Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“Fucking hell he gave this speech at Chase’s wake.” Axel leans toward me and whispers. Stunned, I look over at him. “Could you blame him? Nobody here really cares. It’s a fucking mockery. Just another reason for the elite to network and rub elbows with the other elite.” He scoffs.
But I knew what he wasn’t saying. I always knew what he wasn’t saying . ‘Nobody knew him like I did’ . He didn’t ask me to be here because he needed someone to entertain him, he had plenty of “friends” around. No, he needed me to be here because someone he loved was dead.
Because Axel Monroe was to bury his heart. OR he’s just as annoyed as I am with this whole charade. I don’t know anymore. I can’t tell the difference. I’m so confused all the time and being here makes me feel so itchy inside.
At the end of the wake, I see Ashleigh and Thadd head to the near-empty hallway toward the bathrooms. I make a motion to Axel to let him know I'm headed to the powder room and slink, softly on the plush carpet from the other side of the room, toward the other exit.
I keep my spine along the black wall, pulling on the balaclava that only has one eye hole and try my best to camouflage myself into the background.
I can barely hear their hushed arguing over the goddamn music in my head.
“Do you think she remembers?”
He grabs her roughly by the elbow, “I swear to fuck, Ashleigh. Shut the fuck up!”
I can see he’s still the fucking dick he always was.
“Thadd she looked like she remembered. ”
“She didn’t see anything, you idiot. We all wore masks.” He reassures his wife.
Lucky girl, this one. She did always chase after him even after she caught him cheating oh…
twelve times. I know this because after the fifth time she threw up in one of my Birkin bags (even though she had her own) I stopped listening to her drown her sorrows at the expense of her liver.
It was always so sad and it stopped being fun being her friend when she drank.
The less I enabled, the meaner her little indirect comments were.
At first, they were about my body. Then it was about my intelligence.
My taste in music. My taste in movies. My taste in men.
Even asked if I preferred to lick pussy, and if I did, to stay away from hers.
As if I’d even want hers. I bet it was as rotten as she was- is .
“Two Prescott’s dead after she shows up? Honey, please tell me you aren’t that stupid.” She scoffs.
“She still can’t talk. Her parents say she refuses to sign.”
“It doesn’t mean she can’t murder people!”
“Let’s just go home. I’ll know more after the funeral and the meeting tomorrow. If there’s any real proof Tyler was murdered-"
“What, Thadd? What will we do?”
Thadd looks around and shrugs. “We’ll leave the country until it all dies down.”
Oh I want to laugh and dance to this beautiful fucking melody in my head. I want to write it out and compose it and have every ballet and symphony Orchestra play it across the globe.
“Hear anything interesting, baby?”
I jolt upwards and almost pee myself. I tear off the balaclava and shove Jonas who chuckles and fixes my hair.
“You should wear that later. You look like a sexy little burglar.” Then he makes a face, “On second thought, I like watching you come. Maybe I’ll wear it.”
My eyes widen and my pussy tingles. He pushes me against the wall roughly, one hand braced on the wall, the other yanking me to him so I can’t escape.
“Fuck baby, you like that?”
I almost mew.
“God you’re such a sick …” Oh my “ Little …” God. “ Slut .” He licks my bottom lip with his entire tongue. “If you weren’t wearing this cockblock of a romper I’d be on my knees eating your sweet little pussy like a fucking madman ‘til you come all over my face.” He rasps.
Holy fuck.
“Jonas?” We look over and Ashleigh and Thadd are staring at us.
Jonas flashes that devilish grin, lowers his hand from the wall but not my waist, holding me even closer as we face them and unashamedly readjusts himself. Ashleigh blushes at the sight. “Excuse us, we were just leaving.”
“Kind of weird for you to get hard when there’s a dead body in the other room.” Thadd comments with a smirk. “Do tongueless living dead girls do it for you, Anderson?”
Jonas tilts his head side-to-side as if contemplating his words.
“Wasn’t it you that said Ashleigh’s a corpse in bed last year at Inferno?
I mean, it looks like you’re in the right place for a hard-on.
Me? I’m just celebrating life the way Tyler would have – by going home and getting my dick sucked and then having my girl bounce that sweet, delicious ass of hers on me while she rides me backwards.
Might go for anal, too. You know, in memoriam for Ty. ” He winks.
I blush past all the shades of pink and go straight to crimson.
