Chapter 14
I bet someone’s mom was using me as a bad example when I was younger.
— Pepper’s secret thoughts
PEPPER
30 minutes before
“ Hello ?” I answered the phone.
“ Oh my God ,” Maven said. “ Shut the shop down right now and go to Atlas .”
The urgency in her voice, paired with Atlas’s name, was enough to send my thoughts into a tailspin.
I froze.
“ What ?” I breathed.
“ Atlas is at the hospital! He covered Quaid’s shift today so that Quaid could go to the lake resort park with us in Henderson .” She spoke quickly.
“ Oh my God . Is he okay?” I gasped, already snapping my fingers at the customers who were lingering with their Danish they’d just purchased. “ What hospital?”
They left quickly at my words, not getting upset like I thought they might.
I locked the door behind them and rushed to the back to get my purse.
“ He’s okay, but Pepper . He just found out he had a baby,” she cried.
I stilled.
“ What ? ” I squawked.
“ A baby!” she repeated. “ And do you want to know how he found out?”
I hurried to my purse, threw the cross-body strap over my shoulder, and asked, “ How ?”
I hurried to my car after locking up, thankful that everything was electronic now that we’d moved to the new place.
Once I was in my car the Bluetooth kicked in, momentarily stealing Maven’s explanation.
“…locked in a hot car!” Maven screeched.
I put it into drive and was halfway out into the lane when I nearly came to a stop at Maven’s words.
I had to force myself to go so I wouldn’t get hit, but my voice wasn’t anywhere near as calm when I said, “ Repeat that.”
“ Atlas got a call today while he was covering Quaid’s shift. He was across the street for an hour for his lunch break when he was about to go back on shift. He got a call about a child locked in a hot car,” she repeated.
My stomach sank.
A child locked in a car.
Every year dozens of children died because of that very thing.
It was the most miserable death in existence.
“ How do you forget about your child?” I asked, aghast.
“ I don’t know,” Maven said. “ So he gets there, pulls the baby out, goes into the store and starts to cool him down, and he’s sick-sick. Vomiting . Chills . Clammy . Then his ex-girlfriend from a couple years ago walks up and says ‘my baby!’ and everything clicks for him.”
Holy shit.
“ One of the officers who arrived on scene heard him make the connection. He clarified it, then called Quaid because he’s his sergeant and might want to know,” she explains.
I was halfway to the hospital now and driving fast.
I prayed that I didn’t get pulled over.
“ I’m going to him now.”
I arrived at the hospital in half the time it should’ve taken me.
I was lucky that there wasn’t a single cop in sight.
Or , if they did see me, they chose to let me go because I was going that fast.
I’d pushed the limits of my car, weaving in and out of traffic.
I was in such a panic because I felt, so strongly, that Atlas needed me there or something bad was going to happen.
I just… I had to be there.
I couldn’t explain why.
I followed the commotion—a cop having a kid in the hospital after being the one to rescue him was a big damn deal—and found a few police officers lingering in the hallway outside of an exam room.
The moment I saw him, my heart stopped.
He looked broken. Like a shell of the man I knew him to be.
I didn’t stop and think about anything else—not the feud we had between us, not the unsaid things that needed to be said, not anything—and headed right for him.
The next ten minutes felt like a blur as I listened to him explain what had happened to the baby—to his son. I then had to listen to the fucked up mess that the police officer explained.
And the moment he told me his name…
One day your Forest will come, baby.
Right before my mom had passed away, we’d been watching Forest Gump .
I’d told her how sweet it was that Forest was so devoted to Jenny .
She’d grabbed my hand and told me all about how, if I found the right man, that he would treat me the exact same way.
I’d always seen my dad and mom interact like that. I’d seen my dad bend over backward to make my mom smile. I’d seen my mom, with my dad’s head in her lap, running her fingers through his hair.
And hearing that the boy’s name was Forest …
“ That’s a cute name,” I replied wistfully.
“ Was in the car for twenty-seven minutes according to the cameras,” he replied after flashing me a small grin. “ Social worker was contacted. She should be here…”
“ She’s here,” Atlas croaked. “ In with him now.”
“ Good ,” Officer Augilar said.
“ Thank you for looking into it,” Atlas offered the officer his hand.
“ Wish I didn’t have to, bruh,” Officer Aguilar admitted. “ Kids are the worst calls.”
Seconds later he was taking off, and we returned our attention to Emory Cline , his ex-girlfriend, getting arrested.
She was screeching loudly, her anger palpable.
And suspiciously, Sage was no longer anywhere to be seen.
I glanced around, trying to spot the familiar blonde hair, to no avail.
“ She’s gone,” I murmured more to myself than to the man standing beside me.
There was a long pause, and then Atlas said, “ So she is.”
I started to move toward the exit, trying to find her before she snuck out, and spotted the bob of her blonde hair before she could make it out of the back hallway.
I took off at a sprint, heading toward my backstabbing sister.
Usually , I might’ve just left this alone.
I mean, it wasn’t my responsibility to help people see the manipulative ways of my sister. They were pretty obvious once you opened your eyes and saw.
It broke my heart that Atlas hadn’t been willing to listen before. That maybe he could’ve seen this coming had he just trusted my instincts.
Though , there was no way that he could’ve seen the entire situation coming. It wasn’t like my sister had been the one pregnant with his child.
