“No, Mom. I can’t do that, not right now.”

I stood at the exit, watching as Atlas paced to and fro, speaking to Margaret. Maybe my heart could not hurt, because I didn’t feel a thing.

“I don’t care! You need to stop doing this! We are literally in a hospital and the kid—”

Atlas froze as our eyes locked. I closed the distance between us and collected the phone.

“Julia—”

“Margaret?”

“J-Julia?” Her voice cracked and my grip on the phone tightened.

Our last encounter was quite dramatic. She slammed a bat against my head to kill me. Atlas’ entire family was always hunting me down, forcing me on...