Page 132 of Merry Fake Bride

“No… no, wait, Axel what are you going to do?”

I never told him anything about my parents, not where they lived or who they were.

When we were together, I acted like we were estranged because I was so determined to forget my shitty life here.

“What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to speak to my in-laws since you never introduced us.”

The camera flips and his face fills the screen.

He’s so close that the whites of his eyes appear almost translucent. “Want to come with me?”

“Axel, Axel please don’t hurt them. Please, they’re not a part of this. Tell me what you want, please just tell me and I’ll do it!”

“I’ve missed hearing you beg.” He smirks. “You’ve got thirty minutes. If you’re not here by the time my timer ends, I’m introducing myself. Your parents are old, right? I can’t imagine what a scare might do to them.”

“I’m at least an hour away! Don’t you dare, don’t you— I’m coming. I’m on my way, just don’t hurt them, don’t you dare!”

“Fine. An hour.”

Axel ends the call without a word and I’m frozen in the silence of the apartment, my mind racing with thoughts that clash and tumble over themselves.

Nothing makes sense other than the urgent need to get out of here and get home.

I need to get out of here.

After ten minutes of searching, I locate a spare key in Kairo’s bedroom and manage to escape the penthouse.

By the time I make it down to the snow-covered street, I’m out of breath and running out of time.

Hailing a taxi wastes precious seconds, but luckily, the driver sees me in distress and doesn’t ask twice when I reel off my parents’ address.

It’s the longest drive of my life.

Unable to sit still, I rock in my seat, shuffle around, and bounce my legs until my thighs ache.

Every threat Axel has ever made to me plays on a loop in my mind while sickness builds in my gut.

I’m going to be too late.

I’m going to get there and he’ll already be there.

What if he hurts them?

What if he does worse?

How can I calm him down and get him away?

Plan after plan forms and crumbles in my mind as I struggle to settle on a way forward.

Axel consumes my mind and nothing else exists.

Until the taxi gets caught in traffic five minutes from my parents’ place.

I escape the cab with a flurry of apologies for not paying and start running.

Snow whips past me, stinging my cheeks and turning my skin raw as I run without much thought other thanforward.

Without my coat and only wearing sneakers, I’m slipping and sliding all over the icy pavement as I run down one street, around a corner, over a crossroads, and finally onto the winding road that leads toward the edge of the woods and my parents’ place.