Chapter 16

~A Few Years Ago~

Axel was at school when he was just seven years old. He was in class when the police came in and took him away to the police station.

"Did I do something bad?" he asked the police officers sitting in front of him with fear in his tone.

They both looked at each other, not sure how to tell him or if they even should. The one who was sitting in the passenger seat turned around to look at him.

"No. We are just taking you to the police station because you were really good." the police officer lied.

"Wow, really?" Axel asked excitedly.

"Yes." he lied.

"I have to tell my parents this." Axel told him excitedly.

"They know. They were the ones who told us about the good things you did." he lied again.

"Oh, cool." Axel said and sat back in the seat and asked them questions about what the police do and how they caught the bad guys.

Once he was at the station, they gave him a stuffed animal and a box of chocolate. He was told to wait and behave for sometime.

Axel waited patiently for hours until he fell asleep. He didn't know how long it was before someone woke him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was his mother's friend.

"Uncle Owen." Axel said sleepily.

He got up and rubbed his eyes.

"Come on, son." Owen told him, reaching out to him. "You are coming with me."

"What about mom and dad? Are they late again?" Axel asked innocently.

Owen held in his tears and faked a smile.

"Plum missed you. She said she wanted to play with you." he told her.

Axel hoped off his feet quickly and held his hand. He looked at him happily.

"Come on, uncle Owen. I wanna see her and tell her that I got gifts from the police." he told him.

Owen nodded at him and took him home.

When they got home, Emily ran up to Axel and hugged him tightly.

"How are you, Axel?" she asked him with a sad smile.

"I'm good, Auntie Emily. I am a bit hungry." Axel told him.

"Oh, you are right on time. Cece and Plum are eating dinner too. You can join them at the table." Emily told them and took him to the table.

Axel excitedly went to Plum and Celia and told them everything that had happened to him today.

"That's so cool, Ax. I wish that the police would give me gifts, too." Plum told him in a happy tone.

"You're being childish." Celia told her dismissively with a slight scowl.

"Now, now Cece. Don't be rude to your sister. And Plum, you have enough toys as it is." Emily told her.

Plumeria pouted sadly.

"Why don't guy eat first and then you take him to your room to play." Owen told her.

Plumeria nodded. They finished their breakfast and then went to Plumeria's room. After playing with each other, they fell asleep.

The next morning, after having breakfast, Owen and Emily sat the kids down.

"We need to talk to you." Owen told them with a grim expression.

"What is it, daddy?" Plumeria asked.

"Axel." Owen looked at him and told him that his parents were no longer in the world.

That day was the worst day of his life. He cried and went to his parents' funeral, where he kept crying. He only stopped crying when he felt tired and fell asleep.

When they got home, Plumeria kept him company while he cried silently, hugging his parents' pictures.

A few days later the Ashlyn's official adopted Axel since his mother made them his guardians if anything were to happen to her or her husband.

The Ashlyn's never treated or made Axel feel like an outsider. They always treated him fairly and like their own. And Plumeria was happy to have him as a brother, while Celia didn't care much about it.

They went to the same school together and shared a lot of things. Somewhere in between, he fell in love with Plumeria, but since she was her sister on the documents, he kept it to himself.

Axel was good in school and excelled in every subject, but he was a big crybaby. He was happy with them, but then everything changed when he heard Owen and Emily talking one day.

He had just gotten home after having a party, because he had just completed high school, when he passed by Owen and Emily's room. He accidentally heard them talking.

"Don't you think that we should tell Axel about his parents?" Emily asked Owen.

"And tell him was, Emily? That I killed his parents?" Owen asked her.

Axel's heart dropped when he heard that the people who adopted him were the ones who killed his parents. He didn't want to believe it, so listened some more.

"He's old enough to know, honey." Emily told him.

"No, he's not. It's best he doesn't find out about this ever." Owen told her.

Suddenly Plumeria grabbed him for a headlock.

"Hey, little Ax." She grinned.

"Let go of me." he told her in an annoyed tone and pushed her away.

Plumeria looked at him, confused.

"What's wrong?" She asked him with a slight frown.

"Just leave me alone." Axel told her angrily and stormed to his room.

