Proposing to Lola in a cemetery, under the pouring rain, and in poor condition, wasn't in the plan.
What Atlas had envisioned was far from this. He wanted perfect weather, a cozy setting filled with warmth, maybe a quiet place where she could smile without pain behind her eyes. He wanted the kind of moment that would make her heart light, not heavy.
But as he stood there that night, soaked and surrounded by the remnants of her anguish, the only thing he could think of was taking her away. Away from everything that had hurt her, away from the ghosts of the past, and away from the ruins she had been forced to live in all her life.
He wanted to take her somewhere safe — somewhere her heart could finally rest.
Atlas had felt pain before. It was pain that molded him into who he was, that tempered him into steel. Yet what he felt now was different. Watching Lola crumble had shaken something inside him that he didn't even know was capable of breaking.
