Chapter 151: He Understood

He groaned, his hands tightened on my hips as he thrust up hard one, two, three, four more times and then he was spilling inside me, grunting, his head tilted back on the pillow and his eyes squeezed shut. I watched him with rapt attention, eagerly taking in every motion and every expression. I barely blinked the entire time, aware of the feel of his cum deep inside me, but ignoring it in favour of watching the way his mouth moved, the way his collarbone jutted out just slightly as he tensed, the way the corners of his eye crinkled and his brow creased.He was beautiful. So beautiful.When his eyes opened again, I blinked, acting as though I hadn't just been staring at him like he was the first sunset I'd ever seen. I smiled awkwardly and moved off him. I thought he'd want me to go, to let him be alone, to end that weird and strange and hot encounter and let him move on with his life.Before I could even swing my legs off the bed, he pulled me in close, pleading with me to lie down ne

Chapter 152: Catch Up

Cecily? Cecily Larch? Is that you?"I stiffened at the familiar voice. Of course she would be here. Of course today, of all days, Natasha would walk into the same coffee shop as me, situated between me and the exit, trapping me with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to escape."Natasha," I said flatly. "Hi.""Oh my God," she squealed, and rushed forward. I braced myself, but she wrapped her arms around me gently. "It's been so long! What, six months?""Eight, I think.""Wow," she breathed, glancing down. "So..."I didn't say anything, staring at her as her words hung in the air, feeding off the discomfort that came from her expectation of my response."So," she said again. "You, um. You're looking good.""Thanks.""Oh, sit down, have a coffee with me, let's catch up!""Catch up?" I repeated. "The last time I heard from you, it was to tell me I was a horrible person for what happened with Minah, and that I should consider turning myself into a mental hospital before I ended up ac

Chapter 153: Morals and Ethics

I thought about Axel a lot while driving back to my apartment. Well, more than usual. Those days, his presence was a constant, but I kept him firmly in the back of my mind. I built a greenhouse there, one with brick walls and encased in glass, raised off the floor of my consciousness, and that was where the weeds of my love for Axel stayed.That day, though, I opened the door, just a little bit, just enough to glimpse the dandelions, not enough for any puffs to sneak past, and I thought of him.I was disappointed. Not because they got divorced; I was elated, overjoyed, ecstatic that he got out, that he didn't go back, that he was free from the whirlpool that was Minah. I knew better than to hope that meant I, as Natasha had oh-so-eloquently put, had a shot with him. Axel already had one broken, crazy woman in his life. He didn't need me, too.No, I was disappointed that he let her off so easily. I was angry, actually. Minah had nearly destroyed him, had hit him and scratched him and m

Chapter 154: Knocking me up

I went home and spent the night awake in front of my work laptop, idly clicking as I daydreamed and pondered and tried to think of what I could do to make that very angry, very unsatisfied part of my soul quiet down. I spent hours upon hours searching for information on Minah and Blaine, trying to find some kind of dirt on them, trying to figure out if I could get Minah's studio shut down or maybe get Blaine fired from the gym where he worked. I grew restless, frustrated, more and more irritated the longer I searched. I wasn't a hacker; I didn't have the kind of skills needed to break into their bank accounts or plant information or anything like that. I was a proof-reader, an English major, just one crazy person who was sickened by injustice.It was around two in the morning when I thought perhaps Minah was stupid enough to use the same password she'd been using since we were roommates. She wasn't, at least on her email, but it did make me wonder if she had thought of changing the lo

Chapter 155: A Girl

I started scooping fried rice onto each of the plates. "The baby was for me. I didn't want her to get back at Minah or to trap you into being with me or anything like that. That's a terrible reason to have a baby. I wanted her for me."He stared at me, silent as I moved from fried rice to sweet-and-sour pork. I wasn't sure if he was trying to follow my skewed logic, trying to process any of the insanity I'd just tried to explain to him, or trying to tell me he wanted more pork and less rice."Her?""Yeah. It's a girl."He nodded brusquely, his throat muscles flexing as he swallowed. Silently, I put the rest of the food on our plates."Soy sauce?" I asked, holding up a handful of packets."Yes, please," he said softly.We carried our plates to the table and I dug in. Axel took a few small bites, staring at me as I practically inhaled the food."So, you divorced her," I finally said through a mouthful of chicken."Yeah.""Why didn't you tell anyone what she did?""I just wanted out. Sh

Chapter 156: Poor Minah

We didn't talk about Minah again.I thought perhaps our revenge was that we were together. That we were happy. That after everything, we found each other. Axel never brought up what he intended to do, and I never shared the half-baked plot I had, or the fact that I had a key to his old house.He moved in three days after he found me. He never did tell me how he managed to get my address. It didn't matter; I had things I didn't tell him. We each had our secrets.He told no one he had found me, least of all Minah, though we didn't actively hide that we were together. I supposed she would find out one day; we'd be out in public, maybe with our daughter, and someone would see us.It didn't matter. None of them mattered.Still, it was hard knowing that she didn't suffer. It burned, glowing coals somewhere deep in my soul, knowing what she did to him. What she did to me barely mattered; she could hurt me all she wanted and it would never compare to how I felt about her hurting Axel.That bi