“I wouldn’t tell you if he were. I can handle myself, Nathaniel.”
“Yes, but?—”
Maddie puts her finger over my lips. “Maybe if you had consulted with me before sending out a company-wide email announcing our relationship, I wouldn’t have more issues than I already had with him.”
“We’ve discussed this. I had no other choice.”
I was in the doghouse for days after that; however, once the article about our family in the Hamptons came out, I knew every employee at work would see it.
I know more than most how important it is to get in front of the story and quickly.
Maddie was at an off-site meeting with Leo all day, with no service. I couldn’t take a chance of it blowing up in our faces.
“Just give me those. I’m too tired to talk about Linc. And you’ve made me late enough.” She takes the blueprint tubes out of my arms that she needs for an afternoon meeting and heads in the direction of her desk.
“Um, excuse me?” I call after her.
She turns back, stifling her smirk, then kisses me quickly on the lips. “Oh, I forgot to tell you…” She takes out her phone and hands it to me. “I didn’t want you to think I’m hiding anything.”
I unlock her phone, and in an instant, my jaw tightens.
“What the fuck, Madeline?”
She looks around the office, mortified by my outburst. “Will you keep your voice down?”
My eyes snap back down to where her ex has been texting her, demanding to speak to her.
“It’s my fucking company, I can yell if I want to. Has he called you?” My anger begins to simmer dangerously close to the surface.
“I haven’t picked up. It’s why he’s texting.”
I roll my neck to release some tension. “I want to speak to him next time he calls you. You’re with me now and forever until literal death. I told you before he can fuck off.”
Her eyes close, seeming just as frustrated as I am. “How many times can you say fuck?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. Out of all days in the week, today is not the day I want to be dealing with all this shit.
I’ve just gotten word that someone is contesting the new build that Amara and I have been working on in London, and I need to fly there on Saturday night.
On top of that, Enrique Calderón, a Spanish builder we’ve worked with many times before with our Building Unity charity, rejected our proposed plans early this morning.
It’s a project that my team has worked tirelessly on, and for the life of me, I don’t know why.
I hand her phone back just as it rings again, but she has a better grip and pulls it back behind her.
“For the love of God, Maddie Grace Cunningham, if you don’t let me put a stop to this, I’m going to fly down to Georgia and strangle him myself.”
“The two of you need to get out of the hall,” Lizzy whisper-shouts. “I can hear every word you’re saying.”
My hand wraps around Maddie’s elbow to lead us in the opposite direction to my office, her heels clicking quickly against the floor.
“I have too much work to deal with this right now,” she hisses, trying to keep up. “He’s calling for the ring back.”
I almost trip over my feet, not sure I’ve heard her right. “You kept the ring?” My voice rises.
She shakes her head vehemently. “Of course, not. I gave him back the engagement ring, but I have his grandmother’s cocktail ring. I can’t exactly mail it back, and if I pick up the phone, I’ll have to have a conversation.”
Speeding up my pace, I almost smash my glass door when I slam it open, and stalk into my office, right to the bar, and pour myself a scotch.
