Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Matt couldn’t disagree. His prickling gut told him they needed to find some way to nail the crooked senator and his corrupt family before that pregnancy announcement…or it would be too late.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
September 1
Matt is coming for you.
Ethan’s out-of-the-blue warning in Madison’s ear an hour ago as he’d helped her from the limousine still had her reeling. Since then, she hadn’t had the opportunity to ask her brash, tattooed bodyguard what he’d meant, and his words kept dive-bombing her brain.
She fidgeted in the makeshift backstage area at the holiday-weekend statewide fundraiser. Despite this barbecue’s end-of-summer timing, the heat showed no signs of letting up. For weeks, Madison had been dreading that she and her womb would be the star of this ridiculous, packed-with-lies show.
Now all she could think about was Matt.
After twenty-six agonizing days, why would he suddenly return for her?
Before he’d left that terrible night with his ill-gotten millions and his Instagram-worthy virgin, she would have sworn he loved her, that nothing and no one else was more important to him. They had bared their hearts, secrets, and souls to each other. He had proclaimed her his in every way possible. He had asked her to be his wife.
No matter what happens. No matter where you go or what you do, you always belong to me. Don’t ever forget that.
His fervent whisper rattled again through her head. Despite everything, some part of her still desperately yearned to believe that.
You’re my everything. I tell you all the time that you’re mine, but do you need to hear that I’m yours, too? I am. Totally. Always. Forever.
None of that was true…but Matt had never been a liar, much less the type who would BS about something as important as the rest of their lives. In the past, he’d only ever pulled back from her because something or someone had jerked him away.
So what could suddenly have changed his mind? Or maybe who was the better question…
Madison glanced over her shoulder and found the most likely answer. Todd. He could have threatened Matt into changing his mind. After all, her smirking husband had been jerking him around from the minute they’d returned to DC.
For-fucking-ever, Madison. Tell me this pussy is mine forever. That you’re mine forever.
If he hadn’t meant those words, why would Matt have snarled them a mere hour before stomping on her heart?
Tell me you trust me.
In the moment, she had been a good girl and assured him she did because it had been true. She had surrendered her heart, her body, and her future to him. Now her faith in him seemed like a mistake, but…
You trust me, remember? Never forget that.
Some part of her swore that Matt had been driving home his point for a reason before ripping her heart to shreds.
All that suffering because you trust I’ll make it perfect for you.
Stupidly, she still wanted to believe that Matt would swoop in, explain that Todd had been responsible for her pain, then swear he loved her. God, her cope was embarrassing. And more hurtful than a rusty blade across her wrists. And yet…she couldn’t stop.
Total trust. Give it to me, and I’ll reward you.
But in the past twenty-six days, he’d given her no reason to cling to her silly fantasies. Besides, after Matt’s terrible desertion, she should despise him, not ache for him. After all, he’d known exactly how to hurt her—and he’d used it ruthlessly.
Guys like Zy had made her wary of men. Todd’s perfidy had driven home the ugly truth about them. But Matt had shattered her on purpose. And because she had never purged him from her heart, he had wriggled under her defenses and destroyed her from the inside out.
You have a naive little heart that wants to believe every fairy tale any man ever whispered in your ear.
Matt’s slur boomeranged through her head, slicing her soul open a little more with each lap. She had cried over those words just yesterday. Then again, she was so hormonal, she practically cried at commercials for toilet-bowl cleansers.
You’re too smart to be this dumb. Use your head, Ethan had demanded when he’d found her sobbing over lunch.
But all attempts to wipe away the emotional cobwebs and reexamine Matt’s breach of faith rationally left her emotions spinning in dizzying circles. She was exhausted, confused, and desperate for today’s farce to end, so she could go home and start rebuilding herself, not as Todd Pershing’s wife or Matt Montgomery’s discarded lover. She would simply be Madison again—daughter, teacher, friend, and now mother-to-be. She would build her own happiness from there.
As upbeat introductory music began to play from the overhead speakers, families who had come with picnics and Frisbees settled into their lawn chairs. Children, many with heavy lids, sat on spread blankets. Conversation stopped as everyone focused on the main event.