Page 32 of The Devoted Husband

Grabbing the bat, she began to hit each monitor one by one. Vanessa rushed in, shaking Atlas awake since the headphones kept him from hearing a thing. He immediately sprang into action, trying to grab Sade, but she lifted the bat and was fully prepared to swing.

“Don’t come near me!” she yelled, taking backward steps toward the closet, then heading for the door.

“Do you know how much this shit costs?” Atlas questioned, syrup-brown eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

“You think I care about that? You’ve been stalking me! My phone, my car, my suite...you’ve been watching it all! You’re fuckingsick!”

“Sade...Baby, it’s not what it looks like,” he said softly, getting a laugh out of Sade.

“No, it’sexactlywhat it looks like.” She looked behind herself to see how close she was to his door. “You’re going to leave me the hell alone, Atlas. If you don’t, I’m going to take my evidence of your stalking to the police and press charges against you. Do you understand me?”

Atlas chuckled. “You can try, but they won’t do anything about it.”

“Stay the hell away from me,” Sade gritted before turning to leave.

She left the home as quickly as she could, running over her phone in the process. Sade went to her hotel and found every camera and microphone he had planted. After that, she searched her car for the AirTag. Sade boxed everything up and took it to her bank to put in her safety deposit box for safekeeping. Once she checked out of the hotel, Sade went to her grandparents’ home. She was exhausted. As she neared the front door, she noticed a note pinned to it. She snatched it, and her heart sank when she recognized Atlas’s handwriting.

Not even jail will separate me from you. You can get rid of the phone and cameras, and I’ll still have eyes on you. You’re mine, Sade—mine.

Her eyes blurred with tears, and her heart pounded in her chest. Fumbling with the keys, it took Sade what felt like forever to open the door and finally let herself inside. She didn’t realize how disconnected she was until her grandmother grabbed her hands. Sade saw Ava’s lips moving, but none of the words registered in her brain.

Short, choppy breaths escaped her as her tears began to fall.

“H-he’s never...n-never going to let me go. I’m never going to g-get away from him.”

Tears turned into sobs, and choppy breaths turned into not being able to breathe at all. And before Sade knew it, she passed out.

Atlas

The light taps against his door caused Atlas to stir from his sleep. With his feet on his carpeted floor, he gripped the side of his bed. After sitting there for a few seconds to fully wake up, he stood and went down the hall to answer the door. At the sight of Sade, he smiled.

“Can I come in?” she asked sweetly.

“Y-yeah, sure.”

Sade stepped inside and headed straight for his room.

“What are you doing here?” Atlas asked, not that he minded.

“I’ve been thinking and...maybe I reacted too harshly. You were watching me because you love me. That’s not something I should run away from. That’s something I should run toward. I think I made a mistake calling things off.” She turned and sat on the edge of his bed. “I want to be with you, Atlas.”

His heart palpitated as he made his way over to her. “Don’t play with my emotions, Day. Are you sure about this?”

With a nod and a giggle, Sade wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m positive. I want to be with you and only you.”

“What about Dante?” he asked, pushing her toward the center of the bed. “I won’t share you or our baby with him.”

“You won’t have to. We can run away together and raise this baby ourselves. He doesn’t have to be involved.”

Finally. That’s all Atlas wanted to hear. But it was only in his head. The sound of his phone ringing proved that. Instead of answering right away, he sat up in bed and looked around the room—momentarily confused about where he was. When he realized he was alone and had only hallucinated Sade’s presence, he picked up his phone and threw it across the room for ruining the dream that would probably never happen in his reality.

Sade

Sade was no longer able to hide her pregnancy. After she passed out, she wanted to go to the doctor to make sure her baby was okay. Her grandparents were so concerned they demanded to be able to go with her too. There, she told them the truth.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Barron asked as they slowly walked out of the hospital.

Sade was okay, and the baby was too. The doctor said her blood pressure was a bit high, so they kept her until it returned to normal.

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