Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
I had twenty-eight missed calls and forty-five text messages. I quickly opened them and made sure none of them were from Astrid. I set my phone to the side and sank into the couch again. When I looked at my hand, I saw a bunch of ink from a pen.
“The kids snuck in and drew on you. Sorry.”
I looked at the other hand, seeing scribbles that were probably supposed to be barn animals. “It’s fine.”
“Scarlett is making breakfast. So this kinda worked out in my favor.” He smirked.
“Congratulations.” I reached for a cigar from the tray on the table.
“Whoa.” Axel leaned forward and moved the tray away. “None of that for today.”
I shot him a glare. “Smoking and drinking aren’t the same, Axel.”
“Well, you’re going to be sober from both for today, alright? You’re under my roof.”
“Then maybe I’ll just walk out of here.”
“I’d love to see you try.” His smile disappeared, and the threat moved into his eyes.
“You know I could take you.”
“Maybe on your best day, but we can both agree today is your worst.”
I sank farther into the couch, knowing I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Scarlett would make me a hot breakfast with an Americano, and I would be forced to take it down whether I was hungry or not. There was no urgency in any of the messages that had been left for me, so I let myself sit there.
Axel stared at me for a while.
“Yes?”
“You want to talk about it or…?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Axel looked away, staring at the cold fireplace.
My body hurt like I’d smashed into a brick wall.
Axel turned back to me. “You know we’re going to talk about it, right?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Then what the fuck happened, Theo? Because you could have died and taken an innocent person with you.”
“I drove twenty feet before I pulled over,” I snapped. “It wasn’t that egregious.”
“You shouldn’t have gotten into the car in the first place—”
“You want to talk about my stupidity or how I got stupid?”
Axel shut his mouth and glared at me. “It’s obvious you got stupid because you drank way, way too fucking much. But it’s not obvious why.”
I sat there.
“It has something to do with Astrid, doesn’t it?”
I didn’t want to admit it, not to him.
He didn’t say I told you so. Didn’t remind me of the bullshit he’d warned me about. “What happened?”
“She took him back.” I snapped my fingers. “Like that.”
He propped his cheek on his closed knuckles as he listened.
“He betrayed her, and she just accepts it.”
“What happened the last time you spoke?”
“She got her own apartment. Seemed like she was going to move on.”
“But then you broke things off.”
“Yeah.”
“Bolton was begging her to come back. She probably had a moment of insecurity and embraced a guarantee.”
“But she’s better than that.”
“We do stupid things when we’re heartbroken.”
“She’s too smart to be that stupid.”
He continued to watch me. “You’re too stupid to get smashed like that, but yet, here we are.”
A wave of self-loathing washed over me. “She called me the other night…and I let it ring. I was in a meeting, but even if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have answered. But then a second later, I realized that was a mistake and I called her back, but she didn’t pick up. Didn’t answer my text messages. She lies and says she called me accidentally, but that’s bullshit. That phone call was important, but she won’t tell me why.”
“Why do you think it’s important?”
“Because she called Bolton right after—and he answered.”
“Then she probably needed something.”
“Maybe.”
“Is she okay?”
I nodded. “I stopped by the art gallery, and she’s wearing her wedding ring.”
Axel slouched in the armchair as he listened.
“He told her I was only with her to slight him, and she believes him.”
“Shit.”
“That it was all a premeditated attack, and she was just a pawn.”
“You told her otherwise?”
I nodded. “It made no difference. You should see the way she looks at me.” Her eyes had been dead in the center, lifeless like an oasis that had turned into a barren desert. “It’s worse than hate.”
Pity shone in his eyes.
“I don’t know what the fuck to do.”
“There’s nothing for you to do, Theo. You made this decision.”
“I didn’t think she’d go back to him. I didn’t think he’d turn her against me. She’s back in that shitty relationship and thinks I didn’t give a damn about her.” The last thing she said to me haunted me down to the bone. Every man she’d ever trusted had betrayed her—and that included me. If she really knew me, she would know I was different. But now, she would never know.
Axel remained quiet.
“You never shut up, and now you have nothing to say?”
“What do you want, Theo?” He sat up in the chair. “I told you to pick Astrid, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“I—I thought it would have a different outcome.” I was still a little drunk, my thoughts coming to me slowly, my emotions uncapped and flowing in full force. “After everything she said to me and everything we had, I thought she would leave.”