Duh duh duuuuuuuh!!!! What do you think? Is it really her? or is Magnus messing with her mind? One more chapter coming up in the next hour or so! Thank you all for your patience!
[Cordelia]I close my eyes. This can't be real. It must just be the stress of the evening getting underneath my skin. Angelica was buried. Her body was brought out from beneath the rubble. I saw her body. She was dead when they pulled her out. Atlas was also dead and I saw his body too..."Are you okay," Dad asks and I blink my eyes open, smiling, pretending that I'm not secretly chilled to my core. "I'm fine," I lie as I scan the room briefly. After the stunt Atlas pulled, I understood that anything is possible and that things are often not what they seem on the surface. Angelica might be dead, or not. The one thing I know for certain is that she isn't really a ghost. Ghosts aren't real. Either she's here, my mind is playing tricks on me, or Magnus is trying to scare me. Either way, hallucination or party crasher, I know I'm not being haunted. But I can deal with this later. Right now, there is a nervous, handsome man waiting for me at the end of this very long aisle. He's waited
[The Messenger]When I got the message that I needed to drop off an important package at this vineyard I groaned. It seems that I always get chosen for very difficult, very long assignments, and no other courier wanted to come out the Silverado Trail on the bike while the sun was still high. It gets hot in this valley this time of year.But our client was insistent that it be delivered before the wedding started. I almost refused myself, except that my boss insisted it be me. "If your dad is going to drop off last-minute packages, you're going to deliver them." He huffed. "I don't care if he's willing to pay double, let's see how he likes risking his daughter getting sunstroke." I could have saved him the trouble by just letting him know my father stopped caring about me years ago when he sent me out to boarding school in California, but he didn't care, so I didn't bother. "Here you go, Ms. Fisher." Derek shoved the box in my hand. "The wedding is at sunset. You have 45 minutes."
[Clark]If I hadn't seen the truth with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. Shortly after Atlas and Cordelia retired for the night, the party started to wind down, and all the remaining guests seemed to hover around the bottomless wine bar. That's where I found Cordelia's dad, Stephen, talking to a beautiful young blonde girl. At first, I thought nothing of it. But then I saw her face and I stopped in my tracks. Thinking maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, I left in search of my fiance to see if I was indeed losing my mind. "I need you to take a look at someone and tell me what you see," I pull her away from the clothing rack where she had been putting dresses back on hangers. Confused but also curious, she goes along with this, letting me take her to the edge of the bar. "Who do you see speaking with Stephen Greyson right now?" I point to where he is sitting at the bar. She squints and then opens her eyes extra wide. "You've got to be kidding me! She's dead! I know this
[Cordelia]For someone who only a moment before seemed so eager to disrobe me, it feels like time has stopped as Atlas slowly unbuttons my dress. "It has a zipper too," I remind him and he chuckles at the rising frustration in my voice. "So eager," he kisses the newly revealed skin on my back. "Patience, Lover, I want to savor you." "I thought, you wanted to devour me," I tease.A mischievous spark flashes in his eyes, "If I must," his hands are rustling underneath along the edges of my skirt, pulling it upwards, bunching it between us until his hands are touching my thighs. As he rubs up and down along their outer edges, he leads me until my back is flat against a wall."What are you doing," I giggle as he gives me a quick peck before diving under the voluptuous layers of my skirt even though I have a pretty good idea what his intentions are as soon as he begins kissing a trail along the inside of my leg. Using his teeth, he unbuttons my garters and rolls each silk stocking down,
[Atlas]As I watch her sleep, the sun shining on her dewy skin, I know that I am the luckiest man on Earth. She and I are an improbable pair and every moment I'm with her feels like a denial of the universe's plans for my life. If I had made the mistake of marrying her sister, Angelica, I would have never known the paradise which is loving Cordelia Steele. Placing a gentle hand on her waist, I let it fall to her small belly. I hope we created another child last night, not to replace the one we lost, Jasper will be coming home, but because I want our next child to be created in love, not as a mistake. I want to remember this night forever. I never want to forget how it feels to be near her, knowing that there is no other place either one of us would rather be. "You know it will be weeks yet before we know if your plan succeeded," Cordelia smiles as her eyes flutter open. "I know our next little one is already in there," I reply as I bend down and kiss her belly button. I'm tempted
[Cordelia]The daylight streaming through the windows touches the edges of the young woman's face. She looks a lot like my dead sister, but there is something in the set of her eyes and the way she holds herself that isn't Angelica at all.But in the dim fading light of sunset, I can see why I was confused."That's not Angelica," I step forward and the closer I am to her, the more stark the differences become. Her hair is darker, her eyes are bluer, her face thinner, and her body more toned. "You were at the wedding last night.""Yeah," she swallows a sip of orange juice and holds out a hand to shake. "That was a beautiful ceremony, by the way, I was totally fangirling over your Tilly and Clark here," she points towards Tilly.I raise an eyebrow. "I don't know who you are, or I didn't when I kinda dropped in on the wedding. I was just sent here to deliver a package, I'm a bike messenger."She's babbling so I take her hand and watch as my touch seems to stabilize her. She's a bit more
[Cordelia]Delilah was more receptive to hearing what we had to say once the connection between my son and her brother was made. But she also seemed firmly set against believing any of it. She agreed to a DNA test but only if we paid for it."I have a question for you, Delilah," Clark said as we were finishing breakfast. "Were you the one who made the delivery right before the wedding?""Yes," she startled, the question surprising her. "And did you know it was your father that was sending the package?""Of course," she shakes her hair out of her face. "I mean, my boss was being a bit of a dick, so he sent me out in that heat on a bike because my dad was sending us out on another last-minute delivery run." She shrugs, "Something about wanting my dad to see what it feels like to risk his kid for once. Which is stupid, my dad doesn't even know I work at a messenger place. He thinks I'm out here going to school."Atlas and I look at one another. Last minute? That means he didn't know unt
[Cordelia]I stop and take a few deep breaths, letting Atlas catch up with me. He doesn't say anything. Pulling me into his arms he holds me tightly to his chest. I scared him. "I'm not leaving without you, Atlas, I'm just...so done with all of this," I sigh, letting my body sink into his. "Delilah and I aren't so different. I don't want to be someone else who is using."Atlas kisses the top of my head supportively. "We don't know here, we don't know anything about her," I add. "Maybe she's another victim, or maybe Magnus loves her." I look up at Atlas. "Do you think maybe Magnus might be motivated by love?"Atlas scrunches his eyebrows. "The son." "Yes. I know he has been coming after you for the cure for a long time, but something changed a handful of years ago. Something made him want to accelerate things. What if...""What if he stole our son to save his own," Atlas finishes for me. I nod. "Maybe he stole those embryos with a more selfish purpose, and he kept two for whatever