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Chapter 33
Last Updated:
2024-04-30 10:27:45
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Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 34
[Atlas]Sydney is in a very good mood for having to stay late on a Friday night. She never complains when I ask her to come early and stay late, making her a great assistant and employee.Which makes what I have to say to her so much more difficult. I no longer feel comfortable pretending to be okay with our relationship. She is too young, too inexperienced, and in a position that is of significantly lower status than my own. I know that plenty of bosses have relationships with their assistants, but I never saw myself as one of those men. And yet here I am, reliving my college days, dating co-eds and hanging out at beach bonfires with kids who call each other “bro”. I am so wrapped up in my thoughts that it is only on the third time that states her question that I actually hear her request. “Atlas, do you want me to book you a room at the convention?” “Didn’t we discuss this before?” We have been planning my attendance at the upcoming LA Fashion Expo for the last week. “I though
Last Updated : 2024-04-30Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 35
[Cordelia]Clark knocked on the door of our studio the next morning, a tray of coffee in his right hand, a bag of donuts in his left, and a huge, goofy smileacross his face. “Good Morning, Cordy,” he chirps. “Ready to start your day?” Apparently, he is one of those annoying morning people. “Why are you here?” I groan, ignoring his laughter as he follows me inside. Tilly, another annoying morning person, gladly takes a coffee from him and puts him right to work helping us load our two fashion collections into the bac
Last Updated : 2024-05-01Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 36
[Sydney]“There was no reason to say those things, Sydney. I thought you were better than that,” Atlas snapped. “Not to mention none of it was true.”“But, Sir, I was just…” I try to explain myself but he puts a hand in front of my face, interrupting me and leaving no room for argument.“I know that sometimes you make mistakes,” he shakes his head, his eyes disappointed as he scolds me, “but that was just cruel. You know we are not in a relationship anymore, Sydney.”“I never said we were,” I try to give him my most vulnerable pout.He looks away, missing it entirely as his eyes trail the path of his ex-wife’s retreat. “You
Last Updated : 2024-05-02Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 37
[Cordelia]The rest of my morning went by in a flurry of signed purchase orders and special requests. There wasn’t enough time for me to think about Atlas or anything else. By the end of the afternoon, I had secured over one million dollars in orders and there are still another three hours of the market to go. Buyers and other investors are still swarming around booths, looking for collections to add to their stores, all of them buzzing about the next big event–the Best of Market Fashion Show. “Hey, Cordy!” Clark’s micro drone hovers next to his left ear like an electronic assistant, recording our conversation like an interview. “Did you hear the news?”Tilly and I look at each other. “The list for the Best of Market Show was just released,” he pulls out a copy of the list and begins reading off the names. A few popular designers are listed, no surprise there, including Mathilda Madison.”...And,” he pauses for dramatic effect, “Cordelia Louise D
Last Updated : 2024-05-03Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 38
[Cordelia]I bite down on the attacker’s hand but their fingers are protected by thick, leather gloves. There is nobody else around as they drag me towards the parking lot. Everyone is still inside making last-minute deals. Arching my back, I try to slam my head into his face, but he is too quick, too professional. He dodges every blow. I shift the weight in my body downward like I was taught to do in self-defense classes. It slows him for a moment, but not nearly long enough for anyone to see me being dragged towards a large, unmarked, white, van. “No!” I try to shout but my cries are muffled.As the van door opens behind us and another man, this one wearing a mask hiding all of his features, grabs my feet, I realize this might be my last memory. Because wherever these men are taking me, I do not think they are going to let me leave alive. I stop fighting. There is no point. These men are going to kidnap me and there is nothing I can do to stop them. The sound of air moving quic
Last Updated : 2024-05-06Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 39
[Sydney}When I saw Atlas’ brother carrying Cordelia into the hallway like a fallen princess, I couldn’t help but react. And then I had to cover up my shock with another excuse. I may have overdone it because now I am stuck in the sick room lying down on a cot with a heart monitor on my chest. They think I had a real panic attack.In truth, I almost did. For the amount of money I paid for those delivery men, you’d think they’d get the timing right! Because they jumped the gun, trying to snatch her too early, there wasn’t enough distraction for them to successfully carry out the plan.Bad things always happen when you don’t stick to the plan.Pushing the buttons on my phone hard enough to bruise my fingers, I text them back
Last Updated : 2024-05-07Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 40
[Cordelia]Twirling in a full-length emerald velvet gown with matching opera-length gloves I stop, facing Tilly and ask, “You don’t think this looks a bit…dramatic, do you?”Her own dress is bright red and looks amazing against her sun-kissed skin and black hair. “For your premiere fashion show, absolutely not. The whole point is to get everyone’s attention.”Moving over to our shared dresser, I use the hanging mirror to help me position the antique emerald comb. After the incident, Clark placed it in the room for me and I’m grateful. I would have been sad to have lost such a precious family heirloom.Why did he give this to me? What is Atlas thinking?
