The Marriage Swap || ON HOLD TILL SEPTEMBER

5 | 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚍

They struck Kai across his face because he was smiling and laughing with me. They told we are not to laugh, so I cackled like a maniac.

When they hit me, I stabbed a scissor into one of their eyes. I liked watching the crimson trickle down the man's eye as though he was shedding tears of blood. I love making them suffer. Seeing fear in their gaze even if it's for a moment, before they decide to do something terrible in repentance.

Kai Park worries one day I might turn worse than them and somehow. . . despite the burn marks on my cheeks from the coal they stuck to my face straight out of the furnace, it makes me smile for the first time. Because I'm bloody waiting for that day.

~ from the journal entries of Daisy

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☘︎ Eᴠᴇ Kᴀᴠɪɴsᴋʏ ☘︎

It shouldn't be surprising to learn that I almost electrocute myself and accidentally enable all the security alarms, by walking straight into an invisible laser-shield fence around the Hernandez Villa.

Axel wounds an arm around my stomach, pulling me back from the foyer. I feel the corded muscles of his arm as he holds me firmly against his suit-clad body. His fingers press into my hips, the warmth of his breath caressing the skin of my neck, "There's a laser-shield fence around the house. If within five minutes, you don't step back from the foyer, you'll get electrocuted." He explains in that obscenely blank tone, lifting me off my feet a little and taking a step back with me in his arms as though I'm a weightless ragdoll.

Axel lets go immediately once he's sure I'm out of harm's way. I blink, dumbfounded for a moment, the sensational warmth of his form pressed against my back still clinging to my neurons. Swishing my head left to right, I try to shake away the feeling like one rids bacteria off their skin.

"You weren't kidding about the security system. This is low-key how government buildings are secured in spy movies." I stare wide-eyed, buzzing with excitement. I swear in the name of Iodine, if this isn't cool as a cucumber.

Axel passes me a cursory nod. When the alarm continues to wail like a police siren, he dials someone and brings his phone to his ear, "I know you're surveiling, Tori. Disable it."

I don't think there's a response from the receiving end, but the alarm goes off the next second and the guards who'd come over to check, return to their posts.

"5646 is the code. The lasers are usually down, except at night when the guards don't circle the Villa in close perimeters. You can't get past the laser-fence until you enter the passcode, or someone disables the shield from inside the house." Axel informs, "And this system is designed by my niece, not my security team."

With that, he stalks off towards the entrance door, long legs moving in powerful strides, his suit stretching over his body with the movement in a way it should be illegal. I follow, lifting my wedding gown and rushing behind him like some damsel in distress. I'm not, a damsel, I mean.

But I do enjoy the whole movie-worthy running scene into a new house, especially when the house is as pretty inside as it was outside.Woodsy and dark academia theme, vintage couches and paintings, french doors and windows. The place is a royal daydream.

"You have a niece?" My voice echoes in the silent confines of the magnanimous villa, the walls repeating my statement again and again. It makes me grin and out of glee, I ramble further, "Does she work in the security company you're going to inherit? You barely seem thirty, are you the youngest child?"

Axel dutifully—surprise, surprise—ignores me, turns away and starts moving towards the stairways, never bothering to answer.

"Helloooo." I'm too thrilled by the sound reverberations to be bothered by his asshole-y fungi-ness, "I'm talking to youuu."