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Mary tookAxel to Daisy’s apartment. Before he went in, she handed Axel a pile of folded clothing.
“Some clean clothes,” Mary said with a pointed look at his dirty shirt.
“Thank you.”
“No, Axel. It’s us who needs to thank you. I know this isn’t what you signed up for.”
“To be fair, I signed up for cloning my sister. So… um, yeah…”
Mary’s eyes twinkled. “I like you.”
That felt like the stamp of approval from a tiger. “Thanks?”
Mary’s mood sobered. “You need to know something.”
His forehead crinkled.
“No one else could go from perfect to pieces and then back again. But she did. She is the leader this family needs, and you’ll help her realize that.”
“You sound so sure. Why can’t you go in there and tell her that? It seems like this declaration needs to come from you.”
“I tried. But she doesn’t want to hear it from me. I burned my bridges.”
Her words stayed with Axel long after he’d entered Daisy’s apartment and closed the door. From perfect to pieces and back again. He rubbed his chest. But he followed the sound of the shower running into a bedroom. The door was ajar.
“Daisy?” he ventured, poking his head in.
No answer.
Inside the bedroom, steam billowed from the adjoining half-open ensuite door. Axel put the clothes on the double bed. Potted plants flourished on shelves. The scent of jasmine came from somewhere.
“Daisy?”
Still nothing.
“I’m coming in.”