Last Updated : 2024-05-08Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 41
[Atlas]Sydney has been acting strangely since I collected her from the clinic earlier today. First, she asked me to take her to a pharmacy to buy some medication she forgot to pack. Then she had me rush to get ready so that we could be at the fashion show early so that she could meet some friends and let them in.I had asked her why she didn’t just tell the concierge to let them in, but she just said “Because it is a surprise, silly. You wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, would you?”Then, when that masked man tried to shoot me, she leaned on his arm to get him to stop. She almost got us both killed. But instead of looking terrified, she seems almost manic. Maybe this is what she looks like when she’s panicked.“I need to chang
Last Updated : 2024-05-09
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[Cordelia] Today is our 20th second anniversary. We've lost count of the first one, forgetting it entirely as a moment of sadness. Instead, we honor the day when we took our vows and meant them, 7 years later in Napa. Usually, we leave Los Angeles and take the week for just the two of us. Even after two decades, we haven't lost our hunger for one another and I look forward to our time away where we can just be two people together and in love. But this year, my husband is feeling a bit nostalgic. This is why I'm in the lobby of the Steele Hotel and Resort, recreating a memory I wish I could forget. When he sent me the cryptic text this afternoon, I confess I was more than a little bit confused. Why, of all places, would he want me to meet him there? At least this time I'm not wearing a hoodie with a dress tucked into a pair of loose sweats. And while my face is covered with large sunglasses, it's more to protect my identity and not draw too much attention. I am far too recogniza
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[Clark] "Come on. Dad!" My daughters pull me along by my arms. I've never been able to deny them anything they wanted but tonight they are asking too much. "It's only a blind date!" "Girls," I admonish, "What have I said, I'm not ready to let someone new into my heart. Your mother was more than enough for me." Cassie stares up at me with her starlight eyes, as deep and black as her mother's, and doesn't relent. "You promised you'd let us have anything we want for our birthday. Grandma helped us pick her out. You have to try, Dad. For us!" "Grandma Suzanna or Grandma Jenny?" I grump, "Who do I need to send a thank you note." "Both!" the girls giggle. "You owe us, Dad," Cassie counters. Her red curls bounce as she stomps her foot. "Do you know how weird it is to look on a DATING AP for potential girlfriends for our father? It's so gross. You should be grateful" "Yeah," Maddie chimes in, swinging her hair over her shoulder as she twists her lips just like Tilly used to, her hand
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 405
[Jude]If the universe were fair, I wouldn't have lived to see today. If karma took her toll, I wouldn't be friends with Clark and Atlas Steele, our children growing up side by side. Once the shadow of Magnus was lifted from our shoulders, and Angelica and I were finally able to go about our lives the way we always should have been able to do, It became easier to make good with my life. Angelica and I were married shortly after Mathilda's funeral. It was a small ceremony on the family medical boat, just before the two of us set sail with our daughters, Melanie and Veronica. When the DNA showed that they were indeed my children, and NOT Magnus', that his experiment had never stuck, it was easy to adopt them. In their mind, Angelica is their mother. When they are old enough, we'll tell them the truth about Aunt Sydney, but for now, we are sparing them the burden of her insanity.And we give them love, all the love of a couple who has always wanted children of their own.Angelica, it tu
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 404
[Cordelia]15 hours later I place my feet back in LA for the first time in 6 months. We have been gone for so long that I had forgotten how loud it is, or how oppressively hot it can be in summer. Clark met us at the runway alone, the girls with their grandparents. "I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to drive you home. We could have sent a driver but," he explains, "I wanted to be the one to welcome you home." He does his best to smile, but as his melancholy grin drifts to how I hold on to my husband's hand, I can see how much this is costing him. "I'm glad it was you," I reach forward to give him a hug. "Thank you." Atlas, who has been receiving a slew of messages from Theo as soon as we landed, asks to be dropped off at the new Steele Industries building. "Looks like they need me," he apologizes, kissing my hand. "I'll make it up to you tonight," he whispers in my ear and I shiver in anticipation. "I'm going to hold you to that," I whisper discretely in his ear, trying to be mi
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 403
