Page 183

He should have been there.
“I hope so.”
The greater question was, wouldtheybe okay?
On that, he didn’t have much hope at all.
* * *
* * *
Stella was making her police report from her hospital room, waiting for the fracture in her forearm to be cast, when Atlas strode in.
“My husband,” she blurted as the startled police officer held up a stern hand.
Her heart nearly burst with shock and joy at the sight of him. She had cried most of the journey from London, berating herself for falling in love with a man who had seemed to feel nothing for her at all.
She had been so hurt, so angry with him and herself, she hadn’t wanted to call him after her tumble. Beate had thrust her phone in front of her face to unlock it and placed the call herself.
The truth was, Stella hadn’t believed he would come if she asked. He’d made it clear that he didn’t love her and she’d thought that was the end of it.
“How bad is it?” Atlas stopped next to her bed, hands coming out and pausing in midair before he gripped the rail. His gaze swept over her from the collar of her hospital gown to her legs beneath the blanket, then came back to the arm that was elevated on a pillow and wearing an ice pack.
“A hairline fracture in my wrist. As I was just explaining to…” She motioned with her good hand to the officer. “I called Pappa to say I was visiting Grettina, in case he wanted me to look at anything at the house.”
She explained about the house she’d purchased for him and why.
“He came over an hour later, angry that I was staying with Grettina when he wasn’t allowed to. He said I should stay in my own house and let him resume living with his wife. Grettina came to the door so I stepped out to stand beside him. She told him she wanted to stick to their arrangement where he comes for dinner once a week to see the twins. I offered to order a car so he didn’t have to wait for the bus and he lost his temper and elbowed me. I lost my footing and fell down the stairs.” Eight of them.
She had to take a moment to push back the horror as she had realized there was nothing but air beneath her foot.
Atlas’s grip on the bed rail looked strong enough to bend it like a paper clip.
“Has this happened before?” the officer asked.
“I made a complaint a few years ago.” She rushed to get out the rest so she never had to speak of it again. “It turned into a he said, she said, but that’s why Grettina left him. She was worried he would continue to lash out physically, especially with the little ones. Pappa was advised to go through an anger management program, but he never did.”
“Where is he now?” Atlas asked sharply.
“He’s in custody,” the officer said. “He’ll likely be held overnight. We have the neighbor’s statement. I expect he’ll face criminal proceedings.” The officer gave her contact details for a social worker who could provide mental health and other supports.
“I saw Beate in the hall,” Atlas said once the officer was gone. “Where is Grettina? Is she safe?”
“Elijah is with her at the house.” He had arrived when the police did. “He’s going to drive her and the twins to visit her cousin in Berlin. Her cousin’s husband is a divorce lawyer. Beate will stay with Elijah until school finishes.”
“And you’ll come home with me.”
“I—” As she had sat here in the numbness of shock, certain her marriage was over before it had properly started, she had wanted nothing more than to be where she had always felt safe. Where she felt empowered and independent and sure of who she was. “I was planning to go to Zermatt.”
His expression shuttered. “To close your apartment?”
Her neighbor had cleaned out her refrigerator the day after Stella left with Atlas, but—
“I’m not sure.” She searched his gaze, trying not to feel a lilt of hope at his presence here. “What happened at your meeting? Do you even need a wife anymore?”
His expression spasmed. He looked to the door as it opened.
The nurse came in with a wheelchair to take her to have her arm cast.