All Chapters of Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

[Cordelia]The phone in my pocket shakes. Setting the envelope down, I pull it out to see it is my mother. "What on earth does she want?" I scowl. Pressing a button, I send it to voicemail. She's just going to have to wait. I don't want to hear from her right now. The phone vibrates again. This time it is Angelica. She rarely calls me. Maybe I should see what they want.My thumb hovers above the answer button. I don't want to talk to her either. She has caused me enough pain with her fake amnesia. What the hell was that all about anyway? I mean, I guess I did the same thing to her on the island, but I was trying to survive while she and her psycho boyfriend tried to steal my uterus. Come to think about it, why did she pretend not to remember the last five years? It doesn't add up. I'm missing something important.There is an incessant knocking on the front door of the studio. Anyone who should be here has a key. Who would be pounding so forcibly? Placing the envelope back on my dre

[Cordelia]My family lives about 10 minutes away from the Steele family manor, not quite the same neighborhood, but nearby. If we had been ordinary children growing up in ordinary houses that weren't spaced as far apart, Atlas and I may have grown up together.Well, kinda. He was a teenager when I was in kindergarten.I haven't been back to my parent's house in a while. I moved out when I was 17 to go to design school, and then moved out again when I was 19 and I married Atlas. Whenever I met with my parents these last 6 years, it has usually been at public functions or our monthly family business brunch. So when I pulled up to the gate, I was not surprised that the security officer controlling it didn't have a clue who I was. I'm sure that the position has turned over a couple of times since I last lived here. When I told him who I was, he didn't believe me at first. Even though I laughed it off as I showed him my ID after he accused me of being a news reporter in disguise, it reall

[Cordelia]"What does this have to do with you?" My father scrunches his face at her words, a bit disgusted with her sour tone. "Sydney, can't you see? This is all about you."The garden falls silent except for the sound of birdsong in the trees above us. None of us say anything, waiting as the words fall around us and settle in our minds. Three missing embryos. The incorrect one was implanted in my mother, leading to my birth.Three embryos. Technically conceived at the same time as Angelica, part of the same batch and frozen for the future.Sydney looks just like Angelica. Errily so, almost as if she were her twin. So many things begin to make sense as I consider the last few months. Especially the events on the island. Angelica had said something about "not caring about a stupid test," and that "I was her sister" when she was trying to save me from whatever Jude had planned. She knew. She's known this whole time that I couldn't be her blood relation. And yet she didn't say anythi

[Clark]I am glad that I have Clark here with me because once we are done eating, I realize I've had about four beers too many. I lost count somewhere between me discussing how I fell in love with my fiancee on accident, and how delicious her legs look in a thong. I probably shouldn't have told him that second part, but I couldn't help it. I was thinking about Malibu.Everything was fine before Malibu. I was in a delightful state of forgetful denial, where I could pretend that I didn't know the taste of her lips or the way her eyes flutter every time she finds her pleasure. Atlas didn't seem to mind, but that might have more to do with how he switched to scotch about three drinks in. We both know that we need to work hard to win our way back into Tilly and Cordy's hearts, but we have no clue where to start. "I know!" I suggest. "We can say the contest is now in Australia and ship Sydney off in a crate," I laugh. "Then, if anyone asks where Sydney has gone, we can say she's in Austra

[Cordelia]I feel oddly protective of the Steele boys as I step out of the car and stand between them and the woman I always thought of as my sister. Maybe it is because they are so vulnerable right now. Maybe it is because I care for them both and want to keep them safe. "Angelica." I stand between her and them. "Why are you here?""To talk to you," she looks at me specifically. "About Sydney and what we should do."Laughter that is both hard and cruel springs from my lips in a fountain. Angelica flinches at the sound and I watch as her whole demeanor changes from one of confidence to one of unsureity.Normally I'd feel guilty about creating such a strong reaction in anyone, especially in someone I once believed loved me. But I've had a long hard day of disappointment and heartbreak. I have nothing left to give. Because if I'm not laughing I'll start crying. And I cannot afford to be weak right now. "Can we please just go inside," she insists, looking at Atlas and Clark to back her