Chapter 19: Chapter 19

XLIII

"This is not how I imagined spending the last day of the year." Amber groans, holding me up by my arm, Liam on the other. I can walk, but they insisted that precausion was necessary.

"Sorry, guys, I just- I couldn't spend another day locked inside the house without... Well you know." I muster up a shitty apology for the shitty situation I'm in.

Axel's been gone a week today and I can't stand to even think about it.

Honestly, he spends the night with a woman and has the audacity to not apologize, blame it all on me, leave and not speak to me for a week?

Part of me is mad. Furious, even.

But a greater part is sad, sad to the point of not knowing whether I'll ever be happy again. I'm due in two weeks.

Two weeks.

In two weeks I'm having a baby with a person that I'm not speaking with - how is that for not being ready to be a parent?

I can't bring myself to understand why this time everything is so unlike us. Usually, we worked through our problems. This time it just seems as if neither of us has the energy to keep on fighting.

I know I would have plenty of energy if only he gave any sign that he cares, that he hasn't given up on us, but until he shows that, I feel hopeless. Hopeless to do anything about my relationship, my family. Hopeless to give my child the family he or she deserves.

Amber gives Liam a look, a look that I think wasn't meant to be seen by me. "What?" I immediately ask.

"Nothing, I just think that he hasn't cheated on you." Amber answers and my shoulders fall.

"Yeah, me too. But how can I know? It's like he has disappeared from the face of the earth." I take a tie in my hand, observing it. The shopping mall is as busy as expected, filled with people getting New Year presents on the last day. "Do you think dad will like this?"

"Yes." Liam rolls his eyes. "You're changing the topic, Sophie. Look, I spoke with Axel. I know he hasn't cheated."

I let the tie fall from my palm. "What? When? Why didn't you tell me?" I demand.

"Because, Sophie, you're family. We're family, just like Axel is and he asked me for a favour. As much as I love you, I have to respect him as well, since I'm in love with his sister." Liam explains.

"What kind of favour?" I turn to Amber, hoping she provides me with some answers.

"Just... Nothing big." she dismisses me and I frown.

"Stop it, right now, both of you two. This is serious, and I can't believe you're protecting him! He walked out on me and hasn't had the guts to apologize to me for anything! He knows that I did what I did to protect him and he still doesn't care about any of that, and obviously not about our baby! I can't believe you two!" I rip out my arms from theirs and begin to slowly walk away from them, away to the exit of the shop.

"No, wait, Sophie! He's..." Liam goes after me.

"Well, how's that for screwing up the plan." Amber sighs in exaparation, making me turn on my heels. "What plan?"

Suddenly, the music stops playing and instead, a voice comes through. "Is this shit on? Hello?"

My blood runs cold. It's Axel, and I just know this is not going to be good.

"Hey, guys, some of you might know me as Dave Axel Williams, the boxer and I'm sorry to disturb you all on such an important and busy day, so if you don't give a shit about me you can go on and do whatever the hell you were doing before, and if you do care, well, then shut the fuck up and listen." he says and I feel my blood flow slowing down with his every word.

Some murmuring can be heard in the background, then he speaks again. "Sorry, fuck, I'll be kind and nice. Okay, so here it goes. Um. Not many of you know me, and those of you who do, know that I'm a real pain in the ass. I agree with it, because I know it's true. I've actually never met anyone who was a worse person than myself. I wouldn't be telling you any of this, if there wasn't a girl somewhere between you. The girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes, next to the tie section in the Dolce Gabbana shop, the gorgeous one. You probably notice her, she's really beautiful. Okay, you dick in the black shirt stop with the fucking staring and move the fuck away- ow. What the-"

Some more ruffling is heard, and I feel my cheeks burning bright, partially with embarrassement and partly because I'm flattered. I look around to check if I see him but there's no sight of him. Where the hell is he? I force my feet to start moving towards the exit, wishing to escape all the stares.

"Sophie, no, wait!" Axel exclaims over the microphone. "This won't take much longer, I promise, and you being here is crucial in my plan! Okay, so anyway, people, as you can probably guess I screwed up which is why I'm here, putting on this show. In fact, I screwed up many times before, but let's not go into details." He pauses for a second. "You see, I love this girl. I love her with all my mind, my soul, and my body, enough to make a complete fool and idiot of myself before all of you." Laughter starts to fill the atmosphere as looks aren't focused on me anymore, but rather on a giant wolf costume entering the hall of the shopping mall.

Axel, dressed as a wolf.

"I wanted to look like Wolfie, and this was the closest thing they had." he shrugs. "I figured that if you were so happy when you got Wolfie as a present, you might be at least a little happy if you got me back, dressed as him." He starts coming closer to me, stopping just less than ten feet away from me. "I also got a tattoo for you, you'll see it later."

He looks around in embarrasement, and I can't help but giggle at him. "Look, baby. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, I never cheated on you, I have witnesses to confirm that. You know I'd never do that. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I know that I don't always treat you right - well, almost never - and I can't promise you that I will threat you the way you deserve from now on, but I can promise you that I will love you until I die, and if there's some sort of life after life, I'll love you even then."

He oversteps on his feet, and I can't get over how ridiculous he looks. "I didn't know what to do to win you back, and then I remembered this thing I found in your bedroom a few days ago before everything went to shit. A manuscript of a story you wrote. I know you always wanted to be a writer, so I pulled some strings and... Well, your book is being published. I actually have a copy here." he pulled out a book from behind his back while I stood dumbfounded, too shocked to realize this is real, when he hands me a paperback with a beautiful cover, titled His.

"Oh, my god." I whisper, tightly gripping the book.

"They said they broke the record for coming up with a cover and a copy this fast, but they're Penguin books, you know, and they're good." I cover my mouth, looking up at him wide-eyed.

"I'm sorry to just pile everything on you, baby, but I have one other question to ask you." he says after a few seconds and takes a deep breath, glancing around at the audience around us, like he's nervous.

And then he drops on his knee.

"Oh, my god." This time, it's not just a whisper coming out of my mouth.

Axel chuckles. "Considering the shit I've put you through, I should be lying on the floor, not just kneeling, but, Sophie, I've been wanting to ask you this since... Probably after the first month of knowing you. You'd be fucking crazy to say yes, but I know damn well that we're both crazy out of our fucking minds, so I'm giving this a chance, anyway. I love you and I want to prove it to you by asking you to marry me. You're the best I'm ever going to get, probably much better than I deserve, but I'd mean the world to me, if you just say yes-"

I open my mouth to stop his torture, planning on screaming yes, but instead a pained scream comes out of my mouth.

Axel is suddenly alarmed, on his two feet and holding me by my shoulders. "Sophie? Baby, you okay?"

I reply with another scream, and I soon hear AMber and Liam both next to me. "Shit, I knew I was bad at public speaking, but I still thought she'd say yes." Axel sounds disappointed and Amber slaps his arm.

"She's not saying no, you fucking idiot! She's in labour!" she replies and I contribute to that with another scream.

"Oh, fuck." In the next second, I'm being lifted up carefully in Axel's arms and carried straight to his car. Liam begins to drive as quickly as he can, while I take Axel's hand in mine, squeezing it.

"It's gonna be fine, baby, just hold on. You two are going to be just fine."

THE END