Page 37 of Shattered Hope
Knowing I couldn’t insist without insulting the woman, I accept it but turned away to go straight to my room, hoping I would find my cell phone there so I could call Jayden and invite him to join us for lunch.
But he didn’t take my calls. Desperate, I called his secretary, and Phoebe told me he was having lunch with a client.
With a sense of defeat weighing on my shoulders, I accepted there wasn’t anything else I could do, so I rushed into the bathroom, for the fastest shower of my life.
When I went back to the living room, Madeleine was sitting on the couch, sipping from a glass of white wine.
“The food will be here in a few minutes,” she told me. “I hope you don’t have food allergies… everyone seems to have one these days…” she grumbled, sounding more like the woman I had met the day before.
“No… I don’t. Anything will be just fine,” I assured her.
“Good…” she took one more sip from her glass. “Tell me more about you. What makes you different from the other women?”
There she was… I guess seeing me at the apartment had surprised her enough to shake her a little, but she was back to her rude manners.
“What exactly would you like to know, Ms. Wells?” I asked her, deciding I had nothing to lose by confronting her.
It wasn’t as if whatever I had with her son was something other than a fling. There was no future for us and not just because I was still married to Daniel, and I doubted he would ever let me be.
Jayden didn’t strike me as the ‘happy ever after’ kind of man. Not that I blamed him.
“I just told you.”
“I’m no different. Perhaps, convenient, if you’d like…” I assured her.
She squinted her eyes. “Do you really believe that?”
“Why shouldn’t I? We barely know each other, and I won’t be in town for more than a few months,” I pointed out.
“That could change.”
“Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, Ms. Wells, but I really don’t think this is any of your business. Your son is an adult, free to do with his life whatever he wants,” I said, feeling uncomfortable with the whole conversation.
After my mother died, I had promised myself I would stop looking for people’s approval. That promise had given me the strength I needed to leave Daniel and give myself a new life. I wasn’t about to fall into old habits. I didn’t need nor wanted Madeleine Wells’ approval.
“You can’t blame me for wanting to know more about you. You’re the first woman he has ever introduced to me.”
“I’m sure you shouldn’t consider that important… it was just a coincidence. He had taken me to an art show, and I guess he didn’t want to end our date so soon…” I tried to explain.
“You obviously don’t know my son,” she stated.
“I already told you that,” I said, scowling.
“Things don’t happen by chance when he’s involved. There’s not an impulsive bone in his body. He always plans things to the smallest detail,” she assured me.
“Maybe he’s changing…”
“Hell will freeze over before that happens,” she warned me.
The doorbell interrupted me before I was able to answer her, and I almost sighed of sheer relief.
The delivery man brought the food, and I spent the next few minutes serving the food Madeleine had ordered.
She joined me at the dining room table when all was set.
“It smells good,” she said, putting some of the food on her plate.
I nodded but didn’t comment. I had texted Jayden again, but he still hadn't seen any of my messages, so I had no way out.
