As she leans forward, the sound of footsteps approaching from behind steal my attention.
“Sophie,” my mother’s voice breaks the moment but before I can say anything at all, Sophie asks me to give her and my mother a moment.
“Only if you promise me you won’t run.” But even as I say the words, there’s a calmness between us, one I’ve never felt before with her. One I hope I can hold on to until the day I die.
“I promise, Madox. I don’t want to run from you. I promise. I don’t want either of us to be alone.”
Chapter 16
Sophie
“Maybe we should go inside.” Adrienne’s voice is calm as her fingers twine together and she glances around the parking lot. Night fell in the last hour and it’s dark back here, save for the lampposts.
“Wait for me?” I ask Madox, and he’s already nodding.
“I’ll be just outside the room.” His words are soft for me, but his gaze is stern and directed at his mother, who simply pretends he isn’t looking at her at all.
The chill in the air nips up my arms and I nod once in agreement. I can’t stand to look her in the eyes. My head is spinning, and the notion that I was only a pawn and didn’t deserve my job is screaming in my head. I knew better. I knew better than to think I was worthy of a job like that.
Walking in unison, our heels click on the pavement as I gather my composure. With every step I remind myself of what just happened. He said he loves me.
Madox Reed loves me. That’s all that matters.
There is no doubt in my mind. Swallowing the lump in my throat and bracing myself for what’s to come, I hold on to that. It doesn’t matter what Adrienne says or what she thought she would accomplish with her duplicity. Madox loves me.
Fuck, more tears gather in the corner of my eyes as I follow Adrienne to a private table in the back. I don’t miss how she asks for the waiter to leave us alone for a moment. It’s the same fucking room I was in two days ago. Everyone here must think I’m a fucking lunatic for constantly crying.
I couldn’t give two shits what they think. Madox Reed loves me.
“I want to tell you a story, Sophie, if you’ll let me.”
All I can do as I sit across from this woman, a woman who has lied to and deceived both me and the man I love, is nod. I can’t be angry at her, not after what just happened with Madox. But it feels like she’s stolen from me.
“Years ago, as I’m sure Madox has told you, my late husband made a horrible business deal. My parents never thought the man I married was a good choice because he didn’t come from money, but I knew he loved me and that was all that mattered.”
Her next words are torn from her throat, barely spoken as tears gather in her eyes. “I cared for him, but when he lost so much money, Sophie, I don’t know how he could have been so stupid. And that’s what I told him. I was cruel and angry and bitter. My mother always told me to marry someone who loves you just a little bit more than you love him. And I thought I had.
“I still loved him, God did I love him, but we were going through very hard times and I told him I didn’t. And worse. I said a lot of even worse things to him.” Licking her lower lip, she focuses on something on the wall behind me, maintaining her poise although tears leak from her eyes. “I won’t deny the things I said to him that last night were cruel.”
Madox never told me any of this. I know he blames his mother, but I never knew they’d fought like that. That she screamed at him.
“I deserve to be alone for what I said to him. I drove him to feel unloved and unworthy. I told him…” She closes her eyes and doesn’t finish. When she opens them she shakes her head and says, “Madox heard what I said, and I can’t even voice it now. I can’t take the words back, but I won’t ever say them again. My husband wasn’t well, and he killed himself that night. He was the love of my life. I regret everything that night.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper and it’s then I feel my own tears.
She cuts me off before “sorry” is even spoken, waving her hand. “I’m not finished. Please, let me finish.”
“I lost my husband, my wealth, and I was losing my son. He was angry, he hated me and blamed me. Madox needed to act like the man he was meant to be. He was too much like his father, that’s what I’d told him when he would act out. I thought hard love was the best way to raise him. It’s how my parents raised me. I was … wrong. I was very wrong.