Page 90 of Wretched Heart
“She won’t be unprotected,” Ash answers before I can. “Jake can remain here on stand-by in case she needs him. My guess is she won’t. Once Barrett sees that we’ve moved back to Chicago, he’ll move on too. Maddie’s actually safer without us around.” When I go to shake my head, he stops me. “Give her some breathing space, Hunter. She doesn’t need you.”
I want my brother to be wrong, but I also want him to be right. For Maddie’s entire life, she’s had people controlling her, including me. She’s in charge of her own destiny now, and if I stick around, I’ll only be casting a shadow over the new life she’s about to forge.
I say as much in the text I send on my way to the airfield. I’ve timed it so there’s no time to meet in personbecause, yes, I’m a fucking coward. The sun’s going down and I’ll be back in Chicago in a matter of hours. If I have any sense, I won’t come back to Brimstage. Not ever.
I fake sleep for the first half of the flight to Chicago. I have Maddie’s last text message burned into my closed eyelids. Just two words and three dots.If only…
I would rather she’d berated me for not standing up to my older brother and taking a risk on us. And sure, if it was just my life I was gambling on, I would be clinging on to Maddie with all my might. If only the risks were all mine. If only I could be sure of protecting her. If only…
“Alice’s jet has arrived at O’Hare,” Mace is telling the others. “If Barrett’s with her, he didn’t get off before it took off again.”
“Would Alice go behind his back?” asks Reid.
“Loyalty never was her strong suit,” Ash replies. “Which is why we need to be on our guard tomorrow. And tonight for that matter. I don’t like that the Emerson’s know exactly where we are.”
“Fuck them,” Mace says. “I’m going out and getting very, very drunk. With any luck, I won’t have sobered up before our meeting tomorrow. Are you in, Reid?”
There’s the sound of shuffling papers. “I have to drop this off with the lawyers first, but I could meet you later.”
I peel open an eye. Reid is at a table sorting paperwork into separate piles. In one, I spot something familiar. The creased brown envelope that keeps getting passed around like it’s cursed. Reid notices me watching, and he shrugs an apology as he tugs open the envelope and pulls out the divorce papers.
I rub a hand over my face. I can’t watch.If onlyI’d ripped the papers up instead of handing them to Maddie to sign. I roll my shoulders as I sit up, but it does nothing to relieve the tension. I don’t want to look back at Reid, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My brother’s eyes widen and he just stares at me, his hand inside the envelope.
“What’s wrong?”
It’s Ash asking the question because I seem to have lost the ability to speak. My jaw drops as I watch Reid turn the envelope upside down over the table. What I presume are the pages Maddie should have signed fall out of the envelope in a shower of confetti. She ripped them up. It looks like my stubborn wife was the courageous one.
“Didn’t anyone check?” hisses Ash. “That damn woman will be the death of us all.”
I go to laugh, but Mace shoots out of his seat. He glares at the mess of paper in front of Reid, then fixes his gaze on me. “We have to turn the plane around.”
Chapter 32
Maddie
I’d jumped in my car as soon as I’d received Hunter’s cowardly text, and I’m almost at the airfield when I hear the roar of a jet engine. I bring the Audi to a screeching halt at the side of the road, and I watch in dismay as a private jet speeds along the runway, heading away from me. I spot the familiar eagle’s head on the nose of the plane as it lifts off the ground.
Unable to look away, I get out of the car and climb onto the hood, then stand on the roof to keep the plane in my sights. The jet’s wings shimmer in the low sun as the plane gets smaller and smaller. The tiny speck vanishes in a fiery glow, and all I have left is my burning anger.
“You bastard!” I scream. “How dare you run away! How dare you go without even saying goodbye!”
My chest heaves, and with each exhale, I bend a little more until I’m on my knees.
“I’m still your wife,” I gasp out, tears streaming down my face. “I’m still yours.”
I don’t understand. Surely he knows what I did to the divorce papers.
But what if he didn’t check?
Maybe Ash is the one who’s realized, and this is his way of containing the situation. He’s removing Hunter from temptation before dealing with me. I don’t know what the next steps are if a wife refuses to sign the divorce papers, but I suspect there’ll be a team of lawyers working day and night to end my marriage with or without my agreement. Damn Hunter and his brothers!
He’s really gone.
Taking out my cell phone, I force myself to reply to his pithy message.
If only…
If only he’d trusted me to make my own decisions. If only we’d turned all those feelings we feel into something worth taking a risk on.
