Chapter 130

The room is pin-drop silent after Atlas shares his news.

"She wants what?!" Clark asks indignantly as if he were the one being dragged down the aisle.

I feel my heart sink. Atlas is so worried about me, and about our businesses, he might just do it to help me save face. Never mind how much it will break my heart to see him go down the aisle with my sister--a vision that has haunted my dreams for years.

I was never supposed to be his bride. She was. If she hadn't tried to run from her responsibilities, if she had stayed and worked things out with Atlas in the first place, that's exactly where she'd be now--married to him.

"I told her no," Atlas eases all of our fears. As the tension drains from all of us, he takes my hands in his. "I won't do that to you. I love you, Cordelia Steele. We might not be married anymore, but I still take my vows to you seriously."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Clark demands. "We told them no, so I'm assuming you made a counteroffer?"

Atlas goes over their