Taking a Chance (28 page)

“What’s wrong, Maddie?”

She heard her mom’s voice but did not respond. She dialed Austin’s number.

“Hello.” A female voice answered.

“Where’s Austin?”

“Oh, sweetie, he’s in the shower. Didn’t you realize he was just using you? We were on a break, but now we’re officially back together. Please stop calling him. He doesn’t want to talk to you or see you again.”

Not allowing Tiffany the satisfaction of an answer or any other comment, Maddie disconnected the call and dropped her phone on the coffee table. The picture was still on the screen.

“Goodnight.”

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“You can check my phone if you want, I need to go to bed,” Maddie said as she walked toward the bedroom.

Maddie tucked herself into a tight ball under the covers. Although every inch of her body ached, including her heart, she didn’t have the strength to cry. A very important lesson had been learned tonight. Only she would be able to take care of herself going forward. She could no longer trust any man with her heart, no matter how much she thought he cared. As far as she was concerned, love didn’t exist.

Her mom knocked on the bedroom door, but Maddie didn’t respond. As her mom opened the door, Maddie closed her eyes. Whether or not she believed Maddie was sleeping, she did not approach her.

“Goodnight, sweetheart, I love you.”

Maddie heard the door click shut again and she let a few tears roll down her cheeks.

• • •

N
ina’s phone rang just after six. It startled her awake. She glanced at the caller ID.

“Good morning,” she said as she yawned.

“Mom, where’s Maddie?”

“She’s with me, dear.”

“Are you at her place?”

“No, we didn’t stay there last night.”

“I’m five minutes away, so tell me where you are.”

Nina sat straight up in bed.

“What do you mean, you’re five minutes away?”

“Mom, just tell me where you are. I want to see Maddie.”

“We’re—” Nina hesitated, “we stayed at Sid’s place last night.”

“Maddie’s doorman?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Long story.”

Nina gave Scott the address. She woke Sid up and told him Scott was on his way over.

“How does he know?” asked Sid.

“I’m not sure, but I didn’t ask him on the phone. I don’t want to wake Maddie up yet. I’ll go check to be sure she’s still sleeping.”

Ten minutes later, Nina picked up the phone and assured the front desk it was okay to allow Scott upstairs. He was carrying Ashley in her car seat and set it down in front of the couch. He had dark circles under his eyes and at least a day of stubble on his face. His eyes looked blood shot and red around the rims.

Sid walked out into the living room and greeted Scott and then headed to the kitchen to make coffee.

“Mom, what’s going on? Why are you guys here?”

“Can we talk about that later? What’s wrong?”

“I know what happened last night. Where’s Maddie? I want to see her.”

“She’s sleeping right now and I don’t think you should wake her up. She needs to rest. How did you find out?”

“I would rather tell you both together. Can we please just wake her up? I really need to talk to both of you.”

• • •

M
addie heard voices out in the living room. She glanced at the clock and realized it was only a little after six. Her body was sore and her head was pounding, but she managed to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. More painkillers were necessary. Pulling her hair up, she fastened it with a holder. Even though she knew she would look terrible, she dared to look in the mirror and hardly recognized the reflection staring back at her.

Not only did she have the bandage covering her forehead, she had purple bruises on both sides of her face. If it was possible, she thought she looked worse than she felt. She opened the bedroom door a crack, so she could hear the voices better and within a second knew it was her brother. Knowing he was going to be very upset, she was not sure if she should be relieved or scared. Hopefully he would only be angry with George. Maddie knew she should have told everyone about George and she was afraid they would blame her. Either way, she had to pick her head up and walk out there to face them. She padded softly down the hallway. Scott had his back to her, but the moment their mom saw her, tears welled up in her eyes.

Scott turned and saw Maddie standing there. Tears filled his eyes and shock registered on his face. He grabbed her, picked her up off the ground and held her. She realized at that moment that was one place she still felt safe. His arms were a protection from the rest of the world and everything that had gone wrong. After a minute, he set her back down and held her at arms’ length. His eyes frantically scanned her face.

