Scandalous Love

26. | Riley

I didn't hear from James until later in the night when I received a text from him, telling me to meet him and everyone else at the dance studios. 

There wasn't much context as to what time or what for but I was pretty sure it was just for rehearsals. I decided to leave James's around the same time I had read the text, at six o'clock. 

I wasn't too sure on where exactly I was going but I was trying to recall the directions James had led me in the last time I was here. It wasn't too far from the flats. The studios were just in the same neighbourhood and was probably the tallest building in the area it's lights being the only source of brightness in spite of the sun and moon. 

I casually strolled down the path, holding my phone in hand as I sent James a text back to let him know I was on my way. 

There was a hill I had to climb up before reaching the entrance but just as I was about to do so, the vibrant sound of chatter filled my ears and I instantly turned my phone off to listen.

 I would recognise those voices anywhere and the moment I register who and where it was coming from, I duck down and hide behind a row of bushes alongside the path. I peered through the leaves, able to identify whose lips the voices were leaving. 

"You mean to say you haven't seen her at all? The entire day you've been here?" Dad's voice says through the phone Uncle Jenson held in his hand. 

He sighs, stressfully running his hand through his hair and shaking his head. 

I could see Axel stood amongst Blake and Jenson and they were stood in a three. "I can't believe we're having to postpone Cotillion because of her. I knew she wasn't ready. I warned her about this," Axel mutters under his breath, his voice all gravelly as he spoke. 

He paces up and down, biting the skin of his thumb as if he was really worried about me but I knew he couldn't have cared less. 

The only reason he's pretending to be into me is so that when we eventually get married, he'd be the one marrying into power. Mum and Dad didn't give birth to boys so it's the guys who marry into our family instead of Emily and I marrying into others. 

I don't know which one I would have preferred - it all felt the same regardless. It was an arrangement and it was one that was forced which I certainly didn't want to be a part of.

"Keep looking for her," Dad instructs harshly through the speaker-phone. "I've got the others keeping an eye on CCTV and I've assigned some of them to stand by the gates. That girl doesn't know what sort of games she's playing right now," he says, making my breath hitch but I try to stay as silent as possible. 

Axel was still pacing up and down, looking around as if I would just suddenly pop out of somewhere. 

"That girl is your daughter, Richard," Uncle Jenson tells him before Dad's response takes a massive hit at me. 

"She's not acting like any daughter of mine." He ends the call there and at the sound of his words, it causes me to lose my balance a little, shaking the bush. 

Axel hesitates and then looks back towards the bush I was behind before he squints his eyes, narrowing them until our eyes met. 

I bite my lip, trying to remain as still and quiet as possible but he had seen me - it was inevitable. I plead with him with my eyes, trying my best to get him to not say anything. 

He shakes his head at me violently, as if in disappointment and frustration, but I put my hands out in a begging manner. He sighs, still annoyed with me as he scrunches his lips up into a round ball. I had no idea what he was going to do - maybe he was going to rat me out so I was caught red handed, I was at a loss.