Page 313 of One More Kiss

“Come on, Cora. Open up!” The gruff shout of his voice snapped me out of my stupor. He headed into the landscaping then, cupping his hands around his face as he peered into the window of the front room. “What the fuck? Where is all the furniture?”

When he returned to the cement pad of the porch, he interlaced his fingers behind his head, staring at the door. I couldn’t see his face, and I would have given almost anything to do so.

“Cora, are you in there? I just need you to open up,” he finally said, his arms dropping to his sides. He looked around, finally locating the camera of my doorbell monitor.

And this time, he looked straight at me. “Please talk to me. Just talk to me, babe. We can figure this out. I promise you.” He sounded broken, a breath away from tears. Every ounce of emotion swam across his face, a blatant parade for me to see.

You did this to him. And now you can’t undo it.

“I don’t know what I did wrong, Cora, but I promise you I will fix it. Do you hear me? We are bigger than this. We are better than this. You can’t do this to me. You can’t just slam the door in my face and run away.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks as he spoke. I reached for him, grasping air, my heart splintering into fragments as I watched his beautiful face contort in pain. I finally came to and fumbled with my phone, pulling up the button for the intercom.

“Axel,” I choked out.

“Cora.” His voice cracked and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thank the fucking lord. Can we talk? Where’s all the furniture? What’s going on?”

“I-I don’t live there anymore,” I said, a sob hiccupping out of me. “My dad got me a new house. I haven’t been able to contact you or your brothers through my phone. He locked everything down.” The words were pouring out of me, desperate to say everything in what felt like the few remaining seconds until my father clamped down again.

“Jesus Christ, Cora,” Axel moaned, dragging his hands down his face. “You’re his fucking hostage.”

“Axel, you should go,” I said shakily. Security would be arriving any minute. I couldn’t believe we were actually communicating, and through technology that my father paid for.

“I know your dad is giving you shit about us,” he started, his voice cracking as he looked directly into the camera again. “And I’ve been thinking about what you said…second thoughts and all. And that’s fine, that’s fine, I just—” He paused, tugging at the front of his hair as he looked to the street and back at the camera. “Can’t we talk about it?”

My tears had morphed into sobs. He deserved that and so much more. Desperation rose like a tornado inside me, whipping away my breath and my focus.

“I don’t want to beg you like this forever, Cora,” Axel said, his voice cracking again. “Are you there?”

“I’m here,” I said. My father’s words rang in my head, where they lived permanently, staining my existence. Utterly inferior in every conceivable way. That’s what he thought about Axel, but I knew the reality of it. Axel was the only man who had ever fought for me. Who would pay for a cross country flight to get to me even though he had barely enough money to live on. I couldn’t keep stealing his love and energy when it would go nowhere.

It only made me feel worse. More selfish. More useless.

“Meet up with me.” The plea straining his voice prompted another round of tears. “Just let me see your beautiful face one more time, babe. I know we can work this out.”

“We can’t, Axel,” I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. “There’s just no way.”

“Don’t say that—”

“You don’t get it,” I snapped. “I was wrong. I thought it could work, but it can’t. Okay? I was wrong about us. I love you, Axel,” I choked out, feeling lightheaded and like I weighed a thousand pounds at the same time. I was shocked I could speak through all the tears. “But love isn’t enough.”

He used the collar of his T-shirt to wipe at his upper lip. Then he swiped a tear away from his cheek. “Jesus fucking Christ. Do you hear yourself?”

He paced the porch a couple of times and then pushed his palms against the front door again. Then he unleashed his fury, pounding so hard it seemed the door might crack in two. Bam bam bam! Each slam punctured my heart over here in my new house just outside Stanford, and I covered my face with my hands and sobbed.

“Cora, do you hear yourself? You’re crying. He’s got to be making you say this shit. What is he holding over you?”

“Nothing,” I forced out on the heels of a new, body-wracking sob. “I don’t know what else to tell you.” A text message flashed across the top of my screen.

ALLAN: Stop engaging with him!!!

I could imagine him trying like hell to shut down the app from wherever he was. He’d been probably watching this entire time, calling IT support, melting down in his quietly lethal way. I had seconds left with Axel. If that.

“Please just try to forget about me,” I whispered, cupping my face with my hands. My cheeks hurt from how contorted my face was with the sobs. Ugly crying at its finest. “Move on.”

Axel’s breathing grew heavier, and then there were additional footsteps. Two men stepped up on the porch.

My father’s security guards had arrived.

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