Page 59 of The Billionaire's Secret Heir

Any time a nurse appeared, Madi asked if they could go. Most of them looked annoyed at the steady decline of their hospital room, but the last one on duty gave Madi an understanding look when she let her borrow a phone charger.

“I’m working to get you both discharged. The doctor should be by in an hour and that should be it. Is someone coming to get you?”

Madi was slapped with the realization that she had no car. Hers was still in some shop, wherever Beckett had sent it. She closed her eyes. Becka had climbed up the back of the couch and stood on the broad window sill, banging on the thick glass. Madi had pulled the shades up as far as they would go to keep Becka from destroying them or pulling them down. Standing at the window kept her entertained and seemed relatively safe as far as the room went. At this point, Madi was simply worn out. The sun was setting outside and it was beautiful.

“Cars! Cars! Outside!”

“That’s right, Beck-Beck. It’s a parking lot outside. With cars.”

There was a knock at the door and the kind nurse put her head inside the door. “Madi? There’s a gentleman at the nurse’s desk insisting that he sees you. Do you feel up to it or shall I send him away?”

Her heart hammered. She wanted to see Beckett so badly, to let him hold her, to feel the comfort that she knew he would offer. And yet she couldn’t, not now. Not yet. And maybe not ever.

“Is it Beckett?”

The nurse shook her head. “He said his name was Bret.”

Oh. Disappointment flooded her first, then anger. “I’ll see him.”

Madi sat up, smoothing down the shirt she’d been wearing during the accident. They had made her put a gown on, but she’d put back on her normal clothes as soon as they’d let her.

Beckett would bring you clothes if you asked.She knew this, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Dirty, post-accident clothes it was. There was a smear of blood on her sleeve.

“Madi?” Bret stood just inside the doorway, hands in his pockets.

After the conversation she had overheard, any softness she’d felt toward him disappeared. “Bret. Come in.”

Becka turned to see him, but then went back to the window, thankfully content for the moment to perch there and look at cars.

“Is that safe?” Bret asked, pointing to Becka.

Madi bristled. “You think I’d let her if not? Yes, the sill is wide and it’s just behind me on the couch. She’s fine and bored out of her mind. Why are you here, Bret?”

He sighed and came to sit on the edge of the chair nearby. Madi moved back so that their knees were further apart. “I was just concerned and wanted to make sure you were okay. You sent me to find Beckett and then when we came back, you were gone and they wouldn’t tell us where. I’m concerned about you.”

Madi rolled her eyes. “No. We’re not going to talk around this. I heard you. This whole thing was a plan you and Calista came up with to get money from Beckett. I need to know the details. Start talking.”

“You heard that?”

“I did. There are a few things I’m confused about. Like how you faked the paternity test and who Becka’s father is, if you even know.”

Bret sighed and rubbed a hand over the arm of the chair. He wouldn’t meet Madi’s eyes. “It started last year. Calista wasn’t getting booked for as many jobs and was in financial trouble. She and I were … dating at the time.”

Madi’s stomach clenched. It was so hard to hear about Calista. Everything was still so fresh. She missed her sister, but was also so angry with her and even had been when she died. Madi was the paid nanny, but Calista hardly paid attention to her daughter. She had suspected the financial issues and that Calista wasn’t really working when Madi was watching Becka. Bret had been around a lot and Madi had also thought something more was going on, though Calista never told her.

“She didn’t know who Becka’s father was, but thought that she could get money from Beckett. Becka looks like him and there was the name—”

“Just coincidence?”

Bret nodded. “Apparently so.”

“But how did she fake the paternity papers? I saw them in the file.”

“She slept with someone at one of the clinics. You know the places—kind of scuzzy, just doing blood and paternity tests. If Beckett had verified it, the truth would have been clear immediately after the meeting. It was totally faked.”

Madi pressed a hand to her eyes as Becka climbed in her lap, uncharacteristically still for a few minutes. She must have been exhausted. “That’s so illegal, right? I mean, could that guy go to jail? And Calista? You?”

Bret waved a hand. “Minor jail time, if it could be proven.”

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