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I nod at him and encourage Maddy to swim over to the boat where the crew are waiting to help us up the rear steps. Suddenly we’re surrounded by people, wrapping us in towels, passing us water, checking us for injuries.
Sterling waits until we’re given the medical all clear before he steps closer, gripping my upper arm as he looks directly into my eyes, concern mixed with warmth in his gaze. “Way to make an entrance.”
My shoulders soften, and I glance at Maddy before smiling. “Seems I like dramatic things.” My eyes trace the drops of water falling from her hair and down over her cheeks and I take my towel from around my shoulders and wrap it over the top of hers, giving her an extra layer.
“You need to get out of those wet clothes. We’ll get you something dry to change into,” Sterling says.
Maddy looks at him. “Thank you, but—”
“I insist. The crew will show you where you can shower and change. And then when you’re ready, you and I need to talk.” He turns back to me.
“We do.” I wrap an arm around Maddy’s shoulders and pull her into my side as I nod solemnly at Sterling.
You okay?Maddy mouths.
I take her hand in mine, watching the way our fingers entwine together. I pull them up to my lips and kiss hers, one by one. “I am now.”
“But…” She frowns as I tell her it doesn’t matter. None of it matters.
Sterling’s another investor about to pull out. I’m not surprised. But he was such a majority that his loss to the project will be the end of Vex. It’s well and truly over now without him.
“I’m thinking another ten percent on my initial return might do it,” Sterling says.
I whip my head toward him. “Excuse me?”
His eyes glint as he watches us both. Maddy stiffens, her fingers gripping mine tighter. “We agreed seven,” she says without a hint of hesitation.
Sterling chuckles. “Just checking you were listening.” He turns his attention to me. “You could have sent her alone the first time. Ruthless negotiator if ever I saw one. Now go get out of those wet clothes. We’ll talk later.”
“He’s investing another fifteen,” she says, keeping her eyes forward as he walks away.
“Why?”
She swallows slowly. “Because I told him he would be missing out on an amazing opportunity headed up by a brilliant man.”
“Spencer?”
She side-eyes me, then nudges my shoulder with hers. “Idiot.”
I smirk before my face settles into a frown. “You flew over here to ask him to increase his investment?”
She sighs, a sound so weighted with unhappiness that hearing it is like having broken glass forced into my ears.
“I couldn’t watch you lose everything. Especially Vex, something you care so much about. I thought if you got the extra money that Spencer would still help your dad. As long as you and Gabrielle still got marr…” She swallows again, as though saying the word is too difficult for her. “And then it would be okay. At least, that’s what I hoped.” She shrugs.
“You wrote that article to try and make me hate you.”
“I owe it to you.” She meets my eyes with tears building in hers again.
My gut twists painfully at the memory of the words she’d written. They were designed to hurt me. And they did. Just not in the way she intended.
“I know you’ve come here to find me. But you have to go back. The funding’s no good if you don’t have the backing of Spencer’s company to make it work. You lose if you stay.”
The stirrings of defeat weigh heavy in my chest, dragging my heart down.
“I lost the second you left London, Mads. I lost the fucking second you thought that there was a reality where we could be apart and still live like we aren’t just existing.Just fucking existing.”
She blinks through her tears and drops her head back to look at the sky.
