Page 43

Madison

CHAPTER FORTY

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I've thought about it a lot over the years, and an affair on my mother's part didn't make sense to me or my siblings, but who can really understand what goes on in people's minds? As for my father, I know he loved her, otherwise he wouldn't have done what he did."

My God, what a sad story.

"What were you planning to do with the bank?"

"Break it apart. Sell it piece by piece until the Gordon name disappeared from high society worldwide. That was the promise I made to my grandfather."

"That would affect the girl and that Emerson guy, not the man who the revenge should really be directed towards, and who was already dead, by the way."

"I've never been good at returning insults in kind, Madison. Revenge runs in my blood. I would use any means to retaliate. They destroyed my father with their betrayal. Do you have any idea what it feels like to have been deceived for years by your spouse and your best friend?"

I try to absorb everything he's telling me, and I feel sympathetic about his parents' deaths, but it doesn't change anything between us. "You asked me to listen, and I did. I'm sorry about what happened to your family, Zeus, but it doesn't change the fact that you lied to me from the beginning and that you're going to marry another woman."

"I haven't finished speaking yet. Like I said before, I didn't come here for your sympathy; I came so you would listen to me. If you still want to kick me out in the end, I'll go."

I nod and shift my gaze away, focusing on my feet. I hold my arms tightly around my knees, as if that can protect me from him, from us. From this love that, even after everything, still seems to overflow inside me.

"The deal I told you about happened shortly before we met. However, right after that, there were changes."

"What kind of changes?"

"I have two older cousins. They knew all about my revenge plans, especially about what I had committed to. Long before making the deal with old Gordon, they were buying GordonBank shares without my knowledge, through companies they owned, but that on the surface had no direct connection to either the Lykaioses or the Kostanidises."

"They were deceiving the patriarch."

"Exactly. On the day you and I returned from the Hamptons, when I had lunch with my brothers, they came clean. We were only one percent away from having the majority of the shares and, consequently, control of GordonBank in our hands."

"But wouldn't Mr. Gordon have more shares than you anyway?"

"No, he owned twenty-five percent, and that made him the majority shareholder in the beginning. In companies like ours, the number of shares is very diluted among various investors, or even smaller companies. What Odin and Christos did was a game of patience. They bought small lots until they reached what we needed. But as I said, we were missing one percent. Ares and I traveled to New Orleans to resolve that issue."

"And now you have the total?"

"We do."

I nod again. "That still doesn't change anything."

"How so?"

"I know that our relationship was about sex from the start, and I told myself that all the time, but you were my first everything, and I couldn't help but fall in love."

"Madison."

I get up and go to the other side of the room. Being so close to him and not being able to touch him is painful. "I'm not what that girl called me, and now that I'm calmer, I realize that those people laughing when I was insulted mean nothing; none of them hold any weight in my life. In the end, what matters to me is my family: my niece and nephew, my mother, and my sister."

I avoid his gaze because, for a moment, I think I see hurt in his eyes, and that's more than I can bear. "Even though you have no further commitment to that Celine girl, you weren't honest with me from the beginning. I assumed you were free, otherwise we never would have gotten involved."

"In my mind, I was free. I never saw that little viper or touched her. We had nothing more than a contract signed through her legal guardian."

"With legal validity?"

"No one could have forced her to marry, of course, but I'm sure the girl would have done whatever her grandfather told her to."

I go to the window, looking out into the night. I'm completely lost. Nothing he's explained makes things any clearer.

"I believe it wasn't your intention to deceive me in the beginning, but you did it anyway. Or maybe I deluded myself. I knew I shouldn't fall in love with you, but it happened anyway."

"Look at me, Madison." He gets up but keeps his distance.

"What would have happened if your cousins hadn't bought the shares? Would you have broken the promise you made to your grandfather?"

"If you had asked me that a few months ago, I would have said that nothing would make me break the promise I made to my grandfather."

"And now?"

"If you need to ask me that, it's because you're still not ready to hear the answer."

I try to stay strong, but I start crying and I'm angry with myself for feeling so fragile in front of him.

Zeus approaches, but I stop him with a gesture. "Don't. Right now, I love you, but I also hate you. I'm not good at trusting, and I let my guard down for you, which only makes me see how much I've put myself in your hands."

"I know you're hurt, and I admit that I was wrong not to tell you the truth. I was arrogant and thought it would be better to resolve the issue of the missing shares before we talked, but that doesn't change anything between us. I want you."

"Are you crazy? Even if we were to work things out, you're a banker. All your employees heard what I do . . . did at the club. Once the rumor spreads, we'll be tabloid headlines."

"I watched the recordings. Everyone who laughed at you will be fired. As for rumors, I don't give a damn, but just so you know, anyone who works in one of my companies signs a confidentiality agreement before they're hired. If what happened this afternoon leaks to the press, if in any way your image is tarnished, I will go after the fucking gossipmonger with so much determination that whatever he gets from the outlet he sold the news to won't be enough to pay the contractual penalty."

"I'm not afraid of what people think of me."

"No?"

"No. I would do it all over again if the safety and well-being of my niece and nephew were at stake."

"Then why does it still seem like you hate me?"

"I don't hate you—I'm just hurt. When we were together, even reluctantly, I felt like Cinderella. That girl brought me back to reality. I'll never belong to your world. It's better if we end things here."

"Are you giving up?"

"It would have happened anyway in a few months."

"You can't know that, Madison. No one can predict the future. A few months ago, I was living my life completely focused on revenge, and then you came along."

"I don't want this anymore."

"We have a contract."

"What?"

"I insisted that we terminate the contract, but you needed a safety net. Your suspicion of me is now my weapon."

"Are you going to force me to fulfill the contract?"

"Don't doubt it for a second. I will never force you to have sex with me, but you won't just disappear from my life because you decided to. I don't give up on what I want, Madison, and I want you. I'll only throw in the towel when you look at me, not with fear, but in a way that convinces me we can't be together anymore because you don't love me."