LOGINShare
Chapter 52
Last Updated:
2024-05-19 07:01:03[Cordelia]
“Are you okay, Cordy,” his face and voice are warm and concerned, but his eyes are cold, and calculating, looking at every element of my face.
Forcing my face into a smile I lie. “Everything is fine.”
As happy as I am to see Angelica, I cannot trust her. She lied to me with too much ease and sincerity. She was convincing enough that I was starting to believe her, and if I hadn’t had a flash of memory, I may still be convinced. She didn’t betray a single mistake as she gaslit me and tried to convince me that my reality was not true.
But maybe she doesn’t know everything she said is a lie. If I have been walking around for who knows how long with some type of amnesia, maybe the same is true for her.
Related chapters
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 53
[Atlas]None of this feels real. We’ve been searching for Cordelia for over a month now and still haven’t found any solid leads. The police have started to hint that maybe she doesn’t want to be found, that she disappeared intentionally.Their other suggestion is one I don’t want to think about–that she was taken by whoever poisoned her and that she might already be dead. I refused to believe that. I need to believe that she is still out there, with our baby, somewhere safe but hidden, waiting for me to find her. I’ve placed a framed picture of her on our wedding day next to the bed. Every morning I look at it and wonder how things could have been if I had given that shy girl a chance to love me and be loved in return. She was too young to be getting married, only 19. As a bachelor in my 30s, I should have known better. But my grandfather had wanted the match and when Angelica disappeared, her younger sister seemed to be the best option at the time. I promised myself not to ever
Last Updated : 2024-05-20Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 54
[Atlas]I don’t know whether or not I want to hug my brother or punch him. Somehow he had found a pattern that the police had missed, even though they had been given a month so far to find her. “Why didn’t you offer any of this to the police?” I wonder aloud. “Maybe this could have helped crack the case.”“I tried, but they informed me that all of this surveillance was technically illegal and that none of it would hold up in a court of law.” He shrugged. “I tried there first before coming to discuss all of this with you. I had been…” he pauses before continuing “...hoping that I could help without getting directly involved. If they had just taken my footage I’d…”He doesn’t need to finish his sentence. He probably didn’t want to tell me about his surveillance of Cordelia and me. Considering how bad it makes him look, I can almost understand his motivation. “I also wanted to verify some of my suspicions first before I came to you. So I hired a private investigator.” He explains as he
Last Updated : 2024-05-20Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 55
[Cordelia]It is dark when I open my eyes.I am alone in a room that feels cold, even though I am covered in blankets. As my eyes adjust, I realize it is the same yellow room from before, only now everything is in various shades of gray as the pale moonlight changes everything into the many colors of shadows. The last thing I remember, I was being forced onto a table to be “examined” by Jude. However, I can’t remember anything after that because whatever he did next made the world fade to nothing. I think he tried to hypnotize me. Now that I think about it, maybe he succee
Last Updated : 2024-05-21Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 56
[Cordelia]“Angelica,” I gasp as I let my face go slack and my eyes grow wide. “Where am I? How did I get here?”Angelica slowly changes her own demeanor to match my own, her feline grin softening into something sweeter and less toxic. “Oh you poor sweet dear,” she coos as she takes my arm to gently guide me back towards my room. “Do you not remember where you are? You are home of course.”“Home,” I continue to pretend. “Of course, this must be home because you are here.”“That’s right,” her smile grows larger. “I’m here to take care of you.”I let her tuck me into bed, pulling the covers up to my ch
Last Updated : 2024-05-22Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 57
[Atlas]The early morning air is cold and crisp as Clark and I wait for any sign of “The Angel.” It should have returned two days ago, but something must have delayed it. A feeling of fear and dismay has been gnawing at my nerves the longer this drags out. Something tells me Cordelia needs me, needs us. But we will be unable to do anything if we cannot find what island she is on. Our investigations have narrowed the location down to 6 potential locations either on or near Catalina Island. We tried to go to the police to help, but they couldn’t do anything until we confirmed where she was being held and that she was there under duress. Without those bits of evidence, for all they know she is just hanging around having a nice, sunny vacation. Clark taps my shoulder and points at the horizon. A smallish white boat is moving closer to the dock. As it approaches, the name Angel becomes visible on its bow. Thank God!Clark has readied a micro drone that will attach itself to the boat an
Last Updated : 2024-05-23Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 58
[Jude] Bright and sunny with a touch of wind, it is a perfect day to sail back to LA. Maybe if I have enough time, I can get in a nice surf before heading home. Cordelia has been a bigger challenge than I expected her to be. It seems that the only way I can keep her under control is by using a combination of drugs and hypnosis. It is a good thing we aren’t trying to save the health of her child because, with the number of narcotics we have been pumping into her system, there are likely to be some unfortunate side effects. We may even be doing her a favor by ending its life when we harvest her uterus. This last time Angelica had to tie her down to the bed. Only then were we able to administer the drug to put her in another medicinal coma until we were ready for the procedure. We aren’t trying to kill her–Angelica wants her alive to know the pain she caused us by experiencing it firsthand. “Death would be too good for her,” she told me the last time we spoke about it. I only care a
Last Updated : 2024-05-24Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 59
Chapter 59 [Cordelia] I wake up gasping for breath, my heart racing like someone had dunked me into a pool of ice water. I am wet from head to toe in sweat, my skin flushed and pink. I try to take a deep breath but find myself unable to stop hyperventilating. My eyes struggle to find their focus as my heart beats so rapidly and with such intensity, I can feel it pounding against my ribcage. “Try to breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth,” Angelica coaches me from beside my bed. “You aren’t dying, but you just woke up from a medically induced coma. It is normal to feel like someone hit you with a semi-truck.” “What did you do to me?” I try to say but it comes out in a garbled mess, my mouth betraying me as my tongue flops uselessly against my teeth. “Patience,” she holds out her hands in a calming manner, trying to soothe me as she goes about unbuckling my arms and legs. “It’s just the effects of the adrenaline. Give your body a few minutes to find its equilib
Last Updated : 2024-05-24Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 60
[Cordelia]Jude disappeared inside the building, holding my sister in his arms like a child in need of care. What is the real nature of their relationship? I she his willing accomplice, or has she been brainwashed and trapped here just as much as I have been?Is my sister still in there, waiting to be saved? And all that nonsense she was rambling about us not being real sisters, about how Jude must be wrong. It is all so confusing. I need to find help. I can't leave her here, but I also don't want to stay. Jude is a madman. Not only do his experiments sound like something out of a bad science fiction movie, but they also involve the death of me and my child. I will never forget the sight of body parts floating in jars. But I don't have time to think about any of this. I have to protect my child. And I cannot protect my child, or myself if Jude comes back out to collect me next. It takes me a moment to get to my feet, but I manage. I'm not wearing shoes or socks, so every rock of t
Last Updated : 2024-05-25
Latest chapter
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 407
[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
Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele Chapter 406
[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
