“Damn,” Abel says, looking down at the dark green bottle in his hand. “That’s some good beer.”
The doctor came and left, and when I wipe the condensation off the mirror after a long, hot shower, I see there are four stitches knotted into my skin. All of the anger that I felt has evaporated. Understanding someone else’s emotions is important when it comes to forgiveness, which is exactly why I don’t do it often.
I make my way into the master bedroom, where Madison lies beneath the stark white sheets, one leg out and the other hidden beneath. Her brown hair is sprawled over her pillow and her mouth is slightly open. I’m paralyzed, unable to move for seconds as I take in her body. How it’s changing and glowing. Fuck. She has never been more beautiful than she is right now, carrying my children.
She’s wearing a little crop top and booty shorts, so her belly is bare for me to see. I can’t fucking move.
Bringing my hands up to my face, I scrub my eyes with the back of them, stumbling backward until my back hits the wall. Guilt tears at my throat, desperate to escape as every second passes. It’s torture knowing you’ve hurt someone you love and knowing there’s nothing you can do to force their forgiveness.
I know this ride isn’t going to be easy. She’s not going to forgive me overnight. Maybe not even in a month. But I do know I’ll wait right here for her for as long as she needs.
…I just won’t let her know that.
I pull the sheet back and slide in behind her, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her body into mine. She tenses and I slowly kiss the nape of her neck, lapping my tongue around the bump from her spine.
“Don’t fight me.”
She relaxes, melting into my arms, and for the first time in fucking months, I relax. Minutes pass, and I wait until her breathing evens out. Blanketed by darkness with her in my arms, I squeeze her body tighter, kissing her head. I know she’s asleep, and I also know that what I’m about to tell her I’m not ready to say with her conscious.
“I’m sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry, baby. If he wasn’t burned to ash, I’d dig him up and kill him all over again. I failed you. I know that. But those days are over… I’ll wait for you as long as you need, because I know you’re going to need time. A lot of it. And there are still things that are about to happen that you’re going to hate. Like for one, we’re getting married in a couple weeks, but you won’t know about that until it’s already done. Sorry in advance, it’s just how it is. I’m not going to make this easy on you either, because of who I am as a person. If I kneel to you—” I pause, a hiss leaving my lips— “when I kneel to you, it’ll be forever, and, Madison, you’re the only fucking person walking this earth who I’d get on a knee for. But the next few months are going to be rough.”
I smirk against the curve of her shoulder as her little snores sound out. “See you on the other side, baby.”
Six months later
“I DON’T THINK THIS IS a good idea…” Madison says from the courtyard.
I tried calling it a house once, but then Nate laughed at me. I said mansion, and Brantley rolled his eyes. They’re not being dramatic either. The castle is like no other home I have ever seen. We hired a world-famous architect who flew from Italy for three months while it was being built, had four construction crews on-site constantly so it could be finished before Madison gave birth, and we were lucky because it was. It was only possible because I never actually stopped the work on it—not even when she was in New Zealand. I knew it would have only been a matter of time before I put an end to her tantrum. She doesn’t know this, but even if I had found out that she was pregnant and those babies weren’t mine, I still would have raised them as my own.
“Oh, come on.” Tate hooks her arm in Madison’s and drags her away from the antique table and down the grand backyard stairs to the beginning of the hedge maze.
Yeah. That’s how far Madison went with the designs on this house. Head of my finances are not surprised by the length of expenditure she spent on this house. But Madison is Madison, and after spending close to two hundred mil on this house, she felt guilty. I tried to reason with her, but we both ended up deciding to sign off on five million to sexual abuse victims, on top of me agreeing to allow Madison to take over the yearly EKC charity event balls. Madison deals with pain by doing what she can to ensure no one else feels what she does. It makes her an idiot because she’ll always suffer before anyone else. It’s one of the things I need to keep on top of with her.