The Marriage Swap || ON HOLD TILL SEPTEMBER

6 | 𝙱𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚜

Take care of my daughter, Axel. Be the brother she never had, the uncle you always are and the father she'll no longer have. We both know I'm not getting out of here alive.

~notes from Axel's brother.

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☘︎ Axᴇʟ Hᴇʀɴᴀɴᴅᴇᴢ ☘︎

Murdered. Not dead.

Refraining myself from speaking that word ought to have been difficult, yet I couldn't let her know too much.

There's a reason the staff aren't allowed to stay over in the mansion at night, the evidence of which Tori has around her throat in the form of a nasty knife scar. There's a reason I keep away from people because the minute they know about my family, their personalities change until all that's left is bitter hatred, deeming me and Tori the culprit when we've never done anything. It only makes me want to do something to give them a reason to hate.

There's no deluding Eve wouldn't follow suit to all of their reactions. Given her history with Michael, the woman has a habit of spying around. It is better if she knew about me as less I knew of her. Which was; she's the daughter of a retired Army General and his wealthy socialite slash global influencer wife. And that my enemy had been desperate to marry her, not for love but something I can't figure out.

The telltale sound of the microwave's alarm has me focusing on the task at hand; heating the Pakistani cuisine the chef prepared before she left, the dish my niece favors.

The flavored aroma of the food follows me out the kitchen along to the second floor's left wing where Tori's lab is situated. Knowing her, she's been there the whole time. While Eve and I had dinner back in the flight, my niece must've skipped on food the first chance she got. Not because she wants to, mostly because she forgets.

I can't be her mother. But I try every day to be some family she can rely on, so that she doesn't feel the emptiness I did growing up.

The biometric scanners outside Tori's lab door does a laser sweep of my retina and with a fingerprint scan on the pad attached to the door, it swings open.

Tori is tapping down furiously on the console in front of the various monitors mounted on the wall. Her pet snake slithers from her shoulder to coil around the curls of her hair, staring at the monitors with animalistic, green serpent eyes.

I make my way over, setting down the tray of food on the only vacant place I spot next to the console, "Eat." I command my niece, crossing my arms over my chest in a feeble attempt to appear stern.

Tori passes me a cursory glance, then goes back to her typing. I chance a glance at the screens and let out a sigh. Camera footages from every roads, the exterior of Louvre Museum, Palace Of Versailles. . .there isn't a place in France with a security camera she hadn't hacked into.

"How many times must I tell you this is illegal?" I push the food towards her so she gets my message.

"It isn't illegal if no one knows about it, Uncle Xel." Tori deadpans, pausing for a second to scan the content on the food tray, "Besides, this mere task of camera mirroring is beneath my expertise. If pushed, I can master in hacking government security systems. Hopefully the system of the president of France. I just need a reason to do it."

Ofcourse, she does. Tori might seem a very mature and reserved teenager, but she still has my brother's streak of rebellion in her, just as she has her mother's brain. I'm not even sure I'm raising the kid right.

"Now that you're going to inherit the law firm, does the plan still stand?" In that moment, Tori looks younger than her age, her brown eyes saddened despite how much she conceals it.