But she had known about the child.
I was sure she only knew because she was looking for a way to manipulate Atlas at a later date if he didn’t do what she wanted him to.
“ Sage !” I snapped as I caught up to her, catching her arm.
She tried to elbow me in the face, but I deflected it.
She leaned into me, her finger coming dangerously close to my eye and said, “ That’s assaulting a police officer, bitch.”
I scoffed. “ You’re delusional.”
“ I have a body cam on right now,” she challenged. “ You touched me first.”
I flipped off her body camera, which likely wasn’t on, because why would it be on?
“ You’re such a fuckin’ bitch,” Sage said, very originally, might I add.
“ Why ?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“ You know why,” she snarled, pushing my shoulder.
I didn’t let her shove move me backward, which pissed her off even more.
She reached her hand up and went to claw at my face, but Atlas’s cold voice stopped her mid-strike.
“ Don’t touch her,” Atlas growled, low and deep.
It was so menacing, in fact, that it sent good and bad shivers down my spine.
He was scary when he wanted to be.
Not that I blamed him in this situation.
He deserved to be angry.
He deserved a lot more than anger, in my opinion.
“ She touched me first,” Sage replied petulantly. “ Why are you choosing her over me now?”
“ I think,” Atlas said softly, “that maybe I was choosing the wrong sister this entire time.”
His words sent a thrill streaking through me.
“ Of course she sways you to her side,” she whipped her head in my direction, narrowing her eyes at me. “ I had one friend, bitch. One . And you couldn’t even let me have that?”
I didn’t say anything, because what would be the point? She always had to have the last word. She always played the victim card. And she always, always, always found a way to turn it around on me if I did say something.
I’d learned a long time ago to just keep my mouth shut when it came to her.
She’d eventually let it go.
“ Mr . Carter ?”
Atlas turned, leaving the both of us behind.
“ This isn’t over,” my sister hissed.
I shrugged and turned my back on her, very aware that it would only piss her off more.
When I arrived at Atlas’s side, the social worker turned to me, offering me her hand.
“ You’re his girlfriend?” she asked sweetly.
I opened my mouth to deny it, but Atlas spoke over me. “ She is.”
I shot him a look that had him catching my hand and squeezing.
“ Awesome , stability is a great thing.” She looked at Atlas . “ So I know that you and Forest look alike. Y’all have the same features and birthmarks. And before Ms . Cline left, she so helpfully shared that you were the baby’s father. However , a DNA test will still have to be performed, which we can expedite. In the meantime, we’re going to allow you access to the child.”
I practically felt Atlas wilt beside me. “ Thank you.”
“ He’s going to be scared, because he won’t know who you are when he finally wakes up,” she said. “ But I’ll let the doctor talk to you about the specifics of that. As with anything like this, an investigation will be run. We’ll look at Ms . Cline’s history, and determine whether she will be able to have the boy back or not.”
She continued to tell us the next steps, leaving it at, “ He’s a cutie, Mr . Carter . We’ll talk to you soon.”
The woman left just as the doctor arrived.
“ Mr . Carter ,” the doc said. “ My name is Doctor Morton . I’m the physician handling your son’s case.”
“ Thanks ,” Atlas shook the doctor’s hands. “ Can you tell me what’s going on?”
He gave a lot of medical jargon I didn’t understand, ending with, “ He’ll be in a medically induced coma while we monitor his condition.”
“ But you think he’ll be okay?” I asked when Atlas didn’t say anything.
“ We think he should be okay,” he admitted. “ But only time will really tell.”
Meaning , they didn’t know.
Not until he was awake and able to show us how he was doing himself.
“ Thank you, doctor,” I said. “ And where are they taking him?”
Fifteen minutes later we were in the pediatric ICU . I was on a couch next to Atlas , and we were looking at Atlas’s son, hooked up to all kinds of wires and tubes, lying like a broken doll in the bed across from us.
“ I feel helpless,” Atlas whispered brokenly.
He’d stood by his side for a full ten minutes and had just now taken a seat beside the bed.
Atlas was still leaning forward and holding the little boy’s hand.
His little boy’s hand.
I didn’t know what to say. Nothing that could come out of my mouth would give him the reassurance he needed right now.
The only thing that would was time.
I was lost in thought, wondering how all of this had happened to someone so innocent, when Atlas’s voice interrupted me.
“ Tell me everything you can about Sage .”
I snorted. “ How long do you have?”
He looked at the little boy lying asleep in the hospital bed, looking so freakin’ small. “ A while.”
So I told him everything.
I told him about my sister turning into a monster. I told him about everything that she’d done to me—that I could remember anyway. I told him about my mother’s cancer, and my dad’s dementia. I told him about what I suspected where it came to the ‘kidnapping’ of Sage .
I told him about me.
I told him about my brothers.
I told him about my nieces and nephews. I told him about the dog that I was fairly sure Sage stole and sold.
By the time I was through, my voice was slightly hoarse from talking so much.
When I was finally done, not able to think of a single thing more—though I was more than aware there was a whole lot that I’d either blocked out or missed— I turned to survey the man sitting in the seat beside me.
He looked… blank.
There wasn’t a single expression on his face.
“ That’s all I can think of,” I admitted. “ There’s more, I’m sure. But yeah…”
What I’d told him was enough.
“ There’s a lot to address there…” he finally stated.