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Like Tessa said, we’re in the world of billionaires, and people are going to poke holes where you’re weak. Everything about our relationship is weak. It’s held together by hopes and dreams. Eventually, someone would have hit those hopes with the sledgehammer of reality.
I glance down at the photos. Those are just the beginning of what could happen.
A relationship can’t live on hopes and dreams.
Chapter 51
Emery
I’ve tried to give Madison space to think and exist without me bothering her today. I still have absolutely no idea why she’s acting like this, and truthfully, I’m getting a little pissed off.
She probably has a reasonable explanation, but damn it, I need to know what it is. I need to understand what the hell I could have done to make her act like this. The only thing she’s ever said about leaving like this was if I cheated on her, and I certainly haven’t done that.
As soon as five o’clock comes around, I stand up and walk out of the office. I can’t be patient any longer. My entire life has begun to revolve around Madison Carter, and the thought of her just disappearing from my life for no reason is simply unacceptable.
I chose her. Out of thousands of women, most of whom wouldn’t expect me to change anything about my life, I chose her. The only one who expects me to drop the world I’ve created. I’m willing to do it. Hell, I’ll move fucking mountains for her, but that can’t happen in a day or even in three weeks. It takes time.
I hop into the Lambo and zip through traffic, my anger and frustration pushing me to go faster. I’ve gone through every imaginable situation, every moment of every day that she was gone, trying to understand what I could have done wrong.
There’s nothing.
So when I pull up to her apartment, I’m not sad anymore. I’m pissed. Whatever made her ghost me and quit her job is a simple misunderstanding, and that’s a terrible reason for her to act like this. All it takes is one conversation to clear things up.
When I get to the third floor and knock on her door, it swings open, but Madison isn’t who I see. Tessa stands in front of me, blocking the way in with an envelope in her hand.
Without a bit of hesitation, she steps forward and pushes me backward. “You can talk to Madison in a minute,” she says. “As soon as you explain this.”
She pulls a photo out of the envelope, and I take it from her. “What the hell is this?”
It’s me holding Victoria Durant on my doorstep. She’s never been to my house, and I certainly didn’t touch her like that.
“It’s what Madison received this morning at her hotel. Can you tell me why you and your date were at your house?”
I shake my head, fury flooding my body. Someone is fucking with me in the worst possible way. Immediately, pieces click into place. “Someone is trying to break us up. That’s a doctored photo because I’ve never had Victoria Durant at my house. Maybe someone who doesn’t know me very well thought it would make sense, but if I was going to fuck some random woman, it certainly wouldn’t be at my house since I’ve never done it before.”
Tessa cringes. “Maybe you could calm the fuck down about what you did before you and Madison got together. Look, I’m not saying you cheated, but I’m not saying you didn’t cheat. This whole thing is a mess, and it’s your job to clean it up. Not hers. You’re the one who brought her into this shit. Now, you’re the one who has to figure out how to make it right.”
At first, I want to scream at her, to tell her to get the fuck out of my way. But I bite my tongue because she’s not wrong.
I thought I’d been doing my best to keep us secret, but the more I think about it, the more I realize I was being stupidly obvious to everyone in the office. The day after our tryst in the hot tub, I knew we needed to keep things quiet. Instead, we were so obvious that at least Noah and Shonda figured it out.
Tessa’s right. I wasn’t smart enough to keep her out of the world I live in. She wasn’t ready for the storm that blows around me constantly, and I was too lost in love and lust to remember to shelter her.
“Okay,” I breathe. “I didn’t cheat on her, but you’re right. It’s my job to fix things. For her and for us.”
Tessa nods and steps out of the way. When I walk into the living room, Madison is sitting in her chair, not laying in it, with a book in her hands. Beauty and the Beast. Her favorite comfort read.
She looks up at me, and I can see the trails her tears have left on her face. God, I thought I’d been pissed before, but now I’m ready to burn the world. Not because I’m mad at her this time. I can’t handle how much she’s hurt all day.
She’s silent as I walk across the room and sit in Tessa’s spot on the couch. “I didn’t cheat on you,” I whisper. She looks so fragile that I worry that a loud noise will shatter her.
“How am I supposed to believe you?” she asks with none of the anger I expect behind the words. “Em, you’ve lied about everything in your life. Even your name is a lie. How can you expect me to believe you now?”
I bite my lip. I know the answer. I can have Shonda on the phone in two minutes, and I can get answers out of her. But I don’t want Madison to see me be cruel. I don’t want her to see anything but the best side of me. She’s too damn fragile for what I have to say to Shonda.
“Do you really think I cheated on you? Do you really think I waited until you were gone so I could sleep with someone else? You’re everything I could ever want.”
She shrugs. It’s such a passive, exhausted motion that I struggle to keep from moving across the room to sit next to her, to hold her and support her. It’s all I want to do right now.
