Chapter 40 Fallout
Chapter 40 Fallout
Max
I nodded at Aellorah, solemnly, as I absorbed the gravity of her plan. “Seems like you’re thinking several steps ahead, baby.” I admired her strategic thinking, even if the circumstances made me worry for her. “This is smart and puts us in the driver’s seat—something your family won’t expect. But you shouldn’t have to drain your savings. Let me help front the cost.”
“Oh, I couldn’t let you do that, Max,” she insisted softly, looking up at me with her smoky grey eyes. “This is my mess, my family.”
“I’m your family, now, Aellorah.” I wrapped my arms around her, shifting closer under the covers as her eyes swam with tears. And I meant it. Aellorah was mine, and I would take care of her for the rest of our lives.
Kissing the side of her head, I pulled out my phone and sent a group message to the boys.
\[9:54 PM: Me: Alright, guys. This is a covert op/ We need to keep things as quiet as possible. No fights. We’ll all coordinate with Aellorah while she works with a PI. Let’s make sure all our stories line up and be ready to shift gears at a moment’s notice.\]
After a stream of thumbs-up emojis, I closed my phone and turned my attention back to her, my gaze softening. A mix of pride and concern bloomed within me. “Baby, I know we’re about to embark on a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse, but I want you to know that I’ve got your back,” I promised her. “We’ll face whatever comes our way as a team.”
She nodded. “Look at us…” she whispered, staring at the photo we had taken. Her hair was messy, our bodies pressed together, her middle finger raised to the camera. “Look at this,” she said. Opening her Instagram, she scrolled through her profile. Every post seemed perfectly angled, posed, coordinated. Our photo was a stark contrast to the rest of her posts.
My eyes were glued to the screen as she uploaded the picture, captioning it with ‘Choosing my own happy ending’. Aellorah added the hashtags: #engaged, #fiance, and #myfuture, before posting.
“This is us, Max,” she whispered, staring at the photo as the notifications instantly piled up. “Raw and messy, but real. We might not be perfect, but this is what I was. Just us being us… forever.”
My heart swelled with emotion as I realized how different the latest post was from her curated online presence; the first authentic, raw moment she’d ever shared. “Fucking hell, Blackwood,” I breathed with tender admiration. “You’re not just beautiful. You’re radiant. And this… this photo, it captures the essence of us—raw, real, and unstoppable together.”
Aellorah’s declaration of choosing her own happy ending resonated deeply within me, striking a chord of devotion and determination. “We’ll never pretend to be anything else, baby,” I vowed. “We will embrace every messy, imperfect moment, and make those realizations the foundation of our story.
I wrapped my arms tightly around her, savoring the sensation of her warmth and spirit. “Welcome to the wild ride, Princess—the journey of a lifetime with me at your side…”
Aellorah
Five minutes was all it took for the news to reach home. The moment my phone rang, I blanched. “Show time…” I muttered anxiously, answering the phone and hitting the record button on the pad.
“Baby girl…” My father’s voice filtered through the speaker as I looked up at Max. “I know you’re still upset with me, but you’re toeing the line…”
“And what line is that, Daddy?” I asked bitterly.
“Aellorah Rhianne Blackwood, you will take that photo down and—”
“No, Daddy, I won’t.” I cut in firmly. “You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want, but I’m choosing Max.”
There was a sickening moment of silence on the phone, lingering, before my father erupted.
“Listen to him, baby,” Max whispered in my ear, his tone encouraging. “He’s pissed—exactly like you said he’d be… Show him that fire, that strength I know you have. Let him see what he’s really up against.”
As Daddy’s cursing and shouts filtered through the speaker, though, Max’s patience thinned. His hands clenched at his sides, and his eyes narrowed at the phone.
“That’s enough,” he growled, his tone defensive and dangerous. “You don’t speak to her like that, period.”
“Oh, you think you’re a big man, huh, kid?” Daddy asked. “We’ll see how fucking smart you are when you’re six feet in the fucking ground, you fucking—” I hung up, saving the recording in a file on my phone.
“Mm, an irrefutable threat in three minutes…” I murmured. “He’s going to lose his shit. Hey… no one goes anywhere alone, okay? Not even to class. We need to have a system,” I warned seriously.
Max’s jaw was still clenched as my father's threat lingered in the air. “Fuck that noise,” he snarled, his green eyes blazing with fiery determination. “No one threatens what’s mine and gets away with it!” He reached for my hand, gently stroking the back with his thumb. “Don’t worry, baby. From now on, you’re never out of my sight. If there’s any reason I can’t be with you, one of the guys will be there. If anyone lays a hand on you, they’ll regret the day they were born…”
He pulled me closer, wrapping his arms tightly around me, as though I might disappear if he let go.
“I love you, Max Stonehall,” I whispered, kissing his cheek.
“And I love you, Aellorah. My little ballerina, my mouse, my fiancée…” he kissed me all over, my forehead, my nose, my lips. Before I knew it, our phones were forgotten, and we were pulling at one another’s clothes. I was desperate to feel his heated skin against mine.
“I need you inside me, baby,” I begged breathlessly. Max didn’t need to be told twice.
“I came prepared this time,” he assured me, reaching into his jeans and pulling out a condom. In that moment, it was hard to care whether we were being safe or not, but it meant a great deal that he’d chosen to take precautions for me.
“Tomorrow, after class, we go to the clinic,” I panted against his lips as he rolled the condom on. The entire day had been a surreal blur, and I realized how easily I had forgotten something so important.
“Tomorrow,” he agreed, groaning as he pushed inside me, my legs hooking around his hips. For the rest of the night, we were lost in one another, bodies entwined, hearts beating as one.