Page 40

Rhue

“Get in the car,” Dad says.

We’re outside the café, now. Laura has Madison’s bag and phone, refusing to leave my side. For the first time, she’s sticking with me. It draws the old man’s ire, of course.

“Laura, get your ass in the car,” he insists.

The manny comes around Dad’s SUV and tries to get her to move, but I politely push him away. “Stay out of this, Steve. Trust me. It’s the one conflict you don’t want to get dragged into.”

“Stop telling my staff what to do and get in the fucking car. Both of you!” Dad snarls, ready to jump out and wrestle me, if he has to.

There is so much unresolved anger festering inside me, I almost want to dare him to it.

I can definitely recognize the therapeutic benefit of breaking my father’s face.

“We’re not going anywhere,” I say, raising my chin in defiance. “You fucked up, Dad. You made a fool of yourself in 1872 Café, which is where most of your future constituents hang out, by the way. And you embarrassed us, too.”

“The only ones doing the embarrassing were the two of you, hanging around with that piece of trash,” he replies. “For the last time, get in the car. We need to talk.”

Laura groans softly. She’s trying so hard to be brave, but the more Dad growls, the more difficult the entire situation becomes for her.

I promised her doctors that I would do everything in my power to keep her away from stress and emotional triggers, but I am clearly failing here.

I need to get her away from Dad, not in a car with him.

The last thing she needs is an earful about how we have to steer clear of anyone who might damage his precious reputation, with only a few weeks left until the election.

It’s all he cares about, anyway. Nobody will nominate Julian Echeveria for the Father of the Year award, that much is painfully clear.

The air is so thick, I can barely breathe.

Worse even, most of this agitation comes from not knowing how Madison is.

The whole encounter must have shaken her to the core that it led to that dramatic exit.

She even left her stuff behind. I can’t help but feel responsible.

“For the last time, neither Laura nor I are coming with you. We’ll see you later, if anything. So go home, dad. Grab a few drinks, think really hard about how you’re going to play this out, and later, I’ll be happy to talk.”

Not really, but if this buys me a few hours, at least, I can make some arrangements.

Laura will go home, inevitably, at some point.

My goal is for Dad’s rage to simmer down before she gets there.

That way, whatever conversation they have will be calmer.

As for me, I’m driving back to Ithaca. I have no interest in hearing what he might have to say.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Dad warns. “I’m the last person you want to go up against.”

“Is that what I’m doing?” I shoot back. “I’m not the one who embarrassed my children in public over the woman I had an affair with.

Most importantly, I find it beyond outrageous that you actually had the balls to make yourself out as the victim back there.

You didn’t trip and fall with your dick inside Madison Willis, Dad. ”

“Shut your mouth!” he snarls, ready to jump out of the car.

The manny has the presence of mind to intervene. “I’ll stay with Laura, sir. I’ll bring her home later. Let us not do this here.”

“Public opinion is easy to break,” Laura mutters.

It’s enough to tone him down, to my astonishment. Then again, I don’t know why I’m surprised to see that his poll numbers matter more than his family. I should be thankful.

Dad gives me a disgusted look as he shifts the car into gear.

“I’d better see you both home later,” he grumbles and drives off with a furious screech.

Heavy silence follows, as both Laura and I are left staring by the SUV, a black giant rumbling into the noon traffic.

Its steel rims capture the sunlight and throw it back into our faces, briefly blinding me before turning the corner.

Only once he’s out of sight do I breathe again.

I take in a lungful, too, though it’s Steve the manny who exhales sharply.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he says, shaking his head.

Personally, I’m baffled. I’ve never heard him talk like this before. “I could’ve sworn you were some kind of golly-gosh Mormon or something,” I tell him.

“What? No. And you two need to get your shit together,” he bursts. Again, I’m speechless.

“Who are you and what have you done with Steve?” Laura asks, albeit sarcastically.

Steve, however, fails to capture the nuance. “I didn’t do anything. You did. Couldn’t you have been a bit more discreet about meeting with that lady? Hasn’t she caused enough trouble in your family already?”

