Chương 5
Behind her, Daniel said, “It ended.”
Madison did not turn.
“When?”
“May.”
Elena said, “June.”
Daniel’s silence answered more than either date.
Madison closed her eyes.
“Great.”
“It was over,” Daniel said. “Completely.”
Elena laughed this time.
Not because anything was funny.
“You came to my room last night.”
“Because you threatened me.”
Madison turned.
Elena’s face changed.
Richard’s did too.
Daniel realized what he had said.
Madison crossed the room slowly.
“Threatened you with what?”
Daniel shook his head.
“That came out wrong.”
“With what?”
Elena spoke.
“I told him I was going to tell you.”
Madison looked at her.
“Last night?”
“Yes.”
“Why last night?”
Elena stared at the floor.
“Because I couldn’t stand there today and watch you marry him.”
Madison felt anger surge so quickly that it made her dizzy.
“You had six months.”
“I know.”
“You had six months to develop a conscience.”
“I know.”
“Don’t keep saying that.”
Elena nodded.
Her eyes were red.
Madison wanted her to argue.
She wanted excuses she could destroy.
Instead Elena sat there with her torn dress and admitted everything.
It was harder to hate somebody who did not defend herself properly.
Madison hated her for that too.
Daniel said, “She didn’t decide to tell you because of guilt.”
Elena looked at him.
He continued.
“She decided because I told her it was done.”
Madison stared at him.
Daniel’s confidence was returning.
Not much.
Enough to make her afraid.
He knew this terrain.
He had had months to think about it.
“Elena wanted me to leave you,” he said.
Richard’s hands curled.
Madison saw it.
“Dad.”
“I’m standing still.”
“Keep doing that.”
Daniel looked at Madison.
“She wanted me to cancel the wedding.”
Elena shook her head.
“I asked you if you were actually going to marry her.”
“You asked me to choose.”
“I asked what you were doing.”
“You said you couldn’t keep lying.”
“Because I couldn’t.”
“You were fine lying before.”
Elena went silent.
Daniel turned toward Madison.
“There are messages.”
Elena’s face went pale.
Madison saw it.
“Messages?”
Daniel nodded.
“Everything.”
Richard said, “Selective pieces of everything.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You read them?”
“No.”
Elena said, “I showed him some.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
Madison looked at her father.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“You knew before you walked me down here?”
Richard hesitated.
Madison felt something cold move through her.
“You knew.”
“I found out at six-thirty this morning.”
“And you let me put on this dress.”
“I was trying to get Daniel alone.”
Daniel said, “You were trying to control the situation.”
Richard ignored him.
“I needed to know what happened last night.”
“So you said nothing to me.”
“Elena asked me not to.”
Madison looked at Elena.
“Did you?”
Elena nodded.
Madison turned back to Richard.
“And then you respected that request by ripping her dress open in front of everyone.”
Richard flinched.
Elena looked at him.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “That part is going to take a while.”
Richard swallowed.
“I know.”
Elena’s expression sharpened.
“Stop saying that.”
Madison almost laughed.
The sound did not come this time.
For one strange second, she and Elena looked at each other and recognized the same frustration in each other’s faces.
Richard noticed.
He rubbed his thumb across the edge of his folded jacket.
It was a nervous habit Madison had not seen since her mother was in the hospital.
“I lost my temper,” he said.
Madison stared at him.
Richard Hale had apologized thousands of times in business without meaning it.
I regret the confusion.
We should have communicated more clearly.
Mistakes were made.
He was very good at apologies that contained no person.
“I humiliated Elena,” he continued. “I had no right to do that.”
Elena looked down.
Richard’s voice dropped.
“I was afraid he was going to touch her again.”
Daniel said, “I wasn’t.”
Richard looked at him.
Whatever Madison saw in her father’s face made her step between them again.
Daniel leaned against the door.
“This is becoming ridiculous.”
Elena stood.
“Show her your wrist.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
“Your wrist.”
Madison looked down.
Daniel’s left shirt cuff was slightly crooked from Richard’s strike.
Below it, a thin red scratch ran along the inside of his wrist.
Daniel pulled the cuff lower.
Richard said nothing.
Madison asked, “Where did that come from?”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“She scratched me.”
“Why?”
“Because we argued.”
Elena said, “Because you grabbed my phone.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You were going to destroy my life.”
Madison’s voice went very quiet.
“Your life.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I don’t.”
“I panicked.”
Elena’s breathing changed.
Richard heard it and moved halfway toward her before stopping himself.
Daniel continued, speaking to Madison now.
“She told me she was going to call you. I tried to take the phone. She fought me. That’s where the bruise came from.”
“You grabbed her?”
“I grabbed her arm.”
Elena touched the bruise near her shoulder.
Daniel said, “I didn’t hit her.”
Richard’s chair scraped backward.
Madison threw out one hand.
“Dad.”
Richard remained where he was.
Daniel looked at Madison with a strange urgency.
“You have known me for five years.”
Madison said nothing.
“I have never hit you.”
The sentence landed wrong.
Daniel seemed to hear it after he said it.
Madison’s face changed.
He tried again.
“I would never—”
“You just told me you grabbed her hard enough to bruise her because she was going to tell me you were sleeping together.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“I panicked.”
“You keep saying that like panic is a different person.”
He looked at her.
For a moment, she saw anger.
Not fear.
Anger at being misunderstood.
That frightened her more than the tears had.
Daniel took a breath.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
“Which one?”
“Madison.”
“Pick one.”
“Sleeping with Elena.”
Elena looked away.
Madison said, “Not grabbing her?”
“Of course grabbing her.”
“Not lying to me for six months?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“Not showing up in her hotel room the night before our wedding?”
