Page 53

Madison

“It smells amazing,” I tell Dad, and give Rhue a faint smile. “Hey, there.”

“Hey, yourself,” he says, eyeing me carefully. “You good?”

“Not as good as this food,” I say, ogling the pan of dad’s signature lasagna sitting in the middle of the table. “When did you find time to do this?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “Kind of already had it prepped,” he says with a smile.

I wince. “Poor Noelle. Maybe we should invite her over?”

“Nah, she already ate,” Dad says. “Went out on the town with her sister when I cancelled. She’s independent like that.”

“You’ve got a type,” I tell him with a sly side-eye. “She’s not an aspiring expat, is she?”

“No,” Dad says with a laugh. “No, I made sure to sit her down and define ‘independent’ for me before we made things official.”

“My mother is super independent, too,” I explain to Rhue.

“What happened to her?” he asks.

I shrug. “Nothing special. She just left us one day and never came back. She sent us a letter a few weeks later from Paris. Apparently, she felt like mydadand I were sinking her career, and she got this offer to work at some super fancy restaurant. Long story short, we’re dead to her, and she’s dead to us. ”

It doesn’t make up for the hole she left,but my dad and I, we survived.

“I’m sorry,” Rhue says.

“It’s okay. I was old enough to understand how selfish she was. Honestly, not everyone is cut out to be a wife and a parent, and my mom proved it. I’m just thankful she decided to keep me and gave Dad and marriage a shot.”

“You’re very matter-of-fact about this,” Rhue replies. “I’m not sure whether I should applaud you or be concerned.”

“Given the shit that’s been hurled at me, Mom walking out is basically ancient history and at the bottom of the pile of issues that will plague me until I’m old and ready to die.”

He laughs. “Damn, you’re brightly positive.”

“Meh. A walking ray of sunshine.”

“That’s my girl,” Dad says, chuckling. “Honestly, Rhue, if it weren’t for your mother and Maddie, I would have had a much harder time adjusting.

Roxanne had a way of seeing both sides of something like this—she helped me out a lot.

She was a damn good psychologist, but she would have made a fantastic grief counselor too. ”

“I had no idea you struggled so much,” I say, feeling a little hurt.

“You were a kid, Maddie,” Dad says. “I couldn’t put all that on you. Wouldn’t have been right. So tell me, you two—apart from pissing off his lordship, what have you been up to? How’s college treating you?”

“Like moving targets,” I say grumpily.

Dad grins. “I take it you had your hazing?”

Rhue offers a nervous laugh, stealing a glance at me in the process. I can’t help but smile, remembering how weird and steamy that night was. Strange how the memory of Rhue touching me doesn’t set me off in a panic the same way Rhue’s actual touch does. What’s wrong with me?

“Cornell has changed some of the rules,” Rhue says, then gulps down the rest of his wine. “It’s on a voluntary basis only, and it targets both men and women who consent.”

In an instant, Dad’s head turns, his gaze finding me. His eyebrows arch upwards as he purses his lips for a moment. “Let me guess, you consented.”

“I did.”

He lets a cackle out. “I knew it. What did you have to do?”

“Oh. We just spent the night in a cabin in the middle of the woods,” Rhue says casually. “There was beer in the pantry. Crackers, too. Blankets. We were fine.”

“You, as in you and Maddie?”

Rhue gives me a brief look, and I nod.

“Yes, sir. We were the first to arrive and claim the cabin. There was some racing through the woods for that. To be honest, I think they could have organized it better, but I think they’ve had complaints from students with…let’s say, thinner skin.”

Dad sighs, shaking his head slowly. “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. Though I think it’s better. Hazing itself is absurd, a remnant of toxic masculinity that we should leave behind.”

“Wow, you sound just like your daughter.”

That makes the three of us burst into laughter. I feel like I can contribute to the conversation now that we’re the super awkward point of telling the stories of that particular night.

“It’s over, and I’m glad. Maybe the next round of freshmen will have more fun, I don’t know. It was kind of lame.”

“It had its moments,” Rhue replies, and I know exactly what he means. My blood simmers purely from a memory darting through my head—if only I could get it to simmer like this when we’re alone.

Later, when he’s getting ready to leave, I walk him to the door. He pauses on the threshold, gazing into my eyes, making my skin flush hot again.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he murmurs. “Just say the word.” His lips brush mine, gently, sending tingles down my spine. Then, with a small smile and eyes dark as the sky, he disappears into the night.

Sighing, I close the door and turn around—to find Dad grinning.

He hesitates for a moment, then chuckles. “I guess I now see why Rhue was so quick to offer me a property to lease. How long have you two...you know...”

“Technically, we’re not. Yet. I think.”

He raises an eyebrow and shoots a meaningful glance at the door. “Technically? How about practically?”

“I guess you could say that,” I concede, smiling.

Dad thinks about it for a moment, then puts an arm around my shoulders. I walk with him back into the kitchen, where a pile of dishes is waiting for us.

“I can’t promise that I won’t go after Julian for what he did to you. Thinking of you being so close to that family while he’s still a free man—” A shadow crosses his face. “I don’t want to lose you, Maddie.”

“You will never lose me, no matter where I go, what I do, or who I’m with,” I reply and cuddle into his embrace. “Julian won’t win. With you and Rhue on my side, he can’t touch me.”

“Damn straight,” he says fiercely.

His fatherly love coats me in a warm glow as I close my eyes and thank the heavens that I’ve got this man in my life.

