“You had to see the look on his face, like he had seen a ghost,” I screamed, laughing in excitement as I climbed the stairs to my room, my heels in one hand as Axel followed behind me.
“Did you see him? did you see the horror written all over his face the moment he spotted you?” I turned to Axel, smiling ear to ear. My expression, a direct opposite of the one on his face. “Watch your step,” he said, completely ignoring my question. I rolled my eyes and took a step when…. “Whoaaaaaa,” I screamed as I missed my foot and immediately lost my balance. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the excruciating pain I would feel the moment my back hit the ground. But to my surprise….nothing came. I gently opened my eyes and I gasped, his familiar gray eyes staring down at me with his hands firm against my back, steadying me in place. He'd caught me. He tilted his head slowly, gaze unwavering as he spoke. “I told you to watch your step.” Why do I always end up in the most awkward positions with him? “Thank you for saving me from the fall,” I smiled awkwardly and he freed his arms from my body. I shuffled past the remaining stairs, heading straight to my room when he called my name from behind. “Elara.” “Yes,” I answered. “You looked breathtaking today.” Did he just….. My insides erupted with butterflies, and I blushed so hard I had to cover my mouth. “Thank you,” I managed to force the words out and quickly opened the door and went into my room. “Elara pull yourself together,” I whispered under my breath. I should hate him, I should detest him for what he did to my parents, for taking advantage of me that night. And here I was acting like a desperate weirdo because of a compliment. I let out an exasperated sigh and took off my clothes and my make up and got into the shower. Then the crazy thoughts started coming to my head. What if we had crossed paths as ordinary people? What if he hadn't abducted my parents? What if we weren't keeping any secrets from each other? and we weren't in each other's lives for our own separate agenda, what would our story have been like. I slapped my face to jolt myself back to reality. This isn't a time to fantasise. For weeks I've abandoned my goal of getting information about my parents, but now I have to take action, I have to start my own investigation into what actually happened. But I was exhausted from the event, and my body was about to shut down. “I need to rest now, I'll get to work tomorrow.” I got into bed and drifted into a good night's sleep. The next morning, I was up early and took a quick shower before going downstairs for breakfast. After eating, I decided to take a stroll on the grounds of Axel's mansion, having nothing else planned for the day. There was an unfamiliar car parked in the premises but I didn't pay much attention to it. I kept on walking, completely ignoring them as I scrolled through my phone. “You must be Elara.” I raised my head, curious to see who was talking. The first thing that caught my eye was his luxurious leather shoes. My eyes slowly travelled upwards. He wore a grey coloured suit, sleeves rolled halfway revealing the sleeve tattoo on his left hand, a tennis bracelet on both hands and a tiny tennis chain hanging on his neck. He had dark brown eyes, and black curly hair. Gorgeous, muscular and reeking of power. Oddly similar to Axel. Is this another secret brother? “Can I join you on your walk?” He asked politely and I agreed. “And you are?” I asked him, as we continued walking. “Pardon my manners,” he said, one hand on his chest as he bowed slightly. “ I should have introduced myself, I'm Knox Miller, a good friend of your husband’s, I've been away for business and I just came back to the country last night.” Axel has friends? Now this was surprising. “He never mentioned having a friend,” I said. He gasped, “He never mentioned me?” I shook my head. “Ouchhh,” he looked genuinely hurt, “such an a**hole,” he rolled his eyes. I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. “How long have you guys been friends?” I asked him. “I've known him all my life, we've been through it all and we still stayed together, I lost my family years ago in an accident and ever since then, Axel's has been the only family I had, and he always made sure I never felt alone.” The way his eyes glinted as he talked about Axel and the look on his face told me everything I needed to know. “I see,” I replied. “You know, I never thought I would ever see him with a woman,” “He's never had a girlfriend?” I furrowed my brows. It was impossible for someone as attractive as Axel to have never had a girlfriend. “He's never had one,” Knox replied. What???? He continued, “Well he's been with a lot of girls for sure, I mean Axel loves his women,” he quickly realised what he just said and immediately tried to save the situation. “He loved, I mean, he loved his women, that was before he got married,” he smiled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck. “You don't have to cover up for him, our marriage is not the kind of marriage you think it is, it's a marriage of convenience,” I said. “Yeah right,” he chuckled. With the way he laughed, you would think he knew something I didn't. The back door of a large truck parked in front of the house opened, immediately catching my attention. Four men climbed inside the truck, carrying something from inside that looked like……. “Are those…flowers?” I squinted my eyes trying to make sense of what I was seeing. An 8 feet tall giant flower bouquet steadied above the hands of the four men. The men walked towards where I was standing with Knox and dropped the bouquet. The largest flower bouquet I had ever seen in my life, and it had the most beautiful flower arrangement, it looked straight out of a fantasy book. Here Miss, one of the men said, stretching his hand out, a note hanging from his finger tips. I opened the note and read it. “Now you don't need to look at that boring and tiny flower basket your little boyfriend sent you, when you have a whole garden in front of you— your husband, Axel.”He turned towards me as I stepped in, he looked like he'd been having a conversation with Knox.