“She’s not the one who caused the trouble. She isn’t the one who had the affair. That was your boss,” I reply, wondering where he’s going with this.

“Either way, you should’ve been smarter about this. He was bound to find out,” he says. “The man knows everything that goes on in Rochester. Absolutely everything, especially what his children are up to. That whole mess back there could have been avoided.”

Laura looks at me. “He does have a point.”

I smirk. “It’s fine. I want the old bastard rattled, anyway. He got off easy, no matter what you tell me, kid.”

“Rhue, please. We can’t start a war with Dad.”

“We won’t. Steve here came up with a great idea just now,” I say.

“I did?” he asks, looking rather confused.

I give him a cool grin. “You most certainly did. You’re gonna keep my beloved sister company till about six in the evening.

That should be enough time for the man to get home, drink his whiskey and cool the fuck down so that he doesn’t say or do anything that he might regret.

” I take the purse from Laura’s lap and make sure Madison’s phone is in it, as well.

“In the meantime, I’m gonna take this back to Madison and see if I can fix things.

That couldn’t have been easy for her, either. ”

“I’m sure it wasn’t,” Laura mumbles, giving me a worried frown.

Unfortunately, I can’t find it in me to lie to her and say that everything is going to be okay. It is not a promise I’m sure I can fulfil. But I can try to make it better.

“I’ll find her. She probably went home, anyway. Just stay out till six, okay? Don’t let the old man bully you into a corner. You hold your ground and listen to me, and I promise you’ll have him by the balls before he’s retired.”

The statement makes Steve laugh in a mocking fashion, but the glare I respond with makes him choke on it. He clears his throat and offers a polite bow. “I’ll look after Miss Laura, as always.”

“You’d better. And don’t forget. No sooner than six.”

“Roger that,” he replies.

Laura seems less anxious, so I have a tiny silver lining to hold on to. “Just find her and make sure she’s okay. You two really need to get over that––thing. I mean, look at what it’s done to Dad.”

Yeah, I can see. I would hate to end up like that. Ironically, I wasn’t too far from this nightmarish version of his. It is so easy to focus one’s energy on loathing a person, on wishing them ill and on doing everything in one’s power to do harm.

This is my chance to put an end to a past that has done nothing but hurt us for so long.

The first thing I do is check the café’s surrounding area.

Madison left without her bag and phone, and she was a mess.

I doubt she got too far, so I take my time combing the alleys and side streets, first. A rapid pulse pounds through my veins.

Every moment that I don’t see her adds to my unrest as I struggle to keep a clear head.

What comes next in my life amounts to a pivotal moment.

For me, for Madison, but also for Laura and my dad.

After another twenty minutes of searching, I find Madison sitting on a bench in a bus stop, two blocks from the café.

She’s alone, a bus having just left. Without any money, she couldn’t have gotten on it, to begin with.

I imagine the thought crossed her mind, as well.

I stare at her profile for a short while.

She’s sad. So deeply sad, it almost breaks me.

She wipes sweat from her brow and gets up, ready to face what’s left of the day, including the challenge of getting home.

I imagine she knows where her bag and phone are, but it would be insane for her to go back to the café, now.

Not after what happened there. I’d leave the city in an instant if I experienced even a fraction of the horror I saw on her face earlier.

Unaware of my presence, Madison gets up and walks toward me.

As soon as our eyes meet, she freezes. Time itself stops flowing, expanding into something excruciatingly slow and heavy, as if the whole world is pressing down on our shoulders, mercilessly crushing our existence.

We can’t look away from one another, either.

An eternity forms as we stare, motionless and breathless, with just ten feet of air between us, of unoccupied space that I need out of the way.

“What are you doing here?” Madison asks, her voice scratchy.

I hand over the bag. “Your phone’s inside. Figured you might need it.”

“Yeah, thanks. Sorry for leaving the way I—”

“You have absolutely nothing to apologize for, Madison. What Dad did, it shouldn’t have happened. Neither Laura nor I told him what we were doing. And neither of us needs his permission to do anything, anyway.”

