HAZEL
That goddamn phone.
Axel has done many things to me, but seeing that phone feels like everything at once...his ownership, his control, his cage, his monitoring. All wrapped into one glossy little device.
I look from it to him.
“Yes? I don’t understand,” I say.
“I gave you this phone yesterday in my office. I told you to keep it with you at all times. And you left it behind. Twice.” His voice sharpens. His finger lifts. “Twice, Hazel.”
I bite my lip.
The truth is: I don’t want that phone. I hate what it represents. But I look at his face… and something shifts. Something in me decides:
If I’m going to take the phone… I’ll take everything else that comes with it too. I guess there are a lot of things he's going to ask me to do. And I'm going to have to do them with a smile plast
