AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ms. Cole?” a female voice called out, jarring Arabella out of her deep, agonizing thoughts.
Arabella glanced at the nurse. “Yes. That’s me.”
“You can see Mr. Wilder now.” The other woman smiled at her. “He’s in recovery while we process his discharge papers. I’ll show you where he is.”
Arabella followed the RN, and with every step she took closer to Maddux, her mind acknowledged what her heart refused to accept. . . that not all fairy tales ended happily ever after.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Maddux shifted impatiently in the hospital bed he’d been assigned to as he waited to be released and to see Arabella. Over the course of the past few hours since being taken into the emergency room, he’d continually asked for her. But between having his laceration cleaned and stitched up and getting through the long, arduous process with the FBI agents who’d wanted his statement and being continually reminded by hospital staff that Arabella wasn’t immediate family, he’d had to sit tight and deal with all the other bullshit first. Not an easy feat when he was a man who was used to getting what he wanted, right when he asked for it.
As soon as one of the nurses told Maddux she was going to get his discharge papers in order, he finally did the one thing he’d been dreading and called his sister. He’d opted for Tempest over Hunter since he’d been drinking earlier this evening, and quite frankly, Maddux wasn’t in the mood to deal with his brother or the fact that he’d been the catalyst who’d put Arabella in harm’s way. Maddux had calmly told Tempest he’d been in an accident—though he’d kept the details vague—and that he was at the hospital and was fine, but now needed a ride home. His car was still at the house where Gavin had taken Arabella, and Maddux would have one of his security guys go and pick it up later.
He’d heard the worry in his sister’s voice, but she wasn’t one to fall apart or have a meltdown. Tempest had always been strong and steady in the face of any kind of adversity, and she’d be grateful that Maddux was still alive, no matter the circumstances. That was Tempest . . . always seeing the positive in everything.
As for Hunter . . . Maddux wasn’t sure what to expect of his brother these days, but as much as Maddux wasn’t looking forward to the conversation to come, he needed to sit both his siblings down and tell them about the private, in-depth investigation he’d started years ago on Theodore, Gavin, and Addingwell Financial. He was certain they’d both be relieved to know that Theodore and Gavin were already behind bars and would likely remain there.
“He’s right in here,” Maddux heard a woman say, right bef
ore the RN led Arabella into his room. “It’ll be about fifteen minutes before the paperwork is completed and he’s discharged.”
“Thank you,” Arabella said softly, and as soon as she saw Maddux, a combination of relief and worry etched her beautiful features as she walked over to the side of his bed.
The skirt and blouse she’d worn to work that day were wrinkled and disheveled, her hair was tousled around her head, and she had dark smudges beneath her eyes. Her face was pale, and he hated that she’d had to endure the stress and scare of everything Gavin had put her through that evening. But she was alive, unharmed, and in one piece, and that’s all Maddux cared about.
And because he did care about Arabella and only wanted the best for her, he knew he was going to have to let her go, no matter how much he wanted to keep her forever. But being the man responsible for putting her father away, probably for the rest of his life, was something he didn’t think she’d ever forgive him for. In truth, she’d possibly grow to hate him or resent him, and could he really blame her when he’d been the one to destroy her life in one fell swoop?
He clenched his jaw. Honestly, the whole situation had been destined for heartbreak from the moment he’d agreed to take her in exchange for her father’s debt. Maddux had wanted Arabella and all that sweet innocence, and because of his own selfish desires, he’d put her in a daunting situation a woman like her never should have been exposed to. It didn’t matter that she’d found a way to make him smile more than he had in years. Or how he looked forward to watching her humorous antics or listening to her amusing dialogue through his security cameras. And mostly, how she made his soul feel lighter than it had since before his parents had died.
How funny was it that his greatest enemy’s daughter had been the one to penetrate all those walls, tear down his emotional barriers, and make him crave everything with her? Love. Commitment. The possibility of a future.
Except she was never meant to be his. Their entwined pasts and fate had made certain of that.