[Cordelia]The rest of that day went by in a blur. I insisted we rush back to the compound even though everyone had received the news that Tilly was gone. I couldn't believe it. My mind couldn't process the possibility of a world without Mathilda Madison. She wasn't just my best friend, she was my sister. So I couldn't let her go. Clark was distraught. He and Tilly took a while to find one another, and when they did finally make the right connection, they fell for one another hard. It was beautiful watching my two best friends fall in love--they were perfect for one another. But not all stories end with a happily ever after. That was a hard lesson for me to learn as well. I wanted nothing more than to watch Tilly raise her daughters. When we made it back an hour later, her body had already been collected. I had wanted to see her, to give it a chance to see if I could have brought her back: just one touch, one spark. I was convinced that I could have been the one to save her. The
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 402
[Sydney]Why can't they just let me die? It would be so easy, I'm already cut and bleeding. Why bother with the IVs and the monitors? It doesn't matter anymore. Did it ever matter?My entire existence has been a fraud. If my hands were free I'd count the ways on my fingertips all the ways I've been lied to and used.A madman altered my DNA and injected me into the wrong mother. I was raised believing I was special only to discover I was the offspring of my enemy. The man of my dreams was married to the daughter my mother was supposed to have, and I was just a cheap copy of the woman he once loved, my genetic twin, Angelica. Was this life ever really mine to begin with? Even now they aren't honoring my desire to die. "She needs more blood," the doctor announces over my head, her clear voice cutting through the din of the operating room chatter. "Her blood pressure has dropped to dangerous levels. We can't use the anesthesia. She'll need to be awake for the procedure."Procedure?"I d
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 401
[Clark]The dissection of Magnus' brain was one of the most intensely fascinating and uniquely horrifying things I have ever experienced. Using my computer to guide the charge, we attached wires to his brain, fed through a divide that my mother had retrieved from her vault. "This will disrupt his signal. It will keep him from making a full memory transfer. Hopefully whomever he's jumped into will have a fighting chance." Everything my mother has said since I volunteered for this task has sounded like something from a science fiction movie. The duplicates we had seen in Delilah's footage of her father's secret lab were all designed to hold Magnus's memories in an artificial extension of his life. Not all of them looked like his current body, as often it was useful for him to become someone entirely different for spying purposes. "Is this how he always seemed to know everything?" I ask aloud. We had wondered how he managed to get around all of our codes, to find ways to learn about wh
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 400
[Cordelia]"Wally?" Holding my hand above his head, I pause, hesitating. Just a moment before I was about to take this man's life without even the smallest shred of remorse. It was necessary to protect my family. My children and my husband. "Cordelia," He blinks, his eyes roving my face and the surroundings like a caged animal. Licking his dry, salty lips, his body is otherwise completely still. "I don't have much time. He's fighting me...I..."Wally's muscles spasm, shaking Atlas as well as he holds him in place. Closing his eyes, his body stills, as if the effort of keeping still is so great that he cannot do anything else at the same time. He whispers something that I can't quite make out, so I lean in, trying to capture his words.As my hair brushes his cheek, he repeats himself. "You need to end this, Cordelia. Don't let him escape to harm another. His other mind is gone, Suzanna saw to it, but he can still jump to someone else.""Wally, what are you saying," I shake my head. "No
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 399
[Cordelia]Atlas and I raced down the hall to the exit, soldiers moving out of our way as we passed, nobody bothering to stop us as my husband's icy glare and dominant aura kept them pinned in place. Magnus is dead and I have never been more terrified in my life. The door to the outside pushes open and we are instantly blinded by the overhead sunshine that covers the beach with an oddly bright gray that stings the eyes. It is warmer than it had been earlier, the wind having died down, trapping the moisture of impending rain, held in place by the gathering storm. "Jasper," I call out gently, scanning the beach. "Wally?""Atlas do you see Jasper?" I grab my husband's arm. His pulse is rapid beneath my fingertips as we move forward as one and find the abandoned picnic blanket and Jasper's little galoshes next to a much larger pair. "Wally!" I scream out towards the waves and find him standing in the water, at the far edge of the beach. There is no sign of my son. None. It's as if the
