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Madison

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Five days later

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Do you want me to come to your office?" I ask the doctor who treated me here at home the day I fainted, and who I only later discovered was the Kostanidis's “family doctor.”

I was just getting ready to go to work. I start to get anxious and twirl my engagement ring, which Zeus had enlarged in record time.

Lord, do not allow him to have found some serious disease in my blood.

"What’s happened, darling?" my mother asks from my side.

I hate doing this, but I don't want to scare her, so I once again use something my father taught me and lie. "Nothing, Mom. Don't worry."

I’ve thought a lot about everything that’s happened, and at first, I wanted to stay away from the Kostanidis Group . However, I came to the conclusion that that was exactly what those two Gordon bastards had planned.

I have nothing to be ashamed of. They'll never prove that I danced at the club, but even if they could, dancing was just what I did, and I'll never be ashamed of it. I guaranteed food on my family's table and was able to buy clothes and toys for the babies, in addition to the medications that my mother uses.

"Yes, I can stop by,” I tell the doctor, “but I'm going to work now. What time would be good for you?"

"Four p.m.?"

"Perfect." I'll have to ask Zeus to let me leave early. "Can you message me your address?"

"I will arrange for my secretary to send it to you. Have a nice day, Miss Foster."

"What’s happened, Madison?" Mom asks as soon as I hang up.

"Nothing, Mom. You know what these older doctors are like. He wants to give me the blood test results in person."

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

I sigh, giving up. "I don't know what it is, Mom. He said he wants to talk to me in person about the test results, so I'll stop by his office later. I promise that as soon as I hear the results, I'll call." I give her a kiss and say goodbye to the babies. "I gotta go. It's my first day at the company after that nightmare, and I don't want to give people any reason to say that I'm being favored by the boss," I joke, winking to see if I can make her relax.

I leave the house, and Larry is waiting for me at the door, but still, I'm escorted by the two bodyguards that Zeus placed to take care of me. I know one will be watching Eleanor and the children.

It's horrible to think that those people, the Gordons, would be capable of hurting us, but if I take into account that Celine, that miniature bitch, almost made me lose custody of my niece and nephew with fake news, you can understand what kind of people we are dealing with.

Greater proof that money and character don't go hand in hand.

And speaking of money, I thought that the scandal in the celebrity magazine that reported that I was a call girl could somehow harm the Kostanidis Group's shares, but Zeus told me that over the first three days, they dropped by half and then returned to normal.

"Good morning, Larry."

"Good morning, Madison."

Zeus's driver and I initially fought over his formal treatment of me, and I finally won. Now he calls me by my first name.

I get in the car, and after fastening my seat belt, I think about all the changes that have happened in my life, even if they are not necessarily linked to me.

Adriel's death made little news in the newspapers, and from what I found on the internet, the police don't seem too concerned about finding the bastard responsible, claiming it was a robbery gone wrong.

I doubt it. Adriel was very smart and knew how to take care of himself. I have much more faith in Zeus's theory that old Gordon “shut him up.”

God, how could I have been so wrong about that choreographer?

Ms. Mirtes never hid who she was. Her gaze was malevolent, and even though I didn't know the real reason, I was suspicious of her obsessive desire to take the babies away from us.

Though Adriel's death went almost unnoticed in the New York newspapers, the same cannot be said about the scandal involving the social worker. The nightly news reported nonstop about the government employee who was part of a gang, with cells spread across various parts of the United States and even in Europe, that sold children from disadvantaged families to wealthy parents who could not have their own.

I don't even know if it's possible—because I don't understand the law—but in my opinion, that unfortunate woman must get life in prison.

After all the crap I've been through, the only good news is that Dr. Athanasios says he believes there's a good chance Brooklyn will wake up at any moment, as her brain has shown signs of partial arousal. [1] .

Others may be surprised by this; I'm not. I never doubted that she would come back to us. My sister has always loved life and knows that her babies need her.

