The Varkas Brothers And Their Princess novel Chapter 19

ROSETTE

I had woken up panicked, thinking I was late for work again, but then I remembered I quit and immediately went back to sleep. Kross didn’t give me time to start with the greenhouse. I could start whenever I wanted.

So I slept, but then a noise woke me. A shout, actually. It was Axel. I immediately threw the blanket off, racing out of my room barefoot.

When I got to the stairs, nothing could have prepared me for the sight I saw.

I hadn’t known the Varkas brothers were close. They were always distant from each other and barely had conversations, so I thought they weren’t close. I was wrong.

They were close–closer than I thought.

Axel raised his head from Kross‘ shoulder, his eyes meeting mine and all thoughts fled my head. He… he looked miserable. His eyes were red and swollen, the circles around them like bruises.

I was already moving before I knew what I was doing, but Kross’s voice stopped me.

“Rosette.” I stopped walking, my eyes moving to him. His eyes met mine, his voice and expression now back to the way I was used to. Why was that surprising to me? Did I think because he shared some things with me that he’d open up to me? What bullshit. “It’ll be better if you go back to your room.”

“It’s okay,” Axel whispered, pulling away from his brother, looking anywhere but at me.

He said it was okay, yet he wouldn’t even look at me. And even though it was okay, Kross and Kade’s eyes told me it wasn’t.

So I turned and ran back up, my bare foot slapping against the marble stone,

He was hurting. Axel was hurting. I didn’t know why but something told me I was the cause. Was it because of what happened yesterday? Because that was when he withdrew from me. I couldn’t get the look in his eyes out of my mind. That look of fear, of shock, and regret. I couldn’t understand what it meant even though I had spent hours pondering it.

I had said I would talk to him this morning, but well…

I closed my door, resting my back against it. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

What has it been? Three days? Two days? Two days and that sanity I wanted to hold on to was slipping out of my hands fast, and that sanity was nothing I could do about that.

Kross hadn’t told me what to do with the money, and I’m sure he wouldn’t care. Three thousand… that was enough to get me into college.

I was going to look into colleges. If I stay in this house longer than needed, I might go crazy.

***

Three days… Three days, and I’ve tried my hardest, HARDEST, best to avoid the Varkas brothers. I only came out when I was sure they were all gone. And I went straight to the kitchen, filling a basket with food and water, and then I went straight to the greenhouse.

The first day, it wasn’t hard to find my way to the greenhouse. It pretty much stood out. And when I got inside, everything I needed was there. And I just stood still and stared at the greenhouse.

It looked like a mini forest.

I had walked around it, trying to decide where I would start from. And then I had come around something that made me pause and stare and stare for what felt like hours.

A large patch of soil looked dull and grayish, no growth in that place because it looked like… heat sterilized the ground.

“Uhm…” I stared at them, and they stared at me. Then I turned with a speed I didn’t know I possessed, about to run up the stairs, but then…

“Rosette.”

I froze, cursing under my breath. I turned slowly and looked at Kross. “Yes?”

“You came for coffee, did you not?” he asked, raising the cup of coffee in his hand and taking a sip, still maintaining eye contact.

I sighed, stepping down. “Yes.”

I walked to the kitchen without looking at anybody, filling a mug to the brink with coffee. I took the first sip, sighing deeply and closing my eyes. “What will life be without coffee?”

“An endless torture,” a voice answered behind me.

I jumped, startled, and since the coffee was still full, it poured on my face. And mind you, that shit was fucking hot.

I dropped the cup, and it landed on my foot, the remaining coffee spilling on it.

“Fuck sake!” I cursed, holding my face, wanting to hold my foot too, but there was only so much I could do with two hands.

“Shit,” Axel cursed, immediately on me.