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“Nothing,” I snap.
“You think I believe that? There are tears rolling down your cheeks.”
I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that Sam still has the power to hurt me or that Chase thinks he has any place in my business.
“It’s hot out here,” I growl, using the back of my hand to swipe at my face as I stand up.
“Madison,” he snaps, a cold wet hand clamping on my shoulder.
I want to spin on him and pound on his chest, but my hatred for Sam and what I stood by and allowed for years isn’t on Chase. Treating this man poorly wouldn’t be fair.
I turn to face him, but the concern on his handsome face is just too much.
He frowns, a mark of disappointment in the corners of his scrunched eyes.
I want to ask him what it is about me that makes me so unlovable. How can someone dislike me so much that they manipulate, gaslight, and lie to me with such ease? Why, in the years of time I spent with Sam, could he not see me as a good person? Why would he continue the ruse for so long? Does he feel even the slightest hint of guilt for what he did to me?
“Chase,” I say, needing him to let go of me so I can go dwell in my misery alone.
His free hand swipes at my damp cheek under the edge of my sunglasses, but wet hands and tears don’t work that well.
“You can’t fix this,” I growl and jerk out of his grasp.
Thankfully, he doesn’t try to follow me back into the house. I’m not scurrying away with my tail tucked between my legs because I need him to be a hero.
I legit need some time to myself to doctor these still fresh wounds.
I fight the urge to call Adalynn because I told her already I didn’t want to talk about this, but maybe a drunken vent session will free my soul from the painful hold Sam still seems to have on it. I no longer love the man. It’s hard to maintain that notion when you find out your entire relationship is a lie, but the sting of betrayal is still alive and well.
Instead of calling her, I shoot her a link to the article I was tagged in, and then go back into the social media app and delete my profile.
I barely make it up to my room before my phone rings in my hand.
“What the actual freak?” Adalynn hisses when the call connects.
Chapter 17
Chase
The woman I see right now is not the same woman who rushed away from the pool, crying, earlier.
Her eyes aren’t red. She isn’t sad.
No, this woman is dangerous, looking like a million bucks in a sundress and sandals with heels just high enough to make the outline of her calf muscles pop a little as she checks her makeup in the hall mirror I hadn’t noticed until she leaned in to use it.
Things popping up around the house doesn’t surprise me. It’s been happening for the last week or so. Every day I get home from work, there are either things on the porch needing to be carried in or there are people here assembling furniture and painting.
She has been adamant that she wouldn’t let anything take away from her time taking care of the boys, and it looks like she’s kept her word. She’s hired a team of people to do a lot of it for her.
I would commend her on the work around, but all reasonable thought escapes me at the sight of her primping.
“Where are you going?”
I swallow when I hear the tone I’ve used to ask the question.
I sound like a grumpy dad realizing his teen daughter has grown up. And let me tell you, the level of ick that makes me feel is enough to make me cringe. The eyes I had skating over her a second ago were nothing closely related to fatherly, although the idea of her calling me daddy…
Nope.
