Chapter 61: Chapter 61

LXI

Mum was... Bad, to put it nicely. She looks like she has lost weight, her cheeks sunken, underneath her eyes dark circles, and her hair a mess.

"Oh, sweetie, thank you so much for stopping by. Happy birthday." she exhales and hugs me tightly, not letting me go for quite a few moments. She needs this, and so do I.

Axel squeezes my hand in his and I squeeze it back, telling him that I'm okay. Wolfie cries a bit from the ground and he takes it in his arms.

"Oh, would you look at that! Did you get a puppy?" she says, excited.

"Yes, Axel got it for my birthday." I grin. "His name is Wolfie."

"Well, he looks like a wolf." she chuckles and looks at Axel. "Despite everything, I'm glad she has you, you know. I'm glad she has someone looking after her and caring about her and it's pretty obvious that you do, so thank you." she tells him, who offers her a genuine smile, the smile I see on his face very rarely.

"You don't have to thank me, ma'am. I love her." he says and I feel my heart warm up in my chest.

"I know you do, son. Now, come on. I've made you a cake, Sophie." she says and leads us into the kitchen. On the table, there is a big chocolate cake waiting for us and I gasp. It's beautiful and it looks delicious, even though I already know how it will taste. Mum always used to make this cake for me, it was my absolute favourite.

"Thank you, mum." I grin at her and she smiles.

"Things have changed so much, it's nice to see that some things stayed the same." she says and there is a certain sadness in her eyes as she speaks.

"Do you think he's... You know, okay?" I ask her, referring to dad.

She looks at her trembling hands and doesn't say anything for a minute. I can't imagine how this is for her, she truly and deeply loves my dad and he's never left like this, not that I remember.

"I-I don't know. I hope." she finally says. "He was such a mess, God. I can't even explain. He wouldn't listen to me and he yelled like crazy. He hasn't yelled at me in such a long time. I-I made him sleep on the couch, but when I woke up, he wasn't there anymore. He just left."

She has tears in her eyes and I wrap my arms around her. I'm beyond scared for my father, but at least I have Axel. She's alone.

And you will be soon too, if you move to Spokane.

I push the thought away and kiss mum on her forehead. "He'll come around, you know he will." I say and unwrap my arms from her. Axel immediately takes my hand again.

"I really hope you're right. Now, let's not my baking skills go to waste. Eat, children." she urges and I laugh and Axel smiles.

She never speaks of my dad again, keeping conversation as light as possible, which means that we talk about everything except the things we should talk about. We stay for about two hours, but when I feel Axel getting impatient, I stand up and tell her we have to leave.

She seems disappointed, but understands. "You have to call me more often, sweetie, and I mean it this time."

I know I haven't spoken to her a lot, or at all, since I left home. It's like something was holding me back.

Yeah, shame.

I inwardly roll my eyes at my mind.

"I will, I promise." and I mean it this time. I need to tell her about moving anyway.

"Well then, you two have a nice day." she smiles and we wave at her before she shuts the door and me and Axel go to his truck. I take Wolfie into my lap on the passenger's seat while Axel climbs in driver's seat. The puppy seems to be taking driving well for now and I'm beyond glad.

"So I wanted you to find out on your own," Axel's deep voice fills my ears as we buckle up, "but you obviously won't find out very soon."

I give him a weird look. "What are you talking about?"

"Look under his collar, love." he instucts and my fingers immediately begin to inspect it. After a second, I find a small piece of paper tucked into it and I pull it out.

On it, there are words scribbled in handwriting. Axel's handwriting.

She smelled of books and stories

of all the worlds she'd lived within,

as though the ink had left the pages,

to find a new home in her skin.

I look up at him.

"What's this?"

He smiles and shrugs, but doesn't say anything.

I flip the note around, and in the back there's something else written.

Your favourite place

"What is this Axel?" I pester and he leans over, pressing a kiss on my cheek.

"You'll just have to find out, baby."