“I want to kill that bastard.”

“It’s okay, Scott. Everything is fine now.”

“No, it’s not. That asshole is going to pay for what he did to you. I wish I could have been there to protect you.” He still had tears in his eyes, but anger had taken over.

“How did you find out?”

“I need to talk to both you and Mom. Please sit down. I don’t want you standing. Do you need anything?”

“I could use some Advil and water.”

Scott walked into the kitchen to ask Sid for Advil and a bottle of water. Scott also poured her a cup of coffee and brought it back into the living room. Maddie frowned when she noticed Scott had Ashley with him. She couldn’t imagine why he would have brought her when he came to talk about George. She took the Advil and leaned back into the cushions of the sofa. Scott sat across from Maddie and their mom.

“I’m going to try to make a long story as short as I can. I don’t want to relive some of it myself.” He took a deep breath and went on. “Lola and I are getting divorced.”

“What?” Maddie didn’t bother trying to hide the surprise in her voice.

“We’d been moving in that direction anyhow, but last night was the final straw.” Scott motioned his hands toward Maddie. “After this bullshit happened. Anyhow, Lola received a call very late last night and when she came back into the bedroom she was crying and furious. Apparently, George is Lola’s foster brother. They had lived together with the same family for about five years. I knew Lola was adopted, but I didn’t realize she had been in foster care for years before she was adopted. They were split up when she was fourteen. George called last night to ask Lola to bail him out of jail. She was furious that you were pressing charges, and I told her if he did assault you, there was no way in hell she was using our money to bail him out.”

Maddie’s mouth dropped open. “They have known each other all along?”

“Yes. Apparently they had agreed it would be best to keep it a secret. I don’t know anything for sure, but I actually think there’s more to their relationship than just being foster siblings in the past. Lola’s level of furious was based on more than a relationship from over a decade ago.”

“Oh my God, you don’t think …” Maddie waved her hand. “I can’t even go there right now.” Maddie shook her head. “I never even knew George was adopted. He had told me both his parents were killed in a car accident.”

“Apparently George never was adopted. According to Lola, he started getting into a lot of trouble after she left. He moved around quite a bit for many years until he lived on his own at eighteen. Last night was not his first arrest, which is also why Lola was so upset.”

Maddie sat stunned. She had no idea who that other person was that Scott was talking about.
How did I never know any of this?
Maddie had been within a couple months of marrying a complete stranger.

“Honestly, I have no idea if she went to the police station, but I imagine she did very early this morning. She left the house about four. She packed up her car with everything important she could fit in it. As you can see, her daughter was not one of the items she felt was important enough to make space for.”

“I’m so sorry, Scott,” said Maddie.

“It’s okay. It was going to happen eventually and, at this point, I think I’m just relieved it’s over. Before we got married, Lola failed to tell me she never wanted kids. When she unexpectedly got pregnant, I had to beg her not to get an abortion. When she had the troubled delivery, she blamed me. She said everything was my fault. I thought when she saw Ashley, she would change her mind about wanting her, but it never happened. I ran into Todd at the doctor’s office the last time I took Ashley in for an appointment.”

Maddie flushed at the mention of his name.

“He told me what happened between you and him.”

“He did? Did he tell you everything?” Maddie asked.

“Yes, and that’s when I started to put things together. Maddie, I can’t believe you broke up with him because Lola forced you to. Why didn’t you say something to me?”

“Because I thought you two were so in love and I didn’t want anything to come between you. Our relationship had changed from the day Lola walked into your life and I just wanted to remain a part of Ashley’s life and yours.”

Scott dropped his head in his hands. “I know and I’m sorry. Apparently Lola was manipulating both of us the entire time. She said I needed to give you space and to quit coming down and staying over as if I was a pathetic older brother. I’m guessing she lied when she told me you didn’t want me to walk you down the aisle anymore, but that you were afraid to tell me. She said you had asked her to tell me gently, so it didn’t hurt my feelings.”