Thadd’s eyes go to me, brows hiking up to his hairline. “You motherfucker.” Thadd replies, fist clenched.
“Anyway, good seeing you again, Whitmore’s.
But… I really need to take care of my girl.
Have a good night with your corpse… oops,” he chuckles darkly “I mean, wife . That’s my bad.
” Jonas yanks me out of the hallway and back into the room with everyone, pushing past the crowds to find Axel, who’s with Sofia and John. “I’m calling a car, we’re leaving.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, let them go, Corazón.” Sofia says. “This was no place for her.”
Jonas brow arches so as not to draw attention, he keeps his voice lowered at a decibel only the four of us can hear.
“With all due respect Mrs. Monroe, I was so excited to meet you again. I really was. This time as your only daughter’s boyfriend.
I was even a teensy bit nervous to finally meet the great John Weston Monroe.
But after the way you spoke to your only daughter and then the way ignored your only daughter the entire time, I have to say, fuck you entirely,” he says with a fake grin on his chiseled face.
“Son, bite your tongue.” John says.
“First of all, I’m not your son. I may be adopted but I am so glad you aren’t my father because how can you let your wife treat her only daughter like this?
I’m adopted and my parents treat me with more love and respect.
I can’t believe I was wanting to make a good impression.
My parents loved her, by the way. They can’t wait to have us over for dinner so they can get to know her better.
Mom even wants to take her shopping in Paris.
Christ, it’s mind-blowing with the way you all treat her she didn’t kill herself.
“The only reason she even came and faced her anxieties is because her brother asked her to. She wanted to be here for him because she is loyal to her only brother.”
Axel looks straight at me, eyes shining bright with unshed tears as Jonas continues.
“Raven took hours to get ready, picked things out and changed a hundred times and then did her hair and make-up perfectly and what did you say to her? What did the old , washed-out supermodel say to her only daughter? Oh, that’s right, I think it went along the lines of , ‘ I’m glad you covered those thighs of yours’ not one hello to her. ”
Jonas scoffs. “Just to let you know, you don’t have to worry about her anymore.
I got her. She’s mine. Don’t call. Don’t text.
Oh wait, you already don’t. You just left your only daughter behind and forgot about her.
She’s still alive, you know? She is alive and she is breathing and she smiles and she’s so fucking funny and smart and she is here .
After she faced something so fucking horrendous and if she had just been shown grace…
just a little morsel of kindness… Fuck it.
I’m not going there. You know she signs now?
To me. Only me. Oh, and my mom now, apparently.
So, fuck you and your pathetic excuse for a family. She’s mine .”
Sofia looks at me but I drop my gaze to the ground. I’m just as surprised as them. “Is that true? You’re signing?”
“Don’t answer her, baby. She doesn’t deserve your time, your voice, nor your words. She’s not a mother. We can share mine. Axel, are you coming or staying? ”
I finally bring my gaze back up to meet his. His eyes are bouncing between each pair, contemplating between sticking up for me and with me… or standing by our parents. His trust fund. The future they hold in their hands.
“Yes, Axel, are you staying or going with them?” John asks.
Axel’s mouth opens and closes, no sounds coming out. Jonas scoffs once again, and he kisses my temple, the only reassurance he gives me as we step out of the circle we created and out into the cool night air.
We don’t wait very long for a car. Jonas opens the door for me and we hear Axel calling after us. But Jonas shakes his head at him, denying him entry to the car. “It was an easy decision, Axel. It was the easiest decision of your life.”
“Jonas, you don’t understand.”
“You’re right. I probably don’t. But if I’m honest, I don’t care for your explanation right now.
She might. And after you grovel and rest your case with her, I may forgive you.
But I won’t forget that you chose them over her.
Now, your sister and I are going to go back to her dorm because we have school tomorrow. ”
“You’re not going to the funeral tomorrow?”
“Of course I am. It’s business.”
“We’ll talk then?”
“I really don’t want you to talk to me.” Jonas replies coolly and closes the door.
I grab Jonas’ hand and climb into his lap, kissing the absolute fuck out of him.
“Where to?” the driver asks.
I pull away but before Jonas can answer, I lean into his ear and whisper, “home.”
Jonas gives the driver the address to the lake house where Jonas fucks me on every flat surface available until every hole of mine is sore, wearing the balaclava, never noticing the black Jeep that sat outside across the street.
Never noticing the black hooded shadow watching us through the blinds.