AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 10 - Marcus: Heavy Chest
This was all her fault. If she hadn’t opened her big mouth, we wouldn’t be sitting in my parents' home around this table pretending to be in love.
My mom had given me an earful when she heard about Maddie through Linda instead of me. Ash had worked quickly that day. I still hadn’t spoken to her. She wasn’t taking my calls, and I had no idea where she was living in Riverroad.
I looked around the table, and my mother was staring at Maddie like she had never seen a woman before. My father was flashing me odd glances every so often, and my sister was looking between Maddie and me like she knew something was up.
I knew that nothing could get past my sister. She was too intuitive for her own good.
Axel played in his highchair, making gurgling sounds and providing the room with some kind of noise. Everyone was too silent; it was bothering my ears. I didn’t like the silence. It put me on edge.
“So,” My mother finally decided to voice her inner thoughts, “I was surprised to know that Marcus was dating again, let alone thinking of getting engaged. Especially after Sarah. I thought that he would never move on.”
“Mom.” I gave her a pointed look. I didn’t want to bring up Sarah, least of all with Maddie here. She knew next to nothing about Sarah, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Maddie was not my friend nor was she family. She didn’t need to know about Sarah.
“Come now, dear.” My mother looked to me. “You are getting married, and I think it’s healthy that we talk about her. You are starting a new phase in your life, and it’s a phase that has a promise of new beginnings.”
My father placed his hand over his wife’s and told her to be quiet. I gave him a grateful look because he was the only one that could get her to be quiet. I loved my mother, but her mouth was one of her biggest downfalls.
“So, Maddie, tell us how you two came to be. Marcus and I usually share everything, but he seemed to have forgotten to mention you…at all.” Danny said those words with a sweet smile on her face, but I could see it in her eyes. She was searching for a crack in our armor, but I wasn’t going to let her see one.
I draped my arm over Maddie’s chair and leaned her way and placed a kiss on her cheek catching her by surprise. Even Danny was a little bit shocked by my actions. She knew how much I detested PDA.
Maddie looked at me with a slight blush to her cheeks. Behind the icy blue eyes, I saw something I had never seen on her before. Vulnerability. A strange urge to envelope her into my arms came over me. I wanted to protect her and wipe away the fear she was having.
I had never felt anything like this toward Maddie before. The only other time I had felt it was when it came to my sister, mom, and Sarah. My mind immediately started red flagging this whole thing.
There was no way that I felt anything toward Maddison, right? Yeah, she was hella sexy and had legs for days, but there was no way that I felt anything other than physical attraction to her. Could there?
I stopped.
“Well?” My sister pressed, and it was then that I realized I hadn’t said anything.
I cleared my throat. “Well, as you guys know, it’s been a while for me since I felt anything…real. There was just something about Mads that just drew me to her. She felt familiar, she felt like home. I’m not a man who likes to wait around so, after a few months of secretly dating, I popped the question and thankfully she took a chance on a guy like me.”
Danny’s scrutinizing eyes went to Maddie’s left hand and her jaw dropped. “You gave her the ring.”
It wasn’t a question, more so a statement.
“Of course. It’s a tradition after all, and I wanted her to wear it.”
Everyone else’s eyes at the table went to Maddie’s left hand where the family ring was. My mother had tears brimming in her eyes, and it was like a sucker punch to the gut. If only she knew that I was in fact deceiving her, and this was nothing but a hoax.
I felt bad for lying, but this was for a better purpose.
After a few months, we would drop the charade, and Maddie and I would get an annulment. So, basically, the whole thing would have never happened in the eyes of the law.
“I’m sorry for being such a mess.” My mother smiled a teary smile to my fake fiancée. “But I have been waiting such a long time for my boy to find someone who can bring light back in his eyes. I had been praying night and day for this. He gave you that ring. He had given Sarah that ring, and I never thought that it would ever go onto another woman’s finger again.”
My back stiffened.
If Maddie was a little shocked at what my mother said, she didn’t show it. She only smiled gently at her. She was good at faking it but maybe that was because she had had practice.
My father looked at me with an emotional expression on his face as well. “I am proud of you, my boy. It takes a lot of courage to take that first step toward the future. I know it was not easy for you.”
This was getting a little too much for me. I hadn’t anticipated this little fake arrangement of ours to make them so emotional.
