Page 56 of Mad Love

“The Collective?” I echoed, frowning.

Charles hesitated. “I’d assumed Ryan told you about them. It’s a network of some of the most powerful men on the globe. They make their fortunes at the misfortune of others, usually by illegal means.”

“I mean, he sort of told me about his dad and some of the others,” I hedged, not willing to give away Phoenix or what the guys had planned.

“It’s a complicated, volatile situation,” he murmured, his eyes flashing as he stared straight ahead.

“You say that like you have first-hand experience.” I tugged him to a stop near the tree line.

He frowned and looked down. “Maybe I do.”

“Charles—”

“But there are a few other things we need to talk about.” He met my gaze. “One of the things I insisted on seeing was your medical records.”

My brows shot up to my hairline.

“I told Gary that I needed to make sure you were healthy, but I also knew you’d been at Highwater and likely pumped up with an assortment of medications. I’m willing to assume you weren’t privy to the medical decisions made on your behalf?” He gave me a pointed look and pulled his phone out of his pocket before unlocking it and scrolling. He handed it to me. “I didn’t look, but they were sent to me. I thought you might want to know.”

I took the phone, hesitant at what I’d see, but he was right. I wanted to know what had been done to me. What they’d forced into my system.

Most of the names I didn’t understand and couldn’t even pronounce. A few things stuck out. “They said I’m bipolar? That I was suffering from a manic episode when I married Ryan? This is bullshit.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “I mean, one could argue that you weren’t in your right mind for marrying that prat.”

I glared at him.

“Too soon?”

“You think?” I grumbled, scanning the rest. More words I didn’t understand. A few more outright lies told by Dr. Browne. At the bottom of the report, I froze, and everything in me went ice cold.

“Maddie?” Charles touched my elbow, but I barely felt it. “You look like you’re going to pass out. What is it?”

I couldn’t stop staring at the line under Procedure Complete. An involuntary procedure that had been carried out at Highwater when I’d been unconscious the last day before my transfer order came in. A completely fabricated transfer order that brought me from Highwater to here. But not before—

“They removed my birth control,” I whispered, feeling sick and violated all over.

“They did what?” Charles looked confused.

I stepped away from him, not wanting to be touched. I squeezed the phone in my hand as tight as possible. “I had an IUD put in a year ago. Gary had it removed.”

I tossed back the phone and he caught it, looking horrified. “Why would he do that?”

“Now? I don’t know. I mean, he threatened to have it taken out so that Ryan could get me pregnant because of his grandfather’s will, but there’s no reason for me to get pregnant now.” I wrapped my arms around my waist, shuddering as I remembered waking up here yesterday and the ache between my legs that I’d chalked up to body aches from the drugs.

Charles’s expression went ashen. “Oh, God.”

“I know, right?” I raked my fingers through my hair, barely tamping down the urge to yank it out by the roots.

“No, Maddie… I think this is my fault.”

“How in the world—”

He twisted away with a huff, rubbing the back of his neck. “Gary and I had several conversations over the last week. He approached me about marrying you and the money, and I… I played up what was expected of a wife in my family. When he mentioned how willful you were, I was quick to inform him that women in my world tended to not fight back once they were pregnant and had something to lose.”

His admission detonated like a bomb between us. I staggered back several steps. “What the fu—”

“I was trying to make it believable,” he hissed, his gaze snapping toward the back of the house. “Stop glaring at me like that before Gary comes out here. Until you’re out of this house, we can’t have him suspecting anything. I’m still not convinced he didn’t know about…” He clenched his jaw.

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