Chapter 252

[Atlas]

We are stopped somewhere between Santa Barbara and Monterey in a little town with no discernable name buying junk food at a convenience store. This is so outside of our everyday life of expensive luncheons and designer suits. But as I watch Cordelia marvel at the fluorescent pink slurry she is pumping into an oversized plastic cup, I can't think of this choice as a mistake.

We both needed to get far away from our normal lives and I can't imagine being any further away than we are right now.

When I get home, I'm going to thank Clark.

This was a good idea. No, it was the best idea ever.

Cordelia and I never had a honeymoon. Our wedding was an arranged one, a deal between our two families, and she wasn't even the bride I had chosen. The day we got married was the most miserable day of both of our lives.

But seeing Cordelia with her hair wiping in the breeze of a convertible, a smile stretched from ear to ear as we twist around the corners of the California coastline, I know th