Page 78 of It Destroys Me

My eyes remained on the floor.

“Theo.”

I sighed before I looked at her.

“We’re safe,” she said. “And it’s over.”

I looked at Axel in the other chair.

He wasn’t looking directly at Scarlett either, like he physically couldn’t.

Yes, it was over. But the memory of this night would haunt us forever.

Axel and I didn’t speak for a couple of weeks.

I assumed he wanted to spend time with his family and recover from the tragedy that had struck them.

Astrid’s belongings were still in the bedroom down the hall. I’d hired a new butler and forgot to chase down the old one. I returned to work and didn’t mention Bolton because that feud would need to stay buried.

I felt like shit for letting Astrid go, but there was nothing I could do.

I didn’t want Axel to lose one of his kids.

I knew Astrid didn’t want that either.

So, I was stuck…and so was she.

The house felt haunted by her ghost. When I looked at the bed, I used to remember Shayla dying in it. But now, I remembered Astrid’s smile when she woke up in the morning. The way she squeezed me like a stuffed teddy bear. The way she handled my big dick like it was no problem, when it was a big problem. The way she told me she loved me so many times…and didn’t care that I never said it back.

“I should have said it back.” I sat behind my desk in the study and looked at the painting on the wall. The painting that we’d looked at together. I bought it because I loved it, but I also loved the woman who’d sold it to me.

And now she was gone, just like Shayla.

As good as dead.

Frank, my new butler, entered the study. “Sir, Axel is here to see you. Should I show him in?”

I didn’t expect to hear from him—possibly ever.

A minute later, Axel walked inside, the color back in his face but the spring absent from his step. He approached one of the armchairs and sat down, hands together in his lap. He looked at the surface of my desk before he looked at me. “Haven’t heard from you in a while.”

“I figured you didn’t want to hear from me.”

Axel looked away.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted me out of your life, Axel.”

“Well, I don’t.” He looked at me again. “And neither does Scarlett.”

I expected him to tell me we needed to part ways. That they’d decided to relocate to Paris or something. Start over. Didn’t expect there to be a friendship between us at all. “You know this is all my fault, Axel. I shouldn’t have asked you.”

“It’s my fault, because I could have said no,” he said. “We can play this game all day long. It’s not going to change anything. It took a couple weeks for me to be able to let Scarlett even leave the room, but I’m in a better place now.”

“How is she?”

“She’s doing well. Bounces back a lot quicker than I do. But she didn’t have to see…you know.”

The gun against his daughter’s head. “Yeah.”