Even though I was very embarrassed, the other day I asked the neurosurgeon how I could start paying for Brooklyn's hospitalization and treatment. He surprised me by saying he was working pro bono , whatever that means in the medical field. I’ve heard of lawyers doing it—it's when they take cases without charging—but how could that be applied to a hospitalization as expensive as my sister's?

Regarding the debt with the old hospital, when I was considering going there to negotiate, Zeus told me that he’d paid it off in full more than a month ago. I wanted to be proud and tell him I didn't need it, but when I asked him the total cost, and he reluctantly told me, I almost had a heart attack. Even if I worked ten lifetimes, I wouldn't be able to pay off that amount.

I only realize I've dozed off when Larry turns off the car.

"We're here, Madison. Do you want me to accompany you, my dear?"

I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. "Thank you so much for your support, Larry, but I need to do this alone. I'm terrified, but I've survived a lot worse than a few dozen snooty employees."

I get out of the vehicle with my head held high, looking straight ahead. I know that from the moment I step onto Zeus's floor, people will covertly watch me.

Looking them in the eye, I greet each one and, without asking for permission, go to my fiancé's office, as he asked me to do as soon as I arrived.

After I enter, I lean against the door for a moment in silence, taking several breaths and shaking. "I did it, love."

He comes to me. "As I knew you would. People can be cruel, but they're not crazy, Madison. They will learn to respect you, even if it's hard." He pulls me to him by the waist and gives me a kiss so long that all the nervousness goes away.

"I need to leave a little early today. Doctor Reeves called me and said he wanted to talk to me about the results of my blood test."

"Blood test? Why? What's wrong?"

"The day that mess happened and I passed out, he took my blood, but it seems he went traveling after that and forgot to call me with the results. Today he called and said he wanted to see me."

"I'm coming with you."

"It's not necessary. It's at four in the afternoon—that’s the middle of your shift."

“I'm coming with you, Madison. This is not up for negotiation."

"I still think we're wasting our time," I say in the elevator of Dr. Reeves' office building.

It took us almost forty minutes to get here due to the chaotic traffic, and by the time we leave, it won't be worth going back to the bank. In other words, we’ve both missed practically the entire working day, since we left the office at three.

"Your health will never be a waste of time for me, baby ."

" Sugar baby, Daddy ," I say laughing and get a slap on the butt. "We're still under contract. Don't forget."

"Really? Then I think I'm going to make these remaining months count."

"In what way?"

He nibbles my ear. "Use your imagination, little girl. It's you who has to please your daddy ."

By the time he finishes speaking, we’re both laughing, but when we arrive at the doctor's floor, Zeus becomes tense again.

The secretary directs us into the doctor’s office, saying that I'm the last patient.

I can see the surprise on his face when he sees Zeus at my side.

"It's a good thing the two of you came together. Congratulations on your engagement, first of all. I'm going to assume that since you came with Mr. Kostanidis, I can say everything in front of him. Right, Miss Foster?"

I was a lot calmer a minute ago, but now I start to get anxious again. "Am I sick?" I can only pray that, if it's serious, my sister wakes up before something happens to me so she can take care of Silas and Soraya with Eleanor.

"Not at all! I called you here to tell you that you . . . I mean, that you two are going to be parents."

"What?" we ask almost simultaneously.

"Your fiancée is pregnant, Mr. Kostanidis. Congratulations on the heir on the way."

While I vaguely hear the doctor say that he has a recommendation for an excellent obstetrician, who was also the one who brought Odin's children into the world, I can only stare at my fiancé with my mouth open.

"What now?" I ask. My heart beats in my ear. How can I be a mother? It's too soon. Jesus!

"Now we're going to have to take care of the wedding preparations faster than we anticipated."

"Why are you smiling and not scared?"

"Because the woman I love, to whom I intend to be married until the end of my days, is pregnant with my baby. How could life be better than this?"