about you,” he admitted. “She told me about your friendship with Sage. Then she told me about how Sage had played you, like she plays everyone. She told me about how you were mean to her. She told me about how she knew you were the one when you told her your leg hurt…”
“What?” I asked.
I remembered that day I’d told her that my leg hurt.
Again, one of my compulsions.
I’d thought it sounded weird, and she’d told him that was when she knew I was the one?
“Before she died,” Emmanuelle murmured, “she told her mother that she would miss her. Her mother told her that she’d see her again. That she’d always be watching over her. She told her that one day, she would know she was there, and okay, when she had some random stranger let her know. She said ‘they’ll say the phrase: my leg hurts.’”
I blinked. “I didn’t…”
“I know.” He flashed a grin that was so familiar it made me miss Pepper something fierce.
“I’m not sure what to tell you about Sage and me,” I admitted. “I fell for the act, hook, line and sinker.”
Emmanuelle took a seat, his eyes steady on me.
“I’d like to say that I could help you when it came to Sage, but there’s something switched off in her brain. Has been since she was an early teen. I’m not sure what happened. No amount of doctors could find out why. And when we took her, she could just play so well at being normal that all of the doctors said she was fine. That maybe it was us.” He sighed. “I hate to say it, but I can’t control my own daughter. Never could.”
“Sage is going to be Sage,” I said. “Now that I know, I know what to look out for. I can help Pepper. But here’s the thing, I don’t want Pepper to have to suffer for the rest of her life because of Sage. It’s my hope that I can help figure out a way to keep her away. When she lied about the kidnapping, that meant that another woman was out there suffering, possibly alive, who could’ve been saved. But we stopped looking because Sage said it was her.”
Emmanuelle’s head dropped. “She’s so selfish. Never thinks of anyone but herself.”
I leaned forward. “I want to be blunt with you, Mr. Solomon.”
“Emmanuelle,” he offered. “My son-in-law will call me Emmanuelle.”
I grinned. “I haven’t gotten to that question yet.”
“You don’t even have to ask it,” he said. “You have my permission. Pepper has always known her own mind. She’s been fiercely independent. I have loved her since the moment she wrapped her little hand around my finger the day she was born. I would give that girl my whole heart if she needed it. The only thing she wants, she told me, is you. So you don’t need to ask. But when I’m not me…”