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“I need to call my parents. If the paparazzi found me, it means they must have approached my parents’ team for comment.”
With shaking hands, she reached for her phone in her handbag. I watched her fumble with her password, unable to unlock it. I grabbed the phone from her hands and input her password which she had set to her birthday.
I went to the contacts and found the person I was looking for. I was about to hit the call button but then the screen flashed with the letters Richard Vandlewoods in bold.
When Maddie saw the name, she grabbed the phone from me and answered it in a haste.
“Yes?” Her voice came out calm and cool. A complete contrast from what was on her face.
“I don’t know how they found out. I’m just as shocked as you are. But I will handle it.” She bit down on her lip, something she only did when she was nervous. “No, Richard. I’m with him right now, and I will not tell them that. I need to keep Marcus protected. This isn’t his fight.”
I squeezed her hand trying to gain her attention, but she didn’t look my way.
“Fine. I will see you when I get there.”
She hung up the phone and looked out the window.
“Maddie, talk to me.” I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me. “I can’t make it go away if I don’t know what’s happening.”
“You can’t make this go away, Marcus.” She cast her eyes downward, trying to hide her unshed tears.
“Well, let me try. Allow me to be there for you like I promised would.”
She lifted her gaze. “You can’t. Unless you can face off my fath—I mean Richard. When it comes to the things he loves like his company, he is ruthless and unforgiving.”
“So, where are we going now?”
“You are going to be taken to my old apartment. I am going back to our hotel to meet my father.”
“Like hell I am. I am coming with you. We promised each other through thick and thin, Maddie. I don’t care if this whole arrangement is contractual, I meant what I said. If you are going in to face Richard, then I am coming, too. We will handle this storm hand in hand.”
“We aren’t really married, Marcus.”
I grabbed her face in both hands. “On paper we are, and we are friends, right? And friends stick by each other through thick and thin. It’s you and me, Maddie, against everyone else.”
And I meant every single word. Whatever storm had just hit wasn’t going to be easy to weather. She would need an anchor, and I would anchor her.
From what I had heard and read about Richard Vandlewoods, he was not a kind man. And if the split-second fear that flashed across Maddie’s face told me anything, it was that he was a man who was not to be underestimated. There was no way she was going in solo.
We drove back to the hotel in complete silence. She held onto my hand for dear life, her knuckles turning white.
The entire way there, I thought of Richard and how I was ready to beat his face in simply because he had upset Maddie. Whatever situation we were approaching, I was going in there expecting a fight.
The intense need to protect Maddie only solidified what I had already confirmed throughout the entire week. I liked Maddie, and I would go as far as to say that I was falling in love with her.
Did that scare the crap out of me? Yes. But would it make me run? Fuck no.
My heart still loved Sarah, but for the first time in four years, that love didn’t feel like a burning bush. Instead, it felt like a gentle flame that had come from a blazing inferno.
I turned my head to the side to find Maddie lost in her own thoughts, watching the city pass us by.
I’m sorry, Sarah, I apologized to the woman I had loved for what felt like my entire life. But I wasn’t sorry enough to stop myself from falling for Maddie.
I was in this now, and I wasn't going to hold back. Life was too short to not take chances.
