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Chapter 8 - Marcus: Betrothed
Why the hell had she just said that? We were supposed to be waiting, and then she had just sprung that?
Ash snaps her neck in my direction. “You’re what?”
Maddie reached her hand over the table and placed it on top of mine. “We are keeping it on the down-low for now but, seeing as you are such a good friend to Marcus, I thought you should know.”
Ash ignored Maddie’s obvious little dig and stared at me like I had betrayed her in the most heinous way. Her stare was so intense, I had to look at Maddie. She was a little too smug for my liking.
I was now questioning why I had even come up with this stupid plan in the first place. I didn’t like seeing Ash hurt, but I couldn’t give her what she was after. It was a necessary pain that I had to inflict.
“Ash,” I started but, as soon as I spoke, she bolted for the door. Without thinking, I got up from my seat and went after her. I heard Maddie call after me, but I didn’t stop. I exited out of Beans and spotted her making a run for it down the sidewalk.
“Ash!” I ran after her moving between people, so I could get to her. She continued to run ahead like she didn’t even hear me. I pushed my legs faster and caught up to her easily. She was about to turn the corner, but I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward me.
She spun around and glared at me. “Fiancée? When did you get a fucking fiancée? You said it was a relationship, not marriage, Marcus.”
“We aren’t married yet, Ash, but I did tell you that it was serious.”
“How could you do this? You didn’t even ask me if it was okay.”
“I don’t need to ask for your permission to who I choose to connect my life, Ashleigh. Maddie is a great person, and she cares about me.” Lies. Maddison would be the type to throw me off a building if she had the option.
“So, Sarah doesn’t matter to you anymore then? Seeing as you just want to throw her away like you two didn’t share over half a decade.”
I flinched at her words. Sarah meant more to me than life itself. I loved her with every single fiber of my being. How could I explain to Ashleigh that I wasn’t marrying Maddie for love reasons but purely because I wanted her to move on from me?
That’s right, I couldn’t. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“I love Sarah. You know this and everyone in this town knows this, but I need to move on with my life, Ash. I need to live again, and you know Sarah would want me to. I will never love anyone more than I have loved Sarah, you know that.”
“And what happens to us now? Will you spend all of your time with that skank?”
“That skank has a name, you Hollywood-movie cliché,” Maddie spat from behind me.
Great! Now, this complicated things even more.
I looked over my shoulder at Maddie. “Maddie, can you give us a minute?”
Maddie looked at me like I had grown a second head. “No, I will not give you a minute, Marcus. Whoever this woman is just called your wife-to-be a skank. Are you really going to stand for that?”
“Can we talk about this later please?" I bit out trying to deescalate the situation.
We didn’t need to be getting into it with one another like this right now. Especially in the middle of the town center in Riverroad where everyone could see and hear.
“Absolutely not, Marcus.” She crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. Why was this woman so damn difficult all the time? She was one of the worst people to deal with.
“He said beat it.” Ash thought that would be a good time to chime in. Wrong. It was bad. Maddie was not the kind of woman who backed down when she was challenged, and Ash was challenging her.
“Unless you want me to come over there and rearrange your face, you will be quiet. Who the hell do you even think you are?"
“I’m his family.”
Her words hit me hard because she was my family, or at least she had been for a long time.
Maddie rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m wasting precious oxygen on you. Marcus, wrap this up. I will wait for you in the car.”
Maddie didn’t wait for my reply; she simply spun around and made her way down the sidewalk to where I had parked the car.
