Chapter 3

~Eliza~

“I didn't realize you found the idea of marrying me so distasteful, Eliza,” Atlas bit out, his gaze sharpening on me.

“Well, for one, you are Daniel’s uncle,” I stated, widening my eyes at him incredulously. “What—”

“Step uncle.”

“will everyone think?” I finished determinedly.

“Why do you care about that?” he asked, slightly tilting his head. “I thought you were perfectly okay with doing whatever you want without caring about anyone else.”

I fell silent and glared at him. His last jab had nothing to do with what we were talking about. He knew that and I did too.

Atlas let out a quiet breath and put up his hands. “Look, I don’t want us to fight. I am just offering to help you.”

He shrugged. “You can either decide to let go of your pride or drown in it. Your choice.”

“That’s not the issue and you know it, Atlas,” I countered quietly.

He met my gaze with his hard, unyielding one. The painful memories I had fought to keep buried rose, unbidden, into my mind.

Six years ago, we were lovers, happy and secure, until it all came crashing down around my ears. I could still see the gut-wrenching sight that broke me.

The man I loved with all my heart, asleep and in bed with another woman.

God! It still hurts, even now, six years and a broken marriage later.

I broke our staredown and looked at my hands, tangled in the sheets. “Thank you, but I will handle this myself,” I said hoarsely.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued. “I still have my shares in the company and I can—”

“No, you don’t,” Atlas said with a strange urgency that made me look up.

He frowned at me. “You didn’t know?” he demanded, and I slowly shook my head, confused.

He came to stand beside me, peering down at me with a dark frown. “Eliza, Daniel had signed your shares over to himself.”

The room spun as my vision turned blurry for a second. “What?”

With an impatient sound, Atlas stalked off to a study table at the far end of the room that I hadn’t noticed earlier. He picked up a folder and returned to me.

“Check this,” he ordered harshly.

Slowly, I took the folder from him, careful to avoid his touch this time. A feeling of dread crept through me as I flipped it open.

My heart stopped and restarted as I scanned through the strange, impossible words. Willingly? Signed over? What the hell was going on?

The folder dropped onto my lap, and I covered my mouth in horror when I saw my signature on the last page of the document.

But I certainly didn’t sign it. That could only mean one thing. Damien had forged my signature. My husband of four years had taken the one thing I had left.

How could I have been so blind as to have been so thoroughly cheated by this lowlife scum of the earth?

I shook my head slowly and let out a shaky breath. “Where are my clothes?” I repeated my earlier request, but this time, my voice was laced with steel.

I would be darned if I just sit here and let Daniel do this to me. No, I had to do something, anything aside from marrying my ex-boyfriend, of course.

Atlas stared at me for a moment, his jaw working as if he was holding back some words. But he must have seen the stubbornness in my face because he reached out to press a button beside my bed.

The next moment, the nurse entered the room. Without looking at them, he said, “Get her clothes.”

As soon as she stepped out again, he said in a cold, emotionless tone. “My driver will take you home.”

Then, without another word, he swung around on his heel and strode out of the room. The quiet click of the door was as loud as the thoughts in my head.

***

I raised my hand to knock on the door before stopping myself.

This was still my home, no matter what Daniel claimed. I had every right to be here, just as much as he did.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved it open and entered. Daniel and Isabella were on the couch, their legs entwined as she lovingly fed him grapes by hand. I wanted to hurl.

“Wow, I see you have moved her in so quickly,” I sneered, watching dispassionately as they sprang apart.

Daniel rounded the couch to stand before me aggressively while Isabella stretched out with a satisfied smirk.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” he yelled.

I winced and leaned back from him. “Can you keep your voice down like a reasonable adult?”

“You need to leave right now, Eliza!” He thundered, pointing a stiff finger at the door.

I forced myself to chuckle as if I didn’t feel an overwhelming urge to just curl up and cry.

“You can’t force me out of my own house, Daniel.”

His brows were two dark slashes on his forehead as he bent to hiss at me, “Well, guess what, sweetheart.”

“You don’t even own this house anymore,” he said mercilessly.

Something popped in my head as I stared at him for a moment before bursting into movement. I darted past him, down the hallway, ignoring his angry spluttering.

I slid to a stop in front of the door that was supposed to be our nursery. Somehow, I knew what he had done, even before I opened the door. But seeing it was still like a punch to my throat.

A gasp escaped me and I was left reeling as the door opened into an empty room. The cradle Daniel and I had assembled was gone, along with the wall decorations and the rocking chair that used to be in the corner. In fact, the room was scraped clean as if there had never been any plan for a baby.

A voice snarled in my head as I turned and walked back to the living room.

“Daniel, you have two seconds to explain yourself,” I seethed, storming closer to him with my fists clenched at my side. “Where are all the baby’s stuff?”

Alarmed by the look on my face, Daniel shifted backwards, but I followed him relentlessly. There was a throbbing pain lodged somewhere in my chest that fueled the anger coursing through my veins.

“What? I threw them away and let Isabella have the space since she wanted to use the space as her leisure room,” he replied defensively.

An irrational giggle slipped past my lips as I nodded, as if what he said made sense. “Oh, oh, I see. Okay, that’s cool.”

“I understand now that you never cared one bit about our baby,” I chortled, and a look of hurt flashed across his face.

That pissed me off even more, but I calmed myself and asked in the nicest voice I could muster. “But can you at least return the shares you stole from me?”

He immediately scowled and cocked a brow at me. “Yeah, that’s never going to happen, Eliza.”

That was it! The last thin line of control I had left snapped.

With an anguished yell, I leaped on him, biting, punching, and kicking any part of his flesh that I could reach.

The room turned into a cacophony of noise as Isabella joined in, yanking on my hair in an attempt to pull me off him. I held on tightly and let loose all my hurt on the two-faced bastard.

But then, one of Daniel’s flailing hands lands a blow on my stomach. That knocked the fight and air out of me.

I was unconscious before I even hit the floor.