Axel:A Bad Boy Romance(23)

Hayden's nostrils flared, but he didn't say anything. His arms were  crossed and he stared at Axel. He was almost shaking with fury. Axel was  afraid of this, but somewhere along the line he had decided Marie was  worth it. His mother's speech had gotten to him. He wasn't sure why or  how, but it had. He wanted Marie and she was here. If he put off being  with her, he could lose her forever. Consequences be damned, he was  going for it.





Chapter Twenty-Three



Her hair was pinned up and off her neck in elegant curls. It was held in  place with bobby pins topped with fake pearls. It was an elegant updo  with twisting and turning strands of hair spun and woven into intricate  patterns. She turned her head this way and that, trying to catch a  glimpse of the artistry on her head. There were large pearl earrings  hanging from her earlobes and she felt them move every time she did.



Marie was still in her normal clothes. Only from her scalp up did she  look like an elegant eighteenth century lady. As she sat down in front  of her mirror, her makeup spread out before her, she thought of Emma,  Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. The timing didn't  match up perfectly, but it was close enough.



She thought that, perhaps, tonight, if she closed her eyes and tried  hard enough, she could really convince herself she was in another time.  She wasn't Marie DeSantos on the run from her ex-boyfriend. No, instead  she could be an eligible young lady at a formal gathering. Her father  and mother would be people of good standing in the community. She would  be considered a good match and men from all over the countryside would  come to the ball, just for the chance to meet her.



"Mama," Cate called from the other side of her bathroom door. Oh right,  she thought with a crooked smile to her own reflection, if I did live in  another time I would be an unmarried woman with a daughter. I would  never be invited to a party of this kind.



"You can come in," Marie called. It was fun to pretend, but she could  never let herself get too lost. She had a very real, flesh and blood  daughter whom she loved more than anything. She would rather be who she  was now, with Cate, than anyone else in history.



"Can I put my dress on now?" Cate whined, putting her best pouty face on.



"No, dear. The party isn't for another hour and I don't want you getting  it dirty. I told you, when the clock says six-thirty, then you can get  dressed, but not a moment before."



Cate released the longest and most dramatic sigh Marie had ever heard  before sitting down on the edge of the tub. Taking a black pencil Marie  began to carefully put on her eyeliner. Not too much makeup; ladies  during this time would have only worn a little bit. Just enough to  accent the features, anything more than that would have been considered  unseemly.         

     



 



"Mama, is Daddy coming to the party?" Cate asked.



Marie froze, one eye outlined in black, the other still bare. "No my  darling I'm afraid not," Marie answered. "I think we might not see Daddy  again for a very long time. Maybe never again."



"Because he made you cry so much?" Cate asked.



Marie's heart broke. It fell into a million little pieces and crashed  down onto the white tile floor of the bathroom. Of course Cate knew. Did  Marie really think she could hide such a thing? She had tried so hard  to protect her from everything. She had tried to create a home filled  with love, she had lied and hid her tears, but her daughter had seen  everything. "Yes," Marie said and she was holding back tears now. Her  other eye finished she turned to look at Cate and knelt down in front of  her. "Your father was very mean and very cruel and I worried for our  safety. That is why we left."



"Does Daddy know where we are?"



"No."



"Good," she said, her bright eyes turned up towards Marie. "I like it better with just you and me."



Marie stroked her daughter's hair away from her face and smiled at her.  It was hard being a mom. She never knew if what she was doing was right.  She prayed her actions didn't lead to years of therapy for Cate. But  she was only one person. There was only so much that was within her  power. She had got her daughter out of a dangerous situation and she  hoped it would be enough.



"Listen, Cate, you need to promise me you'll be very careful, okay?  Don't get into a car with anyone who isn't me or Ingrid. Don't talk to  any strangers especially anyone who asks you anything about me or where  we're from. Can you do that? Just don't talk to strangers and if your  dad comes and tries to get you in the car I want you to run in the other  direction. Can you do that?"



Cate nodded with a sudden look of serious and fierce determination on  her face. Is this right? Marie wondered. Is this too much to ask of a  five-year-old? Cate should be catching tadpoles and skinning her knees,  not running from her own father, not constantly being on the lookout for  danger.



He can't find us, she thought as she kissed Cate on her forehead and  then stood up and turned back to the mirror. Where was Austin now?  Looking for her, no doubt. Had she covered her tracks well enough? She  had done everything she could think to keep him off her trail and, so  far, it had been working. But so far wasn't enough. Right now she knew  Austin would be in a rage. He would scream and rant and order his men to  find her. It would be a humiliation for him, a personal insult that  Marie had left him and taken his daughter. How would he explain their  sudden disappearance to everyone back in Arizona?



Marie focused on her makeup, adding a little dark eye shadow to her  eyes, some lipstick to her mouth. She couldn't waste her time worrying  about Austin. There was nothing more she could do but wait and hope he  didn't find her. She was well-hidden. She just needed to keep her head  down as long as she could, long enough for Austin to move on. It  shouldn't take long he took every available opportunity to tell Marie he  didn't even want Cate.



"You got pregnant on purpose," he spit at her when he had seen the test. "How do I even know it's mine?"



Tears poured down Marie's face. They were in her aunt's bathroom, a  litter box in the corner. This wasn't how she pictured this. She had  been scared, but otherwise happy when she saw the test. She had always  wanted a child, a family of her own, a real one. She thought Austin  would be happy.



He almost never used a condom. He told her they were uncomfortable. He  promised to pull out, which he did about half the time. How was it  possible that her being pregnant was a surprise? They weren't careful at  all. But here he was, fuming and pointing his finger and demanding a  paternity test to prove it was his while Marie cried and tried to figure  out where she went wrong.



Austin's parents ordered the two to marry and bought them a house.  Austin started working at his father's security company while Marie  stayed at home with Cate. They had fallen into a life together and  neither one of them had wanted to be there. Marie spent her pregnancy  alone in Austin's house while he went out partying with his friends.



"Let the boy have his last bit of fun," Austin's father said when he  caught Marie crying one night. "His whole life is ruined now, because of  this, because of you. Don't you think he deserves this?"



What about me? If only Marie had asked that question when she had been  seventeen. But she didn't know how. She was young and naïve and she  still had innate trust of adults. Austin's father was a real man; he had  a good business, a nice car, a fancy house. She believed the things he  had said and he hadn't given a second thought to Marie. No one had. No  one worried what the pregnancy was like for her. No one thought that  maybe she deserved some fun, as well. No, according to Austin's parents  this was all her fault anyway. So she suffered the consequences alone.         

     



 



Cate played with one of Marie's makeup brushes and Marie smiled down at  her. Cate was right: everything was better with just the two of them.  They were happier and healthier than they had ever been. Soon Austin  would get tired of looking. Soon he would admit that he was relieved  they were gone. He could admit that he wasn't built for fatherhood and  he could go his own way and Marie and Cate could go their own way.





Chapter Twenty-Four



"Oh, Axel. I can't. It's too nice," his mother's voice echoed from the  other room and Axel rolled his eyes for what must have been the  hundredth time.



"Ma! Just put the dress on!" Axel called back over. It had been a  surprise for the party. Some members of the historical society would be  attending in old timey clothes. His mother hadn't said anything about it  to him, but he knew she would love to go to the party in costume. But  those costumes weren't cheap and Axel knew how much she hated asking him  for money. So he didn't wait for her to ask. He went ahead and ordered  the dress for her, going through her closet to find her measurements.