Page 52 of The Billionaire's Secret Heir

Chapter Fifteen

Beckett couldn’t help his small glances over at Madi as he drove them back to his house. He wanted to reach for her, but she was scrunched into the door, as far from him as she could possibly get. Because they were in Courtney’s minivan, the distance was even farther. Stupid minivans. He had to leave his Bentley at Graham’s because of Becka’s car seat.

“Keep the van as long as you want,” Graham had said with a smile, swinging Beckett’s Bentley keys around his finger. “I definitely won’t mind. Courtney can make do with my Audi. I think we’re due for new brakes in the van, but you should be fine.”

He had rolled his eyes and assured Graham he’d be by in the morning to trade back. Once he got home, they could move Becka’s car seat to his Mercedes until her car was fixed. Beckett didn’t want to spend one more second driving a minivan and even if Graham was joking about the brakes, he didn’t want to chance Madi or Becka being harmed.

What he really wanted to do was buy her a new car that was dependable. But he had to find the right way to do it. She had become more willing to let him do things for her, but he knew she didn’t want to feel helpless. Maybe he needed to wait for the right timing. Which obviously, based on her body language, wasn’t now. With Becka sleeping in the car seat in back, the silence felt palpable.

“Everything okay?”

“Sure.” She didn’t look at him when she spoke. Her body was turned almost completely toward the window, hiding her face.

Everything definitely wasn’t okay and Madi didn’t want to talk about it. Beckett traced back the evening, trying to think of what he might have done to cause Madi to withdraw. She had seemed delighted to realize that she and Courtney knew each other from church. If anything, that helped ease her nerves. Not that she needed to be nervous. His family loved her. And, based on the looks they gave Beckett, they loved seeing him with Becka and with Madi. Normally, Beckett would have felt embarrassed displaying affection, but the truth was that he just didn’t care. He couldn’t help showing them both how he felt.

What had happened? Beckett couldn’t think of a thing. She seemed to love talking to his father. Knowing that she had lost her own parents young, he could see the way Madi gravitated towards his father, listening to his stories and answering his questions, which were likely very personal. She and Courtney had a long talk in the kitchen before dessert, but she had smiled at him several times during the conversation. But that was the last time he saw her smiling and relaxed. After that, something had shifted.

“Can I be direct?” Beckett gave a half smile to Madi, hoping what had become a kind of private joke between them would soften her. Nope. He cleared his throat. “Madi, will you tell me what’s bothering you? Something clearly happened at Graham’s house. I can’t think of what it might be, but I hate feeling like there is something between us.”

She turned towards him so quickly that he jerked a little in the seat. “Can you really not guess what might be between us?”

He had never heard her speak angrily, bitterness edging her voice. Yet even in her anger, she kept her voice low so as not to wake Becka.

“I’ve been trying to think of what I did, but I honestly don’t know. Talk to me so I can make it right.”

Madi gave a short laugh. “I’m not sure you can.”

“Madi, please. Be honest. Just say whatever it is.”

“Like the way you were honest with me about the fact that you needed an heir to keep running your family’s company?”

Beckett’s stomach turned at her words. In all honesty, he had hardly thought about the contract with his father since the days following the meeting at his office with her and Bret. He hadn’t even returned George’s calls about getting an independently verified paternity test. His feelings for Madi and Becka had completely eclipsed the entire thing. Considering the fact that nothing had changed in the day-to-day operations of the company, it simply hadn’t been on the forefront of his mind. Every waking moment for the past few weeks had been concerned with taking care of Madi and Becka.

“I know how that must sound, but—”

“Do you know how it sounds? Because it sounds like you’re using Becka and, by extension, me, in order to keep control of your precious company. It explains so much. Why you changed into a different person. Why you moved so quickly, yet haven’t even kissed me on the lips. You need us and you’re using us. Everything else was a lie.”

Her words reached deeper than she could have known. He understood what it meant to be lied to, to be used. His last conversation with Ava had been so similar to this, with the script flipped. He had been the one lied to, the one being used. That feeling was gut-wrenching. But knowing Madi thought that of him? Was worse. Not just because he hated feeling like she didn’t trust him. That hurt.

But knowing the kind of turmoil she must be in if she thought that of him? He hurt more for her. He could feel the raw emotion and pain coming off Madi in waves. All the insecurities and worries she had been struggling with had come to a head in hearing about the contract. Why hadn’t he mentioned it so she didn’t find out like that?

It was in that painful moment that Beckett realized that he loved Madi. When all of his hurt paled in comparison to what he knew that she felt. Only a moment had passed since she spoke, the pain tightening her voice, but Beckett felt like something monumental had shifted. He cared about Madi so much that his body shook from an overload of emotion or adrenaline. His fingers twitched to reach for her, but she was still too far away.

The sound of her sniffling pushed him over the edge.

“Madi, I’m going to pull over so we can talk about this. I want to look at you when I say this.”

Beckett eyed a well-lit CVS parking lot just on the other side of the intersection they were approaching. The light flicked from yellow to red. As he put his foot on the brake and glanced at Madi, Beckett realized too late that the car wasn’t slowing.

Panicked, he jammed his foot on the brake harder and instinctively reached for Madi. Her eyes dripped with tears as the headlights of an oncoming car lit up the window behind her. Beckett couldn’t even shout a warning. And then there was only the sickening crunch of twisting metal as the car barreled into them.

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