Page 314 of One More Kiss

“You need to leave . Immediately,” one declared brusquely.

“Big fucking surprise,” Axel said, not bothering to hide the emotion clogging his throat. I’d never seen him like this before. So broken. So raw. So absolutely devastated.

“Please step off the property,” the other guard said.

“Just give me a second,” Axel said, his shoulders sagging. “I’m in the middle of something.”

“You’re not on the list of approved visitors, and you’re going to have to leave. Now.” The third warning was the final one. Both guards grabbed for Axel. He dodged, but against four burly arms, he had no prayer of evading them. They captured him easily, though he struggled against their grip.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Axel spat, lurching to free himself. “Allan’s hired grunts, huh? Cora, do you see this? Why won’t you fucking fight for me? After all we’ve been through?”

Axel continued railing against me and my father as the guards dragged him, but the farther they took him, the less I could hear. They carried him away, arms hooked under his armpits, until finally the camera showed a tranquil scene on the front porch once more.

Birds twittered. The arborvitae, pruned and flawless. Lace lichen climbing around the corner of the condo. Everything picture perfect.

The truth lay beyond the edges of the frame.

Shards of our hearts were scattered everywhere, just out of sight. The broken remains of our promises. Our hopes. Our expectations. None of them could hold up to what life had dealt me. The impossible pressure my life path had in store.

I could only imagine how wrecked Axel would be. He wouldn’t recover quickly from this. Neither would I.

I was already beating myself up over it. Maybe I should have tamped down my feelings in the beginning. Maybe we could have avoided all this pain and heartbreak and life-path incompatibility if I’d just seen the writing on the wall when we met. And now it was my fault Axel was unraveling, looked sunken and hollow. The reason he’d been stressing and worried and distracted.

Just like it was my fault for not trying harder to save Chris. It was my fault I’d gotten wrapped up in my own world. I’d opted to hang with my friends the night he’d sent me his last text. I hadn’t protected him from the unyielding glare of this world we’d been born into. Even though I was younger, I’d always handled it better. And I’d always known that.

I bore every ounce of this burden.

A burden I could only bear for the sake of the two men I loved more than life itself.

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