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“Hold the line while I convey this new information to Mr. Delgado.” The line went silent for several minutes before the man responded. “No, I’m sorry. If Maddison’s not there, the deal’s off.”
“What?”
“He is not willing to speak to you alone. He will only deal with Maddison. If she does not attend, the agreement will come to an end.”
“Okay. That’s fair. She would have preferred to move forward, but I can understand Antonio’s hesitation. We will postpone the meeting until she returns from her trip abroad.”
“Trip abroad.”
“Yes. It was unexpected, but urgent. We will reschedule the meeting when she returns.”
“I’m sorry. You mistake Mr. Delgado’s position on this matter.”
“How so?”
“He is on a strict timeline, as you are well aware.”
“Yes, but—”
“He can’t wait. If Maddison’s trip is too urgent to cancel, that is an unfortunate disruption but one that cannot be rectified from Mr. Delgado’s position. Either she reschedules her trip and meets as agreed, or we call the whole thing off. Whatever emergency has come up, I hope Maddison can find a way to fit Mr. Delgado into her busy schedule. At least she will if his business is important to her.”
“You’re being unreasonable.”
“If you’d like to come in and discuss the unfairness of the position you’ve put my boss in, he is open to that. But as far as the deal is concerned, he only negotiates with Maddison, and it must happen as arranged.”
Will slapped his hand on the wall but clamped his teeth together to keep his frustration from being conveyed through the phone. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll be in touch.”
“Excellent. Mr. Delgado will look forward to a positive outcome until he hears differently.”
Will pinched the bridge of his nose as he slid his phone into his pocket. From an undercover point of view, it had been a joint operation between himself and Maddy, although he was senior on the job and had done a lot of the legwork. But when it came to Antonio Delgado, Maddison was the one in charge. He had a thing for strong businesswomen, and that had made it easier to build a partnership. They were able to present him with what he wanted. But now they were in trouble and, as far as he could see, there was no way out of it. All that hard work was gone in an instant. And he was partly to blame. If he’d been there for Maddy, she might not be stuck in a hospital bed right now. It wasn’t the first time his search for Kelly had caused issues in other parts of his life, but this was certainly the worst.
Charlotte appeared down the hall, and, for a fraction of a second, he thought Maddy had somehow gotten out of bed and returned to normal.
“Charlie—Sorry, Charlotte. You headed home?”
“No. I’m gonna hang around for a bit, so if you need to go home or something, I’ll be here to stay with her.”
“Uh, yeah. Okay.”
“You look upset. Is everything all right? Was it the phone call?”
“Nothing for you to worry about.” He blinked when he realized he was staring. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. It’s disorienting. You look so much like your sister. It’s…odd.”
“Odd for you. I’m used to getting those looks.”
“So I’m not the only one, huh?”
She smiled. It was a different smile from Maddy’s.
“It’s been a while, but no, you’re not the first.”
“Well, I’m glad you came. Maddy doesn’t talk a lot about her family, but it’s good to know she has people who care about her.”
“Yeah, and thank you for being by her side, but like I said, I’m hanging around, so you can go. I’m sure you have important things to see to with your job.”
“No, actually, I’m good for now.”
“You sure?”
