Page 120 of Ravaged For You

“You think she wants to leave?” Mom asks with a raised eyebrow. “Come on, Axel, you’re smarter than that. I raised you to be more aware than this. Do you not know her? Do you not know her feelings for you?”

“Mom…”

God, I sound like such a whining schoolboy when it comes to her little lectures.

“You do not need me to tell you that Maddie Leaver would have traveled with you to the ends of the earth, Axel. She gave up everything for you. A normal life. Her own mother.”

“So you know everything was fake, then?”

She smiles. “Was it, though? Really? Was it ever fake?”

“We signed a business deal.”

“What you two had – have – is a whole lot more than a piece of paper.”

I wave away her stupid rhetorical questions. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“You say you want to soak up what the world has to offer you? Well, Axel, Maddie is, by far, the best thing that’s been offered. I know my own son better than he knows himself, it seems. I know what you truly think about Maddie. Cut out the rest of that rockstar bullshit and you will find that you are just two kids in love.”

I grunt. “Leave me alone, Mom.”

She shakes her head. I can sense her disappointment in me. And that stings.

“Goodnight, Axel.”

“Goodnight, Mom.”

And just like Maddie, she walks away. I watch her go.

But fuck me, I know she’s right. Every word she said to me.

She’s always fucking right.

53

MADDIE

I cry in the taxi all the way back to my new fancy condo. God, I must be such a lovely sight for the poor taxi driver. I mean, I do try to hide my sobbing, but who am I kidding? I must look like such a mess.

I should never have trusted Axel Stoll with my heart.

I should have listened to my mother and her words of wisdom about men and relationships. Axel simply has proven my crazy Mom right. All men really are out for one thing and that one thing only.

This is all my own making. My own fault.

The taxi pulls up to my place. I wipe my eyes before I pay the taxi driver, handing him a big tip for having to deal with my sorry ass, then step outside into the night air of LA.

Thank God my new neighbors can’t see me crying in the darkness.

I glance around just in case anyone’s peeking through their windows. I’m so paranoid.

And I’m so alone.

My God, I feel alone.

Yeah, I have all the money from Lucas and Ravaged for a job well done, but that means nothing when you have a broken heart. No amount of money can fix a wound like that.

The way he didn’t seem to care. The way he just… let me go. Forever. Without a word in protest.