“Of course not, the day you told me I cried myself to sleep. I couldn’t understand why you didn’t want to be there with me on my wedding day. I wanted Dad to be there so bad, but since I knew he couldn’t be, I needed to have you there.”

“I know,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry. I would never intentionally hurt you. I can’t believe how much I let her pull me away from my family.”

“Well, it appears George and Lola have that in common. Lola must have been the one who tipped George off to where I was all the time. I couldn’t believe the number of times I ran into him. I mean, this is a big city, and when he showed up at the doctors’ ball, I couldn’t even begin to understand how he would know about that. They must have been talking this whole time.”

“Yeah, that’s where things got even uglier during our fight. She admitted to talking to George this whole time. She said she told him where you would be, who you were dating …”

Maddie interrupted. “Do you think that’s how George got the new set of keys for my place? Last night when he was there, I couldn’t figure out how he got in. Plus, he had disabled my security system, which means he had the new code.”

“I think so, and like I said I think there is something more going on between them. Lola wouldn’t admit it, but if you could have seen how upset she was about the whole situation. If they were just old friends …”

“You think they are seeing each other?”

“I don’t know, Mad. Let’s not even waste our time talking about it. I feel terrible that I caused all of this. I just hope you’ll forgive me for bringing such a monster into our family. I promise, I will always be there for you and I will never let anyone come between us again.”

“It’s not your fault, Scott. I just wish I had told you and Mom the truth about George. Things might have turned out different if I had been more honest about the person he had become. I was just so embarrassed I had let him hurt me so much.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nina.

“To be honest, I don’t know that getting into the details will help anyone right now. I don’t want either one of you more upset than you already are. I will heal and forget in time. Today, I’m just glad I changed the instructions on my panic button and that Sid has a sixth sense. Or else I’m not sure what would have happened.”

Maddie reached over and patted her mom’s leg. She looked up at Sid who had stayed on the far end of the living room.

Sid joined them and put his arms around Nina and Maddie. “You’ve been through a rough time, Maddie,” he said. “But we’re all here for you now.”

• • •

A
ustin rolled over onto his back. His head was pounding. He slowly opened his eyes, but the glare of the daylight sent searing pain through his head.
What the hell happened last night?
Austin couldn’t remember the last time he had been hung over and even then, he didn’t think he had ever felt that bad. Everything from last night was blank. He couldn’t remember a single thing after walking into the bar and having a couple of beers and a shot with…
What the hell?
Tiffany had been sitting at the end of the bar. He tried harder to open his eyes. Then he heard it.

“Mornin’ darling,” she chirped at him, “I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up. I think someone had a bit too much to drink last night.”

Why couldn’t he remember what happened?
How did I get here?
He didn’t even know where he was. He tried to push himself up on his elbows. He recognized the décor in the room, so he knew he was still at the hotel.

“Tiffany.” Trying to talk was like sand paper in his throat. “What the hell is going on?”

“What do you mean, darling? I think you’re just a bit under the weather this morning.”

“Cut the ‘darling’ crap. I don’t want you here, so why are you here?”

“Umm, well, I wouldn’t say you didn’t want me last night. Is someone hung over this morning?”

Austin managed to turn his head her direction. She was wearing black silk pajamas. Thank God she was fully covered. He didn’t think he could handle anything else or he might get sick right there on the bed. He reached for his phone on the bedside table, but it wasn’t there. He always put it there at night.

“Where’s my phone?”

“What do you need it for? I’m right here.”

Okay, this isn’t going well. Why can’t I shake this feeling?

“Tiffany, I’m serious. I need to call Tommy. What time is it?”

“Ten after seven.”

He couldn’t remember what time his flight was. He needed to call Tommy.
Shit. Did I talk to Maddie last night when she landed? Oh my God, I needed to talk to her before Molly got there.
He couldn’t remember talking to her. He hoped Tommy could fill in some of the blanks. Austin managed to get his legs over the side of the bed and gingerly shifted his weight onto his feet, hoping his legs would hold him up.