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“Found what I could. It’s not the best breakfast, but since it’s also dinner from last night, I figured we could skip over the eggs and bacon part.”

“And the Doritos are what? The appetizer?”

“The garnish, my dear. Nothing but the best for my wife.”

Her mouth opens, probably to demand that I not call her that. But a noise from outside the room has her shutting it.

No matter what she wants to say, she’s smart enough to know that us being on the same side is the best way out of this. If that means she plays the part of dutiful bride and I pretend she’s loving it, just like I am, then so be it.

Natalie is my wife. I’ll have her. Pretend or real, it doesn’t matter.

In the end, she’ll always be mine.

Chapter 19 - Natalie

I’m sitting on the bed when Atom comes out of the bathroom, freshly showered. He isn’t wearing only a towel, as he took in some clothes Gina brought for us to wear.

Gina. A woman I thought I would never lay eyes on again when I left this house, only to have seen her once at the coffee shop. The family’s fixer, and she’s still here doing whatever they ask of her.

She terrified me as a child, even though she’s only a few years older than me. But it was obvious, even as a young girl, that she was dangerous. We rarely spoke, but she seemed to always be watching me. I never knew if it was to guard me or to protect me.

One meant someone cared about me. The other meant I was never trusted. Ever.

“If I’m your old lady….” I pop the rest of the grape I was eating into my mouth.

“You are,” he says with a look as he rubs a towel around his head to dry it.

I roll my eyes as I swallow the food down.

“If I’m your old lady, what’s my name?”

“Natalie.” He drops the towel on the floor and comes over to what’s left of the food plate he made for us, taking a grape and a pickle.

I force myself to look away and not watch him chew. Something about his hard jaw moving sets parts of me alive like nothing else. It’s weird.

“No, my club name. Everyone has one.” He raises an eyebrow at me as he sits on the bed. “Jules is Kitten. Bailey is Troublemaker. Even Ruby is Peaches.”

He smirks in understanding but keeps his lips sealed as he bites into the pickle and chews.

“Oh, please don’t tell me it’s something corny like Muffin or Cupcake.” The thought alone would make me vomit. Those are cute names, and that’s something I’m most definitely not.

Club names, from what I understand, are based on the person’s life. A secret meaning that only those involved know. Atom and I have no secrets, so him making up my club name isn’t something I’m completely comfortable with. Especially if it’s something I’m going to have to live with for however long it takes till I can safely “divorce” him and move on with my life.

“Sunshine.”

My heart stops. I whisper, “Sunshine? Like….” I take a breath and lick my dry lips. “As in what’s on your finger? The tattoo?”

He doesn’t look away. Doesn’t even blink as he nods. “Like the tattoo.”

He keeps talking, but my heart and breath seem to be playing the opposite game. One is going a mile a minute; the other has practically stopped.

“Steady. Always there, no matter how you feel about it. It might seem dark at night, but it’s still there, shining bright, even if you can’t see it. That’s what sunshine is to me. Everything and more. Like you.”

A noise comes from me, but I can’t define it. How can I when everything is going too fast in my head to stop and form words?

I was just coming to understand and realize that he’d claimed me as his. But I didn’t know, not till this very moment, just how deep that claiming went for him.

In a few hours, Atom has turned my world on end, shaken it around, set it back up, and dyed it blue all at once. Nothing is the same, and yet I see everything in the past with a new lens. A new understanding.