Fighting Fate (Fighting #7)(92)
His eyebrows pinch together. “You know she ended up having to drop out of school, right?”
“Yeah, she told me that when I saw her today.” I shrug, the news coming as little surprise. I figured the baby would force her to have to take time off school.
“She had to get a restraining order.”
Time comes to a grinding halt.
The pause button hit on all my internal organs.
No breathing.
No blinking.
I think even my pulse froze. “What did you say?”
“He f*cking tormented her, man.” He glares at me.
Still on pause. “What?”
“Clifford.” He throws his hands up. “Dude, are you f*cking listening to a word I’m saying? He bullied the shit out of Axelle after you left. He put up naked pictures of her on all the campus boards…”
Lungs back online and pumping.
“…f*cking tore her up on social media…”
Eyes blinking.
“…broke into her apartment and trashed the place…”
Pulse pounding.
“He’d make sure to catch her walking through campus so he could trip her and she’d fall flat on her face.”
Fury.
I push up so fast the stool crashes to the ground. My fists clench at my side as adrenaline bursts through my veins. “Why didn’t anyone f*cking tell me!”
He jumps off the couch, seeming just as angry as I am. “I f*cking tried! You were too busy being famous to give a shit!”
I fist my hands in my hair. “What the hell, Ry! You know I would’ve come home if I’d known this shit was going on!”
“We didn’t even know it was going on until it got so bad she couldn’t hide it anymore. Then she made us promise not to tell you.”
“Why the f*ck would she do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, *! Why don’t you pull your head out of your ass long enough to think about it?”
Think about it? I can’t concentrate on shit outside of breaking Clifford’s neck.
Unless… “The baby.” It had to be because of the baby, right? God, he tripped her when she was carrying his f*cking child! Anger rips red hot through me.
“What baby?”
Annnd I’m back to pause.
“Axelle’s baby.”
His face twists in confusion. “Axelle doesn’t have a baby.”
Hold on. I rub my eyes and try to shake the feeling of being part of some sick practical joke.
“When I left”—I shake my head, trying like hell to make sense of all this—“she was pregnant when I left.”
“No…” He frowns, shakes his head, blinks, and then… “Oh shit.”
“What?”
He drops back down the couch and rubs his temple. “She got really sick a couple of months before she dropped out. They told me it was a stomach bug. When she came back to school, she seemed a little, I don’t know, depressed or something. I just assumed she was still feeling like crap. Then Clifford started messing with her and…shit. I didn’t know.” He peers up at me. “She must’ve lost the baby.”
“When? Do you remember when all this happened?”
“Yeah, it was the time I called you. I called her later that day to talk to her about what a piece of shit you were and…” He leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Fuck.”
My chest feels like it’s about to explode through my skin.
He tilts his head and stares right through me. “She got sick on the phone. I had to call Blake and…damn, poor Axelle.”
“I should’ve been here,” I mumble to myself. “I never should’ve left.”
“Nothing you could’ve done, man.”
“She told me to leave and I listened. Why did I listen?” I pace the length of the room. “She needed me, and I didn’t even leave her a number to get in touch with me.”
“She had it.”
I freeze and whip my gaze to him. “What?”
“I gave it to her. She had it.”
“Why didn’t she—?”
He laughs, but the sound is more sad than happy. “She told me you’re too smart to give up your future for her.”
“She’s wrong.”
“That’s what I said.” He huffs out a breath. “Then she said, even if you’d tried to give it up, she’d never let you.”
“She didn’t. She made me go to London. I should’ve stayed in touch. Fuck! I should’ve grown a pair and stayed in contact.”
“What’s done is done, brother.”
“It’s not done.” I stare intently at him. “This shit is far from f*cking done.”
*
Axelle
“Make sure to double up on your water tonight. I went pretty deep to loosen that spasm in your lower back.” I wash my hands and hear the gentle hum of Cameron’s breathing. I turn away from the sink, wiping my hands. “Cam, wake up.”
His big body jerks on the table, and I quickly turn my back on him again. It’s not uncommon for some of the guys to doze off during a massage, but some of them tend to jump up when they wake, and being naked under the sheet has created a very uncomfortable situation more times than I can count.