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I stood and watched him undress me. “Who pays for it?” I asked him, although I already knew.
Only one person on earth had ever cared for me. The others had accepted me and brought me in because Blaise had told them to. Not because they cared for me as a person.
“You’re mine. Who do you think pays for it?” he replied, then slipped my shirt off. His gaze went to my chest, then to me. “Get in the water. It’ll make you feel better.”
I wasn’t sure anything could make me feel better, but I did what he had said. He was taking care of me. He wanted to take care of me.
When I sank into the warmth, I looked up at him. “The clothes Melanie bought me,” I said.
“Yes, I paid for them, Madeline.”
How had I not figured that out by now?
I looked back at the bubbles as they covered me. “What about the rental car?”
“Not a rental. Did Saxon not give you the envelope?”
The one he’d left on the counter for me. It was still in my duffel bag.
“I haven’t opened it,” I whispered.
I was prepared for him to ask me why, but he looked at me as if he could find the reason in my eyes.
“The SUV is yours. Title is in your name. Insurance and registration papers for the vehicle—it’s all in the envelope. Along with a letter from me telling you that I would love you until I took my last breath. Even if I had to live this life watching you from a distance, I would always be waiting for you to come back to me.”
I lifted my eyes to meet his. If I had read those words, I’d have been wrecked. He had no idea the power he held over me.
“You bought me a car?” I asked realizing what else he had informed me.
Blaise bent down until his eyes were level with mine. “I would buy you a fucking island if you asked me.”
I frowned. “I didn’t ask for a car.”
“No. But you needed one.”
I held his gaze for a few more moments before the reality of everything I had just heard sank in. I dropped my eyes and felt the ache from loss deep inside. Not just the lives of the two men I had thought were my family, but their love too. Something I had never had and perhaps deep down I had known that. I’d wanted to be loved so badly that I had made excuses for them.
“I’m sorry,” Blaise said again.
“I understand. You saved me from people I thought loved me.”
“I never wanted to tell you that. I swore to myself you’d never know. I hated Luke Reese, but you loved him. He didn’t deserve you. Neither did Cole. Without you, they’d never have made it as long as they did. But hurting you like this, knowing that the truth would do this to you, that was what I couldn’t face. That was what I fought so hard to keep from you.”
As I sat there in my thoughts, which I knew were going to haunt me for a long time, if not forever, I thought about the sheriff who had come to the apartment. He’d told me about my dad and Cole’s accident. Looking up from the bubbles, my eyes met Blaise’s. He was watching me.
“How did you get the sheriff to come tell me a lie?”
A dark smile that didn’t meet his eyes formed on his lips. “We have cops, judges, and politicians at our disposal.”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying dirty cops, judges, and politicians. His world was one I didn’t understand. I hadn’t wanted to. Living in the dark and loving him had been the only way I could deal with it. But now, knowing that I’d been living in a darkness before him and not realized it, things would change. I had changed.
My thoughts went to those photos left for me at the top of the stairs. Someone had wanted me to see them. Someone had wanted to hurt me. But who? Did I even want to know? Not now. I wasn’t ready for that yet. I knew the answer was going to be yet another betrayal. No one who cared about me would have left them for me—because no one cared about me but Blaise.
Six
Madeline
The flight back to Ocala was on a private plane. Huck was driving my new Mercedes back. I was going to deal with that later. I wasn’t keeping it, and that was going to be a fight with Blaise. Mentally, I wasn’t ready to discuss it. He wouldn’t see the issue. Claiming that I was his when we were having sex was one thing. Paying for everything in my life was another. It wasn’t equal, and it felt wrong. The amount of money he had spent on me in my life was more than I’d ever be able to repay him. It was overwhelming to think about it.
