We were both weakened by alcohol when this all began. We were suckered into talking shit. But usually, we keep our traps shut and do our best to work hard and blaze our own trails of success.
She was smarter than me, going to medical school and learning something I never could. In some circles, my job might be considered kind of cool, but I work for the Tosky empire. I didn’t do shit except ride coattails.
I’m so ashamed.
Slamming my car door shut and jogging toward the stairs, I start up at a fast clip, race through the front reception door and wave at my assistant, then I dart along the hall past the rest of my team.
Shoving my office door open and prematurely celebrating my stealth and victory, I spring back with a shriek when I find Jackson standing by the large windows.
He wears a suit, has his hands tucked into the pockets, and watches me through a blackened eye that looks as fresh now as it would have hours after Bryan’s fist hit his face.
But worse, so much worse, is my dad sitting in the visitor chair, and my grandfather sitting in mine.
Three generations of Tosky and one Price stand in one room, but I’m the only one who’s surprised.
“Daddy?” My heart races fast enough that it threatens to explode. “I… uh… hooo.” I exhale an explosive breath and try to calm myself. My handbag rests in my left hand, my keys and phone in my right. So I go for normalcy and set my things down.
I place my bag in my bottom drawer. Drop my keys on top while the silence in the room threatens to suffocate me. I set my phone on the edge of my desk, then I take the second visitor chair and lift my brows. “Monday morning meeting?”
Grandpa finally meets my eyes. He might be a senior citizen now, but he was always sharp. Always forceful. Silently, he reaches out for my phone, taps the screen to bring up my screensaver. There are no missed calls. No texts. So he picks up my desk phone and dials.
So we can all see, he sets my cell down, screen-up, and lets it vibrate, vibrate, vibrate. Finally, he hangs up, waits for the screen to go black, then he taps it again and shows the one missed call.
He looks to me. “Seems to be working just fine. Tell me, Madilyn, why were our calls left to ring for the last thirty-six hours, when your phone appears to be functional and within your reach?”
“Um…” My heart thunders like a jackhammer. “I was busy.”
“For almost two days?” he demands. When he realizes he’s about to lose his shit, he looks to Jackson, who takes the hint and crosses the room to close my door.
My staff will still hear, but at least we can pretend to be civilized.
“Where were you, Madilyn?” My father turns to me, Grandpa’s twenty-years-younger twin. He meets my gaze now, and gives me those disapproving eyes I was so certain would come.
“I was with my friends.”
“Jackson and Jenna were with us,” he growls. “Do not lie to me.”
“Just because I wasn’t with them doesn’t make me a liar, Father. I have friends that weren’t specially selected by my parents.” Maybe Bry has made me braver – or stupid – but I don’t cower under the stares beating against me. “My social circles are growing, and not everyone must be approved by you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Madilyn.” He sits forward and pokes a finger between us. Maybe that’s where I learned it. That thought makes me sick. “When you represent this family, you are forbidden to associate with those who might harm our brand.”
“Our brand?” I snap. “How about we just be a family? Maybe if you were worried about my safety, we could discuss that. But you’re more concerned with the bottom line, and God forbid Mrs. Jones look down on you.”
“Why would I worry for your safety?” he asks calmly. Too calm. Too… uncaring. “You’re a grown woman, Madilyn. I cannot give you a curfew now any more than I could when you were fifteen.”
“First of all,” I snarl, “a responsible parent would have given me a curfew at fifteen. You’d have a conniption if you knew how I represented you when I was young and stupid. And second, exactly! I’m a grown woman. My friends no longer have to pass your rigorous testing to ensure they’re worthy.”
“Yes,” he growls. “They do. If you want to be one of us, if you want the lavish life you live, then you will toe the line, Madilyn. Now is not the time for your rebellion.”
“I will not be having this conversation.” I sit back and adopt that air of aloofness my father and grandfather are so good at. “This is my workplace, my office, and my staff are just twenty feet away, listening to this unprofessional bullshit.”
My swearing offends them. My father shoots back in his seat like my words are fists, and Grandpa’s eyes widen. He’s better at this game than his son.
“If you’d like to discuss my safety or happiness, then I’ll meet you at the dinner table tonight. Though, as you can see, I’m perfectly safe. If you’d like to discuss business, then by all means,” I wave a hand toward my desk, “have at it. But if you have nothing else to say, then I’d like for you to leave so I can get a little work done.”
It takes only a moment for my father to stand and fix his tie. A minute more for my grandfather to do the same.
Together, they walk out of my office without a single expression of love, contrary to the way Bryan’s grandmother smothered him last night. There are no kisses between parent and child the way Kit demanded and received from Bry last night. There are no smiles, no jokes, no good-natured ribbing. Our family contrasts are blinding, and it hurts me to know that, when I left this office on Friday, I thought like them. I considered the Kincaids trailer trash. I hated them simply because I was told to.
And now…
“Maddi.” As soon as my office door closes, Jackson crosses the room.
To create distance, I jump up from my chair and practically sprint to my side of my desk. It’s my power position. My safe place.
Resting his hands on my desk and leaning forward, Jackson studies me through his bruised eyes. “What the fuck?”
“What?” I jiggle my mouse to get my computer powering up. “How was the rest of your weekend, Jackson?”
Shaking his head, he repeats, “What the fuck? Where were you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The cops turned up, and you were gone. I didn’t know where you were, Madilyn!”
“I caught a ride with a friend.” I look up and fake a smile. “But I’m glad you got away safely. I’ve told you all along, Jackson, those racetracks are unsafe. I hope Saturday was a lesson for you.”
“Who did you ride with?” he snarls. He glides over top of everything else I said, and demands the one thing I refuse.
I’m not ashamed of being with Bryan. I’m not sorry for being a changed person now. In two days, I’ve changed from the snobbish bitch who was so easily led around by her family, to this woman. The one who’ll stand up to her family, the one who’ll protect those who need it.
I might have fallen in love with a seven-year-old author last night over dinner. I might have fallen in love with the woman my grandfather was allegedly supposed to marry, and as the stories were told while we ate, I fell in love with the man she actually married.