Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele

[Atlas]

Pregnant.

Cordelia is pregnant.

I stop hearing what else she is saying because my mind is still reeling. How can she be pregnant? Remembering I am not alone, I take a breath and ask, "Two months?"

"Around 10 weeks, give or take a day or two depending on when her last menstrual cycle was. The baby should be here by early summer..." she says with a bright smile. "Congratulations."

Our divorce was finalized two months ago. That would mean that she became pregnant just before we signed those papers. Give or take a few days.

I think back to exactly when that pregnancy might have occurred.

The night I found her drinking wine.

Wine that was likely drugged by Sydney. The night she and I...

Oh. No.

It was only the one time. It's not possible...I can't...we can't...

"Mr. Steele," the doctor calls my name. "Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry, I just... It's been a very long day," I say to excuse my behavior. "Can I see her?"

"As long as you do not disturb her," the doctor requests sternly. "Do not wake her for any reason. Her body needs rest to heal."

Dr. Keller leads me down the hallway to a quiet room. I move a chair next to her bedside so that I can watch her chest rise and fall with the effort of each breath.

Leaning my head against the bed, I place my hand on top of hers.

I almost lost her today. What if I had left her to go get us something to drink? Or I hadn't asked her to dance? What if nobody noticed her fall until she had already hit the floor? Would she have made it here in time? Would her baby have survived? She almost died tonight. She and the baby both.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask her sleeping form.

She can't respond, but I can almost hear what she would say. She didn't tell me, because she didn't want me to know. She didn't tell me, because she thought I wouldn't want the child.

Considering how we've been around one another lately I shouldn't be surprised that she hid something so important from me.

"Oh, Cordelia. What have we done?"

Listening to the steady beat of her heart, I let my eyes close, taking comfort in being close to her.

The sound of my phone ringing snaps me to attention as I rush to turn off the ringer. I must have fallen asleep.

I guess I should check all the messages I have been ignoring. I cannot forget the rest of the world forever.

An unlisted number called me twice. Clark called me three times. Tilly also called.

What is going on?

What number is this? They called 11 times.

I press the call button. It directed me to the private line of a detective for the LAPD.

After 15 minutes on the phone with a tired-sounding detective. I discovered that the LAPD has been trying to contact me to come in and talk to Sydney. She still refuses to say anything to them. Sydney is ready to talk, but she doesn't want to talk to the police:

She wants to talk to me. Only me. 1

Hanging up, I look over at Cordelia. I had promised I wouldn't leave her, but I need to take care of this

mess.

Kissing her brow, I say goodbye. She scrunches her eyebrows but remains asleep. Hopefully, she will wake up soon. We have so much we need to discuss-about the baby, our marriage...everything.

Because regardless of who the father is, tonight changed everything.

When she was dying, I realized something important.

I can't imagine a world without her in it.

When I get to the police station, they have more information to share.

The wine was drugged as well-not with sedative, but with a version of a "date rape" drug that lowers your inhibitions to such a degree that it functions as an aphrodisiac. Essentially, if you consume it, you will be so overcome with lust that you will want to have sex with just about anyone you find attractive in close proximity.

That explains that night when Cordelia and made love. The attraction was there but the drug took away everything else.

Sydney drugged me.

And I blamed Cordelia. And then I rejected her.

I think about all the other times I saw that same wine. The next day when she stayed over at my house- was she planning on having me drink it then too?

And at the beach...Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Sydney has been trying to seduce me. And with her passing resemblance to Angelica, that first time in the hotel...it might have worked.

Sydney looks miserable. She's only been in jail for a handful of hours but her dress is stained, and her hair is sweaty and dirty, hanging in front of her face in matted chunks. Her nails are ragged, bitten down to

nervous, bloody chunks.

She looks up when I enter and force my face into stillness as I fight to contain my revulsion. Whatever had been in the drugs she was mixing at the time I caught her had made the skin around her eyes dark, her eyes red, and her face bloated. I'd be more worried about her if I didn't see Cordelia's weakened body in my mind every time I closed my

eyes.

"Atlas," Sydney's voice is gravely and strained. "You came!"

I spend the next 30 minutes listening to my protege tell me everything she has done. Drugging the wine, baiting Cordelia into fights. She even sent the police after her, but she won't tell me how or why.

"Where did you get the drugs that you used?" I demanded. The police had asked me to find the supplier of the sedative. Apparently, it has appeared in other similar crimes around town. They think Sydney might be somehow connected. "Someone my father knows sent them to us," she insisted. "I usually don't make them myself-I'm not very good at it."

"What type of sedative did you give her?" I demand. "She's almost dead, did you know that? You almost killed her with whatever you put in that champagne."

"I did not!" she jumps to her feet. "I ATE all the drug I made up, Atlas, you saw me! And it wasn't a sedative! It wasn't meant to put her to sleep it was meant to make her lose the baby and..."

I stand up slowly, making no effort to mask the horror I am feeling. Her eyes go wide as I stand, my fist clenched, glaring down at her.

"You knew about the baby," I growl. "And your first thought was to kill it."

Shaking and insane, she strains against the cuffs chained to the table and screams "I'm the only one who gets to have your baby, Atlas! ME! Not her! Not that Greyson bitch! I should be your wife! Not her! She doesn't deserve...!!!" I stop listening. Turning my back on her I walk out the door to keep myself from doing something or saying something I might regret later.

Sydney is convinced the baby is mine. Convinced enough to try to kill it before it even has a chance to live.

I need to get back to Cordelia. I need to tell her everything.