CHAPTER 316
~Axel's Point Of View~
{Some Days Back}
I never smoked before Madrid. Not once. I thought it was stupid. I saw it as a vice for the weak, a poor excuse for coping. I remember mocking Rafael for doing it when his mother passed. Told him grief wasn't a fire that needed more smoke.
Now look at me.
Crouched on the edge of the private terrace in my wing, shirtless, barefoot, knuckles still bruised from training, with a cigarette burning between my fingers like it was the only damn thing holding me together.
The embers hissed in the breeze, just like my thoughts. I took another drag. It burned. So did everything else. Two months into marriage. That's all it took to start falling apart.
We hadn't even had time to frame a wedding photo.