Her parents came out of their room when they heard them.

"What's wrong?" They asked her.

She shrugged.

"I don't know. He didn't say." She told them.

"Maybe he's just tired. Let him rest today." Owen told her.

Plumeria nodded and went away.

Owen and Emily looked at each other with concern.

The next morning, Axel came up to the table with a suitcase when they were having breakfast. Everyone looked at him, confused.

"I'm leaving." Axel announced.

"What? Where? Why didn't you tell us?" Owen asked him in shock.

"Anywhere but here. I can't live under the same roof as my parent's killer." Axel told him with hatred.

"What do you mean?" Plumeria asked him in shock.

"Last night, I heard your confession about what you did to my parents. I heard you say that you killed them with my own ears." Axel told him with hatred.

Owen looked away quietly.

"Dad? What is he saying?" Plumeria asked him, but he didn't answer her.

Axel grabbed the handle of his suitcase tightly as he was burning with anger on the inside.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Axel yelled at him. "You were the closest thing I had to my own parents! I trusted you and loved you. How could you do that to me? To my parents? They trusted you more than anyone else in this world. Did you feel no shame while raising me? Did you feel not the least bit guilty?" he asked them while trying to hold back the pain.

Owen again said nothing.

"Try to deny it, at least! It was a misunderstanding, tell me! Tell me that I came halfway in the conversation and didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Tell me that it was so another Axel you were talking about! Lie to me if you have to!" Axel told him with a hint of desperation in his tone.

Even though he was angry with them, he still loved them and he desperately wanted it to be a misunderstanding.

Owen slowly got up and looked at him.

"I'm sorry, son. I really am." he told him.

"So you're agreeing to it, then?" Axel asked in a disappointed tone. "Fine. From now on, I don't want to do anything with you. I'm taking you off as my legal guardians."

He turned around and left.

"Axel, stop!" Emily called after him and then looked at her husband desperately. "Owen, do something!"

Plumeria didn't know what was happening, but she couldn't let Axel leave like that, so she ran after him while Celia continued to eat her breakfast like nothing had happened.

She saw him walking out the doors.

"Axel, wait!" she called after him.

He recognized her voice and turned around to look at her. She stood in front of him, breathing unevenly.

"Where will you go?" she asked him worriedly.

"I'll get a hotel room for a few days and then I'll go to France." He told her.

"France? Why there?" she asked him in confusion.

"I applied for a scholarship there and got it." He told her.

Tears filled her eyes.

"Do you really have to leave?" she asked him with her voice breaking at the end. "Do you hate me too?"

She started crying. His heart broke when he saw the tears flowing down her cheeks. He hugged her tightly.

"I will never hate you. You will always be my lovely little sister. You can come with me, you know." he told her. "We can live together. I have more than enough money from my parent's inheritance to support us both."

She sniffed and pulled away, wiping her tears away. She looked at him and shook her head.

"I can't leave mom, dad and Celia alone. They need me. Especially since Celia gets admitted to the hospital most of the time." She told him.

"Even after you found out that he killed my parents?" he asked her, feeling disappointed.

"I trust my father, Axel. He didn't agree or deny that fact, which meant that he must have some difficult reason that is preventing him from telling you the truth." She told him.

"Plum, unless he explains to me exactly what happened, I will never talk to him or your mother ever again, since she is also involved with him. I can't stay here knowing that there might be a possibility that he might've killed my parents. I'll text you the hotel I'm staying in. But if you tell them where I am, then I promise you that I will cut you off too if I have to." he told her and left.

She didn't follow him and watched him leave.

"Please, stay safe." She said in a low tone as he disappeared from her sights.

…

Axel was walking to the elevator to buy something to eat for her. As soon as he was close to the elevator, the door opened and Emily and Owen bumped into Axel.

"I'm sorry." Emily apologized and looked up.

When she saw Axel she was a bit surprised, but mostly, she was happy to see him.

"Axel." she said with tears in her eyes.

"How have you been?" Owen asked, also happy to see him.

But Axel ignored them and walked past them into the elevator.

"She's in room x." he told them just as the elevator doors were about to close.

Axel's expression darkened, and he tightly closed his fist.