Accidental Fiancé

8: Escape

Eight: Escape

When the phone rang again, Hiccup was alone, curled on the bed and staring at the wall, nursing the lump on the side of his head. As soon as he had come in, Bella had hit him over the head with a vase an she had then...kicked him quite a lot. And he had been scared to touch her because he knew how charming and manipulative she was-and was convinced the cops would believe her over him. So when he had recovered enough to move, he had been forced to clean the apartment, as Arabella had demanded once she had removed his keys, wallet and phone and thrown out the trash-including most of his things-though she had made him keep a couple of items to wear as a reminder of his stupidity in betraying her.

She had been forced to return his phone because it was a work phone provided by Berk Aero to ensure they could discuss design queries with him at any time, but she habitually scanned his calls and texts to make sure he wasn't contacting anyone she didn't authorise. She had forced him to open the phone and erase Astrid from his contacts as well as blocking her number...but when he was in his room, the door locked to prevent him escaping, he had unblocked her...not that he expected her to call back. He believed that he had lost his one chance.

"Hi Hiccup!" Astrid's voice was cheerful and the fact she had actually called him like she had promised warmed his chest and made him feel very slightly better. "Is this a better time?"

"H-hi, Astrid," he said shakily, a smile tugging his lips. "Um...yeah. I'm good. How are you? What have you been up to?"

"Oh-you know, winning soccer matches," she said and he could hear the smile in her voice. "How about you?" He cringed inwardly.

"Oh-same old, same old," he said with forced levity. "Teased almost to death because I'm now engaged to the most eligible woman in the Archipelago but hey, just loving life otherwise..." Not. Very much not.

There was a small laugh from the other end and then a pause.

"Actually, we need to talk about that," she said and he felt his heart plummet to his boots. This was it-as Bella had warned him. She was ending it and would humiliate him by making a statement that he couldn't have possibly gotten engaged to someone as worthless as he was. And though he knew it was coming, it felt like someone had sucked all the air from the room.

"Oh." He couldn't manage anything else.

"Look-it's complicated and it's not really fair to discuss it over the phone," Astrid said seriously. "Can you get to Archi City?" He gave a small dry laugh. He would be lucky if Bella would even allow him to leave the apartment to go to work and he had very little money.

"No sweat-I'll get the private plane warmed up and we'll zip right over," he replied sarcastically, biting his lip. He tasted blood. She sighed.

"And Mr Sassy is back," she said in her smiling voice. "Look, Hiccup-I'll have the ticket waiting at the airport. You're booked onto the 9.40 flight tomorrow morning. All you have to do is get to the airport and I have organised the rest. Okay?"

Bella will never let me go...

"What about my work?" he asked and she frowned.

"Hmm...from what you told me, you can do some remotely as long as you are in touch with the office for specifications," she reminded him and he nodded unwillingly. He had carefully never told Bella that fact or she would have sequestered him in the apartment most of the time and forbidden him from interacting with almost everyone. "Bring your computer-I have excellent WiFi and can get whatever you need..."

And she will spread lies about me to the papers. And I can't embarrass Astrid...Or go to the cops. Thor, if she does that, my Dad will kill me and I don't think I could cope with going to prison...