“Hey,” he said, his voice sounding and feeling like sandpaper in his throat as she stopped beside his bed.
“Hi, yourself.” She smiled at him as she reached out and brushed his too long hair off his brow, her fingers gentle and cool against his warmer skin. “I just had to see for myself that you’re okay.”
“It’s going to take more than a regular bullet to take me down,” he teased, not wanting her to worry about him. “A few stitches and I’m good as new.”
“Maddux . . . I want to thank you for risking your life for mine,” she said as tears shimmered in her blue eyes and her bottom lip trembled. “And mostly, I’m so sorry that my father and Gavin were responsible for your parents’ deaths. They both admitted to everything. How they were extorting money from them and other businesses and starting the grease fire in your parents’ diner that ended up killing them both. Your hatred toward both of them is understandable. I can’t even imagine the pain you and your brother and sister have gone through over the years, while my father and Gavin have continued to just live their lives as though nothing ever happened.”
He groaned, hating the agony in her voice. And when she blinked and a few tears rolled down her cheeks, he lifted his good arm and tenderly wiped them away with his thumb. “Bella, you have nothing to apologize for. What happened wasn’t your fault. You had no idea who your father worked for or what he did for a living.”
“How could I have been so blind . . . to everything?” Her fingers skimmed down to his jaw, then lower, into the collar of his shirt, where she caressed the disfigured skin along his neck that he’d refused to talk about with her days ago. “These scars . . . were they caused by the fire that night? Gavin said you were there.”
He wasn’t sure what she’d been told by Gavin, but Maddux finally wanted to share that part of his past with her. Not because he wanted her to feel bad about what had happened but because, for the first time in his adult life, he knew he’d met a woman who truly cared. And she deserved to know the whole truth.
“Yes,” he said, and forced himself to go back in time to that terrible night that changed everything for him and his siblings. “Your father and Gavin were extorting money from the small businesses in the area, and my parents were so tapped out financially from paying your father and Gavin every month, while trying to support a family and pay their normal bills, and when my father finally put his foot down and told them he didn’t have the money, they decided to make an example of my parents, so all the other businesses wouldn’t revolt, too.”
Arabella’s fingers fell away from the side of his neck, and Maddux grabbed her hand, wanting that physical connection with her while he shared the most harrowing night of his life. “That night, after closing time, when my mother was in the back office doing paperwork, Gavin found a way into the diner and started the fire that blocked the way out of the office and the emergency exit, as well. My father and I were on our way back to the restaurant to pick up my mom when we saw the flames and the fire trucks arriving, and my dad didn’t hesitate to run in to rescue my mom.”
He swallowed hard as those awful, helpless emotions he’d kept buried for fourteen years threatened to break free. “The fire was so bad and spread so quickly, and I reacted on pure instinct when I pulled my father back out, then rushed in myself to save my mother, who I could hear screaming for help.”
He shuddered at the horrific memories that still haunted his dreams and met her grief-stricken gaze. “But honestly, there was absolutely no way I could safely get to her. My shirt sleeve caught on fire just as a fireman dragged me out of the diner. The guy ripped my shirt off and snuffed out the spreading flames pretty quickly, or the burn would have been much, much worse. But that’s when I saw my father lying lifelessly on the ground, being worked on by paramedics. He’d suffered a cardiac arrest, and no matter how hard or how long they tried to revive his heart, they just couldn’t. I lost both of my parents that night.”
A soft sob escaped from her lips, and the tears she shed on his behalf nearly shattered his heart. She leaned over and very gently hugged him, keeping all pressure off of his bad shoulder where the wound was. Her fingers slid through his hair, and she buried her face against his neck. “Maddux, I’m so sorry. I’d do anything to go back in time and change that day for you.”
Tears stung his own eyes, and he gently smoothed his hand over the back of her head. “There is no changing the past, Bella. All I knew in that moment was that I was going to change the future,” he said, needing to finish the story.
