All Chapters of Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele: Chapter 301 - Chapter 310

[Cordelia]"Yours?" I ask cautiously. "You and Sydney...?"The air was heavy with silence as we all waited for Jude to explain. "I was lonely and she was willing," There is no shame in his expression or embarrassment as he discusses his relationship with a girl who was a younger copy of his lost love. "Seeing her with Jasper made me think of...well it doesn't matter."Atlas looks down at his shoes for a moment. If anyone knows what it feels like to cling to Sydney because he is reminded of Angelica, it is him. "I had planned to sneak her out too, but when I realized she was deceiving me and leading us straight to Magnus, I let her think I was dead. "Oh Jude," I find myself empathizing with this man who has created so much chaos in the life of my family. "Don't pity me," he places a hand on my shoulder, "Please. I knew I couldn't trust her, and yet part of me kept hoping that she'd make a better choice." He takes another look at the article, his lips downturned. "But how do you even

[Cordelia]"Are you insane?" I scoff. "First this story, which is very hard to believe, and now you're asking me to betray my family by going behind their back so that you can go on some selfish quest to chase after a baby that might not even be yours?""Cordelia, I thought you understood...I thought..." he sputters, his face growing red with frustration. "The evidence is all here, why can't you see the truth?"He can't seriously mean what he is saying. He's a man of science, and yet he's trying to convince me that Magnus isn't just some type of sociopath, but an actual monster."I'm sorry, Jude, I feel for you, I really do," I say honestly. "But even if I do sympathize with your situation, I can't risk betraying my family just because you have a..." I wave my hands at the papers on the table, "...theory." "What about a key to one of the power boats? I can go by myself, I can get there and...""You'd be a sitting duck!" I scoff. "That boat doesn't have enough fuel to get you to Hawai

[Clark]I ease my way into the room and close it behind us. She says something cocky about not being Mrs. Steele yet, and I smile. If she's joking with me, it's a good sign that she's halfway to forgiving me. "How can I make this up to you?" I place my hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently. "How can I make this better?""You can't," she huffs, defiant. "You ruined my wedding day." Her lip trembles and I want to kiss away her pain, but I know she'd rather be heard now than seduced. "No, that's not exactly right or fair. Magnus ruined it. Again. That bastard ruins everything."I pull her into my arms and hold her to my chest. "We can still have a beautiful day. So what if the press won't care? Maybe that's for the best. I should have never tried to turn our wedding into a press opportunity in the first place.""Press opportunity?" she huffs, "You mean publicity stunt."I twist my lips but do not correct her. There's no use when she's in this kind of mood. "So what are you going to d

[Atlas]Yanking the note from my hands, Clark immediately frowns. "Jude," he grumbles sounding at least as irritated as I feel. "Jerk had to write the note in code! Who does that?""An insane person," I throw my hands up in exasperation. "A madman that we decided to trust for god knows why and now he's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with my wife!"Clark huffs under his breath about Jude being a serious prick as he takes a moment to read over the note. His fingers brush over the letters slowly, as he begins pointing out a few key details. "The only word not encoded is Cordelia's name. We can use that as an anchor. This cipher is likely much easier than it looks. Just give me a couple of minutes." Taking the letter, he slams the door behind him, disappearing, leaving me alone in the hallway. A few minutes later he's dressed, and so is Tilly. She looks even worse than he does, not having bothered to even run a brush through her hair, her mumu barely covering her bulging belly as sh

[Atlas] My heart seizes as I feel a sudden stab of pain. I can't see straight, my world spins as my heart skips a beat and for a moment I feel like I'm dying. "Cordelia will be fine," I take a deep breath with my hands over my head as I lean against a wall. This isn't the first panic attack I've ever had, but it has been a very long time. The first time was when my parents died. It happened again the day I learned Angelica was "dead." "She isn't dead," I swear to myself. I won't let her be dead. "I'd know if she were dead." And I believe that. My heart would stop beating as soon as hers did because she is my heart—she and Jasper and that new little angel growing within her. The Captain got straight to work. It isn't enough to just turn a key and release the controls to change course, there are other elements to moving a boat like this, especially at the rapid rate we want to move her in. Things could go wrong, engines could fail. Waiting for the first mate to arrive so that