“I'm sorry,” my voice barely above a whisper.He didn't react, his expression unreadable.“I…I…I wasn't thinking,” I said.But his expression didn't change.I took a step forward and he finally spoke.“Get some rest, I'll handle it.” He said it in a blank tone, but for some reason I immediately felt a wave of relief wash over me. Maybe I felt relieved because he didn't get mad at me or because he said he would handle it.But still, I was relieved.“Thank you,” I smiled at him and he just nodded his head.“And please turn off your phone and just take a break from all the social media noise,” Knox said, concern written all over his face.I nodded and made my way to my room.Even when I couldn't see Axel, I could still feel his eyes on me as I ascended the stairs.He could be cold, distant and sometimes indifferent, but there was this warmth that came from him.I couldn't feel it at first, b
Axel is unbelievable!I can't believe he sent me that massive bouquet just so he could outdo Cyrus.“Axel Thorne, you are something,” I giggled. He wasn't home, so I took out my phone to send him a thank you text when Cyrus' message popped up on my screen.It was an attachment, a picture of Axel's mugshot. And a written statement stating the reason for his imprisonment, Axel's signature at the bottom.I knew whatever crime Axel committed that made him go to prison for such a long time and even had him banned from coming back to the United States was an unspeakable and heinous crime.But I never expected it to be this bad.My eyes traced the outline of the words on the scream, my heart sinking with every word I read.Axel had been imprisoned for murder.He had been imprisoned for the murder of his father.I started taking in deep and shallow breaths as I tried to calm my nerves.I was living with and married to a murderer, someone who could kill his father, who's to say he couldn't do
“You had to see the look on his face, like he had seen a ghost,” I screamed, laughing in excitement as I climbed the stairs to my room, my heels in one hand as Axel followed behind me.“Did you see him? did you see the horror written all over his face the moment he spotted you?” I turned to Axel, smiling ear to ear. My expression, a direct opposite of the one on his face.“Watch your step,” he said, completely ignoring my question.I rolled my eyes and took a step when….“Whoaaaaaa,” I screamed as I missed my foot and immediately lost my balance. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the excruciating pain I would feel the moment my back hit the ground. But to my surprise….nothing came.I gently opened my eyes and I gasped, his familiar gray eyes staring down at me with his hands firm against my back, steadying me in place.He'd caught me.He tilted his head slowly, gaze unwavering as he spoke. “I told you to watch your step.” Why do I always end up in the most awkward positions with
I got back to the spa just as Cyrus was walking in and We went straight to the massage room together before heading into the sauna.The temperature in the sauna was a bit higher than normal, but not too hot.“How's it going with you and Axel?” Cyrus questioned.Axel.I couldn't help but smile at the thought of him, how he just bought a million dollar company in my name.“He's okay,” I said in a low tone. “Do you think maybe he's not all bad?” I asked him.“Elara.”“I mean, maybe we're missing something and he's not the kind of person we think he is.” “Did something happen? Did he say something to you?” Cyrus placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me to look at him.“It's just….” I hesitated for a second then continued, “he's been nice to me, and…and I don't know…..maybe we're just misunderstanding him,” I lifted my gaze to meet Cyrus eyes.“Elara, I don't know what he's done or what he's said to you, but trust me, it's all part of his games. I mean, we're talking about the same
I tried to suppress the memory from last night as I sat with Axel in the back of his car.The butler had asked me to get dressed, I was to accompany Axel somewhere and now we were in his car, on our way to God knows where.With the nervous tension from our encounter last night still clinging to me, I couldn’t find the courage to say even a single word to him.“I didn't see anything,” he spoke, breaking the awkward silence. “What?”“Last night, I didn't see anything when your robe fell,” he said, turning to look at me.I quickly tore my gaze from his and fixed my eyes on the road as I gulped, letting out a sigh of relief.Thank God!The car pulled up to a towering skyscraper that seemed to touch the sky, its glass exterior glowing under the sunlight like a jewel.The moment we stepped inside, I couldn't help but gawk at what I was looking at, the interior was even more stunning. Delicate, intricate floral designs wove seamlessly into an ultra-modern aesthetic, a perfect balance of el
I didn't want to believe it at first, that my parents were alive, that Axel had something to do with it, but with the evidence Cyrus showed me, there was no denying the fact.For the past three years, I've been in and out of therapy, struggling to accept the fact that I was an orphan, mourning my parents who were in fact alive. Just because some inconsiderate evil monster who saw humans as pawns decided to abduct my parents, and fake their deaths for selfish reasons.“Elara you have to play it cool, confronting him is out of the question,” Cyrus insisted.“Yeah I know that, if he could make my parents disappear from prison, there's no predicting what he can do now that he's out.” I got up from the bed and folded my hands, pacing back and forth.“We need to get enough information and more solid evidence and bring it before the FBA, we might not be strong enough to take him ourselves but the American government can help us do that.” Cyrus was right, going against him ourselves was sui