She smiles bitterly. “We both know that’s not exactly true. Not when your father is basically the king of Rochester. That city council position he’s running for is symbolic, at best.”

“I don’t give a shit about what my father does. Before anything else, I need to apologize for his behavior. It was rude and vicious, and completely uncalled for.”

“So you say,” Madison whispers and tries to walk past me.

I catch her arm and force her to turn around and face me. “Are you okay?”

Only now, as I lose myself in the deep blue holes of her eyes do I realize that she is anything but okay.

Raw pain radiates from her like heatwaves from a burning stove.

Hot enough to melt my skin, so I can only imagine how it must feel rolling around inside of her.

Tears well up in her eyes, and there is so much that she would like to tell me, yet she cannot bring herself to speak up. Has she always been like this?

I shake my head slowly. “What happened between you and my father, Madison?”

“I fell for the wrong guy, I made every wrong decision possible, and now… Well, now, I am paying the price. Everything I am right now is the result of my choices.” Her voice trembles as she speaks.

So much so that it’s as though I can feel her pain inside me.

For a moment, I think I might just let her sell me this lie because that’s what it is, a lie.

I can feel it. See it etched in the corners of her face.

I cup her cheek in my hands. “Talk to me, Madison.”

She seems tired. I’m betting this is the last place she wants to be right now.

Annoyingly enough, it’s hard for me to look at her without remembering the darkness in her eyes when I found her with my father.

That moment still haunts me, even now. It stabs me in the chest, the blade twisting to cause maximum damage, every time my mind wanders back to it.

I liked her, and she liked me, and the reason why she chose my father over me is still a mystery.

As awful as it might sound, I think I need to hear her tell me why. I need closure.

“Madison.” I wait for her to raise her gaze.

Time resumes its flow, somehow. Neither of us moves, neither of us says a word, yet we both seem to know what’s going on.

Peace. Peace is being brokered between our souls, while our bodies inch closer, the few inches left between us vanishing one by one.

I’m holding her, now. I’m holding her, my arms wrapped around her waspy waist.

Her breath tickles my chin as she tilts her head back to look at me.

As the world spins and hurtles through the vastness of cosmos at an incomprehensible speed, I understand that we’re but blips in the fabric of space and time.

Right now, as I sink into the oceans of Madison Willis’s eyes, it all makes sense. I inch closer, and she doesn’t pull back. No, she softens in my embrace and allows me to lower my head, my lips searching for hers.

Madison moans softly while I take the liberty of tasting everything she has to offer. I allow the hunger to take over, and the kiss becomes an act of devouring one another. A consumption of our souls. She’s so delicate and sweet, so vulnerable and radiant.

“I fell for you,” I say, my lips brushing against hers. “I fell for you, Madison. It was never in my nature to allow anyone to get as close to me as I let you get.”

“You shouldn’t have,” she replies, letting a heavy sigh out as she melts in my embrace.

“But I did. So, tell me, please, why’d you do it?”

Suddenly, she stiffens, and my fear returns with a fierce and agonizing grip. There’s no turning back now, though. She wants to run. I have to stop her. I can’t let another year go by like this last one.

“Do what?” Madison murmurs, trying not to look at me anymore.

I gamble and bring a hand up, gently clasping her chin. “You know what. I saw you. I gave you hell over it, but I never stopped to calmly ask why. But I’m asking now. Why him, Madison?”

“Why does it matter?” she snaps, eyes glassy and growing wider, round and filled with horror. Her lips part slowly, and I hear her breath breaking.

“I’m trying to do better, to be better, and if there is one thing I know for a fact now, it’s that you and I have unfinished business. That night at the cabin proves it. I just need to understand what the hell happened between the two of you. I need to know why . I was falling for you, Maddie and…”

“I’m the one who killed your mother!”

I stop. Stop speaking. Stop thinking. Stop breathing.

The ground vanishes from under me.

And all I can see is my hands wrapping around Madison’s neck.