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I go hard at it in my gym as if I can solve all my problems by making my muscles scream out. All it does is make me sweat and knock my tension down by half a notch. Seeing your father breaking is not a sight I’d wish upon anyone.
But I can’t agree to marry Gabrielle.I can’t.
I roar as I pound the bag with all my force, sweat pouring down my naked chest.Fuck, fuck, fuck!My internal cursing matches each hit until I’m gasping for air. I yank the gloves off and throw them on the floor, picking up my towel and dragging it down my face.
My phone dances along the bench next to me, vibrating with an incoming call. I snatch it up, answering breathlessly.
“Hi.”
“Is it a good time?” She sounds different. Not like herself. Like her fire’s been doused. “I don’t want to inter—”
“Mads? What’s wrong?”
She’s silent for a beat, and I sit on the bench, throwing my soaked towel over one shoulder as I wait for her to speak.
“I-I wanted to thank you. For pushing for me to be told the truth about Dad.”
I look at the floor.
“I’m sorry it took this long. I thought you’d known for years. If I’d known you didn’t, I’d have… Fuck, I don’t know,” I admit, unsure what else to say.
She sighs.
“I get why Drew didn’t want to tell you,” I add softly. “He didn’t want to wreck that relationship with your dad that you have. You only get one father.”
“I know, and I understand that.” Heaviness drags her voice down, and I wish she was here so I could see her face. Hold her. Do something. “I wish I’d been told, though. And I know you don’t lie,” she murmurs. “Which means you must have thought my reason for hating you was some weird jealousy thing because you’re unfairly good-looking and disgustingly rich.”
“I’d say unfairlygreatlooking and soon to be broke, but—”
“Soon to be broke?”
She still doesn’t know the whole story.Drew might be as mad as hell at me, but he’s still the best friend I could ask for. Everything I’ve told him about Dad and the business has stayed with him. Sealed in a vault constructed from years of friendship. All Maddy knows is that Dad wants a company merger. It’s what I told her in Italy.
“It’s why I was meeting Gabrielle,” I confess.
“Your dad still wants you to marry for the future of the company?”
“He does,” I admit, nausea turning my stomach over. “But it’s worse than I thought before I left. He’s going to lose everything, Mads. The whole business could be at risk if we don’t bail ourselves out soon.”
“Oh my God, Logan…” The genuine concern in her voice brings warmth to my chest like a blanket.
“That’s why he wanted…” I swallow thickly. “Gabrielle’s dad, Spencer, said he’d help us. But it’s not happening. I’m going to find another way.”
Maddy’s silent for a few seconds and I’m aching to ask her what she’s thinking. But I know she’ll be processing. She’ll have her brows pulled together with that deep line between them. Despite the direness of our conversation, I smile at the thought.
“If you marry her, then the business is safe?”
“I’m not marrying her.”
“But if you did? That’s what your dad’s asking of you, right?”
“I’m not—”
“What did Gabrielle say when you met with her? And remember, you don’t lie,” she whispers.
I run a hand around my chin with a low groan. “She wants to make her dad happy.”
“She wants to marry you?” The soft intake of breath accompanying Maddy’s voice is like a beacon of light in the darkness I’m in.She hates the idea.And something about that does more to calm the swirling chaos on my head than the last forty minutes pounding a punch bag has.
