La Revanche des Trois (Revenge of Three)

La Revanche des Trois (Revenge of Three) - Chapter 26 -Finale

I'm only leaving the finale up here for the month of April and then I'm going to take it down.

I tried to remember if I resolved everything and I hope I have.

This was supposed to be a short story but it turned out longer than expected (but only six thousand words longer).

Please let me know if there's some open ended things. Whew, my brain is gone.

Enjoy..

Chapter 26

            "I can only say truthfully yes and no, Stefanie," Axel said.

She snatched the manila envelope from Dexter and tossed the past horrible photo of Daxopholos Black on the floor at Axel's feet. "You did all this to hurt me, didn't you?" she sneered.

            Her hands tightened on the couch and despite his pain he shot to his knees in front of her and put his hands over hers to comfort her, but also because he needed to feel some part of her she wouldn't refuse him to touch.

            Tears instantly started streaming from her eyes and running down her cheek.

            "Please listen to me, Stefanie. Please, before you jump to conclusion. I have to start from the beginning."

Confused, she questions, "The beginning?"

He answered, "Before I knew you; so you'll understand everything. Please be patient and listen to me."

Hearing him say the word 'listen' brought her back to what Lethal had said to her. Even though she was very upset she believed Lethal's words and despite her misgivings and anger, she let Axel explain himself, with a nod. "Go ahead, Axel. Tell me why a seven hundred pound man did this to himself to hurt me?"

            "Nothing I did was to hurt you," he said earnestly. "Matter of fact, everything I've ever done, was because I loved you - even before I met you I loved you, Stefanie. I did everything for you."

"You hurt me! You deceived me and it was all for me?" she asked incredulously, her voice trembling on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Axel gripped her thighs as if that was enough to hold her emotional state together. "Please Stefanie. Please listen to me. In order for you to understand you have to know everything from the beginning." He took a deep breath before he started to explain. "Yes, that's me." He picked up the grotesque picture of Daxopholos. "I made myself into some disgusting monster all for the sake of my step-mother. The fatter and horribly ugly I became the less I heard her mouth about looks. I thought I could be happy just like that. Until I saw what you created."

Stefanie looked thoroughly confused.

He continued to speak. "Through a simple, yet complex algorithm you showed me beauty could come in so many different forms and we're not bound by the people around us, but by ourselves."

"My algorithm wasn't intended to be some poetic philosophical poem, Axel," she said sourly.

"But it was to me. From where you came from, from what you had been exposed to and to bring that to fruition, was just as beautiful as what you created. I admired your courage and intellect to create something before I even met you, which prompted me to put my whole M.I.T. scholarship on hold on come to your college to meet you." He flushed in embarrassment. "Knowing how obese and non-approachable I had made myself, I paid Nick to join your clubs and meet you and become friends with you so you could come to the room and I could see you and also meet you."

"You paid Nick to be my friend?"

He nodded ashamed. "Truth be told, Nick wasn't interested in anything until he had to take all those computer classes with you and then he started liking it and you." A flash of heated jealousy came in his unique colored eyes. "I saw how Lauren and Jezica treated you even then and hated them very much for what they were doing to you. I wanted to help you with them back then, but you never really looked at me, much less talked to me. You were polite and cordial, but you never looked at me. No need to explain, Stefanie. I had become some monster - Some fat disgusting smelly obese monster that I had no idea how to control anymore. It wasn't anyone's fought, except mine and I was regulated to just give up and never know what it felt like to be with you."