Chapter 8 Watch your step

“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.”