I don’t know what I would have done without him.

I don’t know how I lasted this long without his support.

We wash the dishes together, and for a moment the world seems normal—almost like nothing horrible ever happened.

Sunday morning winds lazily by with no more threats from Julian.

Noelle comes over for brunch, and for a few precious hours the biggest challenge Dad and I have to face is his discomfort in having Noelle and I in the same place at the same time.

It’s not like we’ve never met before; he’s been seeing her for a few years at least, but he’s always been very careful to keep his love life from affecting my upbringing.

Now that I’m an adult, though, he’s run out of excuses, and between Noelle and I, we wore him down.

“I hope you’re both happy,” he says grouchily as we all sit down to eat.

“Thrilled,” I say, smiling at Noelle.

She’s in her early thirties, just about splitting the difference between dad’s age and mine.

She’s got wavy blonde hair that turns to ringlets at the tips, and big, earnest, grey eyes.

Even on a Sunday, she seems to carry herself with a professional air—which makes sense, since news never takes a weekend.

“Ecstatic,” she agrees, grinning back at me. “I swear, this man talks about you all the time! I was afraid I’d never get to spend any real time with you. Oh, hush, I know the reason—I’m just happy to be here, is all.”

Dad smiles, blushing happily. He’d barely opened his mouth to argue when she shushed him—they must know each other well.

This becomes clearer and clearer as brunch stretches on—they know each other’s likes and dislikes, they finish each other’s sentences; they’re a unit, solid and symbiotic.

It makes sense—they were friends for a long time before they started dating.

Still, I’m beginning to feel like a bit of a third wheel in my own house by the time we’re clearing the dishes.

“Oh, no—nature calls,” Dad says with a grimace as I’m filling the sink with soapy water.

“I told you to go easy on the cheese,” Noelle says, kissing his cheek as he hustles past her. She chuckles as he disappears into the bathroom and gives me a meaningful look. “He never will go easy on the cheese.”

“It’ll be the death of him,” I agree, laughing.

She shoots a furtive look at the bathroom, then turns to me, her grey eyes intense and hard as steel.

“I needed to talk to you anyway,” she says, keeping her voice low.

“I’m working on a story. It started as a background on the candidates, but it’s turning into something a lot more important.

Your dad told me that you worked for the Echeveria family last year, and that you’re dating the son—I wouldn’t want to cause you any trouble, but I think this is extremely important.

Are you willing to meet with me sometime this week?

I know you have school, but I can come out to Ithaca. We can have lunch! My treat.”

My stomach turns to water and begins to boil.

I believe this—more than telling Rhue, more than telling Roxanne, even more than telling my father—is what Julian was warning me not to do.

If I tell her what I know, he’ll be exposed for the bastard that he is.

Hell, all I’d have to do is get her copies of Roxanne’s diary.

I don’t know if Laura would go for that, but Rhue—

Wait, what am I thinking? I can’t do this!

There’s no chance. He’ll kill me, or kill my father, or kill us botg.

The image of him towering over me with rage in his eyes and coke on his nose flashes through my mind and I’m getting sucked down into a whirlpool of panic—then Noelle grabs my hands and I’m back in my kitchen, looking into her eyes.

“That panic,” she says quietly. “That is what I see in the face of every woman I’ve ever spoken to about Julian. Every. Single. One.”

“Every one?” My voice trembles. I know most of the women in Roxanne’s log aren’t even in the country anymore—which means he’s still preying on the women around him.

“Every last one,” she says. “And none of them will tell me why. The man is a terrifying bastard, I’ll grant you that—but think about it, Madison.

He’s about to step into a whole new level of power.

The man running against him doesn’t stand a chance.

Think of the interns. The secretaries. Hell, his peers on the council!

You are a brilliant, intelligent woman with a strong support system.

If he’s powerful enough to paralyze you—what will he do to women who aren’t as lucky? ”

The toilet flushes and I pull my hands away from hers guiltily.

“Think about it,” she says. “I’ll give you my number before I leave.”

My heart hurts because I know she’s right.

Julian moving up in power only gives him access to more victims—and more insulation from justice.

I just wish I was strong enough—brave enough—to defy him so openly.

But I’m scared. I’m more terrified of him now than I was before; because even though Rhue saved our asses, Julian was still able to strike a deadly blow within hours of deciding it.

If I push this, there’s no telling what else he’s capable of.

Sunset stretches over the west in strips of incandescent red, and it’s time for me to grab my bag and head back to Ithaca. Noelle leaves me her number and tells me to be safe. I tell her I’ll try, then hug and kiss my father goodbye and get behind the wheel of my Prius.

As soon as I leave my block, that unpleasant sensation returns. I check the rearview mirror. I slow down through the city center. I even take a couple of side streets. It’s hard to catch my pursuer, but I amabsolutely positivethat I’m being followed.

Well, either that or my paranoia just likes to set in once I’m beyond the walls and safety of my home. Something tells me I have a long and uncomfortable week ahead of me unless I can shake this feeling. Maybe I can even lose my pursuer, if there really is one that I can’t see.

Few people know this city as well as I do, so I decide to get rid of this dark and heavy shadow looming in the back of my head.

I take the alleyways and the narrow backstreets, calmly driving past residential cul-de-sacs before I lose myself on the main road out of Rochester.

It’s a Sunday afternoon, and there are plenty of us leaving the nest tonight.

Hopefully, by the time I reach Ithaca, my mind will be at ease.