Chapter 19 Axel
NINETEEN
AXEL
“Hej, l?nge sen,” I greeted my parents as I walked into the hotel restaurant where they were already seated.
I had chosen my words carefully. “Hey, long time no see,” was meant to remind them that I hadn’t been home to visit, and they had never come to America to see me—until now.
“I’m glad you could make time for your parents, who came all the way here to visit you.” My mother spoke in Swedish as she gave her usual condescending greeting.
“If I had known you were coming, I would have carved out time, but instead, you just showed up at my work unannounced,” I shot back, hoping to make a point.
A waiter came by to take my drink order since my parents had already been served. Before he had even fully turned to walk away, my mother jumped right back in.
“You need to come home.” Her voice was polite but also irritated, as if she wished she didn’t have to be here having this conversation. “Your father’s health is declining.”
Instantly I turned to my father, who had yet to say anything other than hello when I had walked in.
“What’s wrong? What did your doctor say?” I asked him in Swedish, though I knew this could be a ruse.
This was the exact scenario she had used to guilt trip my sister and me into staying in Sweden years ago.
It had started with “you have to take over the company so it stays in the family,” but when both Jenny and I had declined, they’d moved to harder tactics.
Jenny had only just begun dating her now husband, and when she’d declined to work for my parents, they’d pulled some strings and she’d been “let go” from her job.
The hope had been that she would turn and come running to work for our parents, but it had backfired spectacularly. Simon had gotten a job offer in Greece and she’d decided to follow. My parents had a lot of connections in Sweden, but not in other countries.
She’d moved away while I was serving in the armed forces, and when I got out, my parents—having no other option—moved all their focus to getting me to run the company.
I’d struggled to find a company that would hire me outside of the military—likely due to my parents—so when Kitty had mentioned the job she’d found stateside, I’d take it.
For two weeks, my parents had tried to convince me that my father had cancer and that I needed to stay. Admittedly, it had almost worked, until Tex and Kitty had helped me dig up the medical papers to show that the supposed cancerous tumor he had was actually a benign lipoma—completely harmless.
“The doctor said I am getting old,” he began to speak, but my mother interrupted him.
“Your father thinks he is fine and invincible. He’s not. You need to come home.” Her tone had become more commanding than pleasant.
I turned to my father to reply. “If you need treatment or surgery and require help, I am happy to take some time off work to come and help, but I’m not moving back permanently. I’ve made a life here. I’m happy here, and I enjoy it.”
That last part I said to my mother.
“A life with the bakery girl. I know.” My mother’s snide mention of Stella had my blood running cold as ice.
“We met her today. She seems nice and also has a father who is ill, it seems. But, unlike you, she is choosing her family and does not appear to be interested in moving to Sweden in order to be with you, so there’s no reason to stick around for her.
I already asked her, and she has no interest in leaving.
She also didn’t seem too upset when I told her you were moving back home. ”
The fact that my mother knew any of this and obviously had had a conversation with Stella both frustrated me and agitated me that she would intervene and do this.
But I knew my mother, and this was exactly something she would do.
In her mind, she would do whatever it took to get her way, even if it meant manipulating the people around her.
My biggest concern, however, was not with my mother, but rather with Stella.
I knew how my mother could be, which meant it was highly likely my mother had been rude and upset Stella.
She had mentioned she would be having a girls’ night with Luna, but I needed to talk with her, even if just for a few minutes.
I didn’t want there to be any miscommunication between us.
Besides, this conversation wasn’t going anywhere.
I pushed my chair back, stood, and set my napkin back on the table in front of me. “Have a lovely meal. I’ll try to find some time to meet with you tomorrow before you leave.”
I heard my mother call my name, but I kept walking. I made my way out of the restaurant, out through the lobby, and back to my car.
I tried calling Stella’s phone once I got in the car, but there was no answer. I wouldn’t be at her house for another fifteen minutes, so I decided to wait until I had arrived to call her again. That way, she could enjoy her time with Luna until I got there.
I just wanted to talk to her for a few moments—just long enough to clear anything up my mother may have misled her into thinking. Then I would let them have the rest of their night together.
The rest of my drive was spent irritated at my mother—how she never mentioned my sister after she moved, as if she’d simply been erased from the family.
How, the moment my sister had left, my mother’s need for obsessive control had shifted to me, pushing me far enough that I’d fled to the U.S.
Then there was my father, who had let her do it to both of us.
Even now, this was her one last desperate attempt to tighten her grip the second she realized how happy I was—how happy I’d become.
And I was. I loved my job, my new friends I had made, and Stella.
I was forty years old—old enough to know when you met a woman who was a keeper, and Stella was that woman.
I knew we hadn’t been seeing each other for very long, but I was quickly realizing there was never going to be anyone better for me.
Which was why I needed to speak to her to clear things up, so she knew where I stood.
I parked in front of her bakery and tried to call her phone again as I walked around to her apartment door. Again, no answer, but I could see her lights on inside the window above the door, so I suspected she was likely home.
I tried a new tactic—I called Luna.
“Hey, Axel…” She answered on the second ring, but I cut her off before she could say much more.
“Luna, it’s Axel. I know you are having a girls’ night, but I just need to talk to Stella for two minutes. I’m outside her place. Do you mind sending her to the door? Sorry.”
“Umm…I’m not at her house. I had to go to a family thing tonight, so she was just going to hang by herself and relax. Did you try calling her?”
“Yes,” I told her. “Twice already.”
“She might be in the shower and not next to her phone,” Luna added. “Do you want me to try to call her?”
“No,” I replied. “Go enjoy your family night. I will wait a few minutes and try again.”
“If she doesn’t answer, there’s a fake rock by the pansies along the side wall that has her spare key in it,” Luna told me, giving me the code to open to rock and get the key out.
I didn’t want to break in, but I needed to talk to her.
“Okay, good luck,” Luna said, and I thanked her before we hung up.
My plan was to give her another few minutes in case she really was not near her phone, but, admittedly, I was starting to get worried that my mother had said something vastly inappropriate and she was ignoring me on purpose.
It didn’t take long for me to spot the fake rock, so I quickly retrieved the key and tried calling her again as I walked back to her door.
Again, no answer.
Just as I slid my phone into my pocket, I heard a man yell, followed by a loud crash and then a female scream. Not just any female—Stella.
What the hell?
Braden!
I needed to get to Stella fast, but I also wasn’t stupid. I pulled my phone out as fast as I could to send a text before I went in.
Me: I’m at Stella’s. Braden is here. Screaming and loud crash. I’m going inside. Send backup.
That text went out to everyone on our staff. This may not require full backup, but I had no idea what I was walking into, so I needed to be prepared.
I put the key in the lock and turned the doorknob quietly. I didn’t have a weapon on me, so the best I had was the element of surprise.
And hopefully some good luck.