Heartbreak You (Heartbreak Duet 2)

Atlas keeps his back to me, not once looking my way. I bite my tongue as I turn and walk away.

Why should I finish what I was going to say when that man doesn’t seem to care?

Did he ever care, though?

Or, was he simply a great pretender?

I feel it was the latter.

As soon as I arrive home, I walk up to Tina who’s sitting on my doorstep. She glances up at me, and her face instantly falls.

“I can’t talk now, Tina,” I manage to say. My eyes are heavy, my body is sore, and I’m afraid to walk into my own home. Will I have nightmares? Especially after seeing everything that has happened in there. “Will you stay the night?” I manage to ask.

Tina nods and puts her arm around me as we walk inside.

I try not to look, I do, I really do, but when Tina lets out a gasp, my eyes instantly go to the spot I know she can see. The blood on the floor, the lines in the shape of a body, my couch splattered in red.

Tina turns to me, with her eyes wide. “You go to bed.”

For some reason, I go to step toward the blood like it’s calling me, but Tina places her hand out to stop me. “Go to bed! I’ll be there soon.”

Heading off, I strip out of my clothes and lie in my bed, and that’s when I hear her cleaning. The carpet shampooer is working overtime, the vacuum buzzing away, and I also hear her dragging the couch outside.

Much later, when she crawls into bed beside me, I’m still awake but dozing. Her arm goes over my hip, and that simple movement instantly soothes me. Soon after, we both fall asleep, and I dream of a man with angry, tormented eyes.

Atlas.

Chapter Two

Theadora

“Okay, tell me. I know this isn’t paint, so no lying about it.”

“It’s not paint.” I bring the coffee to my lips.

“Why did you come here?” I ask, confused. I never texted Tina to tell her I needed her, even if I am glad to have her here with me right now.

“I couldn’t sleep, and when I rang your cell the other night, Atlas answered and said you were asleep and you would be home by yourself since he had to work…” she pauses. “He said it as if he didn’t want you to be alone. I thought it was sweet, but I’m guessing this was before whatever happened here?”

I nod. She rang when I was happy, when I saw a future with Atlas.

“You were sitting out here all night?” I ask.

She shrugs as if it’s no big deal.

“It’s Lucy’s and her husband’s blood. Plus…” I shake my head. “It’s their blood,” I tell her, not able to finish the sentence.

“Okay, where is Lucy?”

“Hospital.”

“Well, at least the bitch didn’t die.” Tina smiles, but I don’t. I can’t bring myself to have any sort of emotion. Because people did die, and my house is now forever tainted to prove it. I look back where the blood was, which I have been avoiding, and see no trace of it.

“You cleaned it all?”

“I threw out the rug and the couch, there was no saving them.” The floor looks like there was never any pool of blood or a dead body, but when I look in that area I know otherwise.

“I’m moving,” I tell her. “I gave notice, and I’m leaving this city, Tina. I can’t do this shit any longer.”

She looks down, her hand twirling the spoon in her coffee, and she’s not answering me.

“Tina?”

“Is it because of him or Lucy?”

“Both,” I reply honestly.

“Okay, have you thought of not moving, but going on a long-ass break instead?” She shrugs. “You’ve never traveled, and if you sell your house, you can leave all your stuff at mine, so you have something to come back to.”

“I’ve never thought of traveling.”

Tina stops stirring her coffee and smiles as she looks up at me. “Now is the time.”

“Maybe,” I say.

She shakes her head. “No maybes about it.”

I hear a knock on my door, and Tina gets up before I have a chance to answer it.

“Nope, nope… not allowed,” I hear her say.

Standing, I walk up behind her to see that Lucy’s at my door and my mouth goes wide at the sight of her. She has on a dress showcasing her legs, one of which is bandaged due to her wound.

“You going to deny a pregnant woman access?” Lucy asks, touching her belly.

Tina laughs, then stops as realization sets in. “Oh, God, you aren’t joking. Fuck me! You will be the worst mother to ever grace this earth. Lucy, give that poor child to someone who will care for it.” Tina crosses her arms over her chest, pushing up her ample breasts.

Lucy hasn’t spotted me yet as she turns her nose up at Tina and replies, “I have Atlas now… he’s going to help me.” She smiles as she says it and I cringe when I hear it.