Ruby tilted forward, took in the sight of Adelie’s ring, and grunted. “Pity. Mine was bigger.”
“Get out,” Adelie snapped through her teeth, clutching her fist to her chest to hide the ring.
Ruby’s perfect brow arched, and another smirk lifted the corners of her red lips.
“Don’t tell me you thought this whole façade was real.”
“Now.”
Ruby cast her glance around before sighing. “Whatever.” She pivoted and strutted out the front door, not bothering to close it behind her.
Tears distorted Adelie’s vision, and while she was tempted to slam the thick door closed with all the energy she had, she closed it carefully, quietly, and returned to her room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It was no use. No matter how many times Maddox glanced at the clock, time wasn’t going any faster. He might as well go back home. He was about as useful as a broken watch after his offer to Adelie this morning and the way he could feel her walls crumble.
She was letting him in. They were making progress as a couple; in a way he’d never anticipated when he’d suggested they marry for convenience’s sake. He didn’t want to be here at his stuffy office, no matter how much work he had left to do for the day. He wanted to be with her.
Maddox slipped into his suitcoat and headed for the door, but it opened before he reached it. He half expected a pair of Converse shoes to approach him, to lift his head and find Duncan sneering at him and bugging him for a round of golf to get away from his annoyingly attractive assistant—Duncan’s words, not Maddox’s.
But these shoes were pointed-toe alligators, green as envy and just as scaly. They led up to a form-fitted floral dress, hugging in all the right places and cutting short at the thigh. Ruby’s face turned in a sneer as she folded her arms.
Maddox cursed himself for staring at her so long. Undoubtedly, she’d taken it for attraction rather than the repulsion coursing through him.
“I love it when I can make a man disoriented by my mere presence,” Ruby said.
Her hair was as dark as her demeanor, flowing past her shoulders. Her lips were a rosebud to match her name, and the almond of her dark eyes narrowed further when he didn’t reply.
“What are you doing here?” Had his receptionist allowed her back here? She knew better. Then again, Ruby had a way of getting around barriers, even when they were put up solely to keep her out.
Her shoes clacked on the tile as she strutted over and rested a hip against his desk. The lamp jostled. “Been seeing a lot of you lately. Or your park, anyway.”
“I’m sure you have. I thought I told you on the phone, I’m done with you.”
She examined a fingernail. “If I recall, there was a time you wanted me to see you. You wanted me to invest in your park, and in a life with you.”
“That’s funny,” he said, shoulders hardening. “I seem to recall you telling me I wasn’t worth the dirt Wonderland stood on. That the park would fail, and you didn’t want to be around when it did.”
“Ancient history.” She lifted herself to sit on the desk, dislodging his pen cup in the process. Pens spilled across his papers and his closed laptop. Ruby gave them a fleeting glance as though they were just one more thing that’d been in her way.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here.” Maddox folded his arms. He didn’t want to give her the impression she could throw her weight around like she used to. He hadn’t minded then. In fact, he’d found it intriguing and attractive. Now he saw her for what she really was.
Careless and selfish.
She crossed one leg over the other. “I told you. I want in.”
“No.”
“I’m no fool, Maddox. I know a good thing when I see it. You hit the jackpot with your little wife. Your numbers have been skyrocketing, and you need me if you want to keep that momentum going.”
He needed her? He’d done all of this without her.
“How could you possibly know what my numbers are doing?” Duncan wouldn’t have told her. Beastly though his best friend could sometimes seem, Maddox refused to believe Duncan would sell him out, especially to Ruby. He knew their history as much as Maddox did.
Maddox didn’t know what to say. Ruby was the reason he’d been seeking out investors for years after she pulled her backing from him. Right when he’d needed her the most.
He didn’t need her now, nor did he need this. Although, he supposed it was good she’d come here to him rather than targeting Adelie. As long as Ruby stayed away from her, he could handle this.
Ruby removed herself from his desk and strutted toward him. He got a waft of her snake scent as she tiptoed in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He attempted to pull back, but not soon enough.
“You know where to find me,” she said, tucking something into his breast pocket and waltzing out.
Stunned, Maddox waited until she was gone to examine the business card. She’d changed her logo, but her name blared like a neon sign. Ruby Regina. Investing Insights, Strategies, Services, and Solutions.
“She should add a subheading,” he said to his empty office as he crumpled her card and lobbed it toward the garbage can. “Will backstab at first sign of failure.”
It was amazing she still had a business if she treated all her clientele the way she’d treated Maddox. It probably didn’t help that they’d been dating on top of their business relationship.
The scathing words she’d said to him the last time she’d been in this office had rubbed him raw for years. He’d done his best to push them aside, to push her aside and let go of the hurt they’d caused.
A failure. A washout. A desperate man with nothing. Her words had taunted him like bullies, and now she had the gall to not only offer to back the park she’d once called pathetic, but to kiss him on the cheek?
She knew he was married. She knew he was with Adelie. Maddox glanced at his phone, and his heart sank. It’d buzzed earlier, but he’d been on a phone call and hadn’t checked the message. Now he wished he had.
“Oh no,” Maddox said, dashing out the door.
Here, he’d thought he’d been Ruby’s first stop, but like always, he should have known better. Ruby was a viper. She’d snag her teeth into any unsuspecting victim she could if it meant her own personal gain. She was going to ruin everything he’d built with Adelie. He had to get home as quickly as possible.
***
Adelie was fuming. She hated women like Ruby. Women who thought because they wore heels and makeup and looked like the model Maddox had tried to make of her, that it somehow put them on a pedestal above others.
The judgment and criticism in Ruby’s expression had drifted off her like a stench, and it still permeated Adelie’s thoughts and set a match to her blood.
“How dare she?” she said aloud.
What business was it of hers whether Adelie and Maddox were married or not? And what had she meant, about Maddox playing things properly?
Adelie stared at the ring she’d been so mesmerized by before, but it seemed to have lost some of its luster. The only thing that seemed clearer than glass was her own stupidity for ever trusting him.
“I should never have signed that contract,” she spat to her suitcase, grateful yet again she hadn’t completely unpacked it. “I should never have done the photo shoot, should never have agreed to this stupid…” Her strength broke. She rested her hands on the suitcase and lowered her head, choking back tears.
Footsteps hammered in the hall outside her door, and then it was flung open and Maddox stormed in. He drew her to him, but she pushed him away.
“Stop,” she said.
“Ruby came here, didn’t she? Adelie, I’m so sorry.”
“Me too,” Adelie said. “I’m sorry I fell for it. For you.” She wished she had more things to slam into her suitcase. She rolled up her favorite blanket and hugged it to her chest, needing to hold onto something.
“What did she say to you?”
“Just t
hat I’m nothing more than a pawn in your marketing scheme. So clever of you, to pretend to protect me only to sic her on me with a news crew.” Granted, it wasn’t a crew, but she was going for dramatics here.
“She what?”
Adelie sniffed. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure you’ll see the story on tonight’s broadcast.”
“Adelie—I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to Juan. She never should have been allowed through my security.”
“She used to be allowed, though, right? So, he probably thought she was legit.”
“I’m sorry,” Maddox said again. “I didn’t think—I should have spoken with him about her. I was just relieved to be back here.”
Adelie’s heart hardened. She couldn’t keep crying like this. She couldn’t let him affect her anymore. And most of all, she couldn’t stay. “Guess it’s good I never unpacked.”
He winced. “I was hoping to have you unpack a little closer to me.”
“Why, so you could have cameras there too?”
Maddox brow snapped down so fast, she sensed he was truly offended by her insinuation. Honestly, what else was she supposed to think? Just when she was starting to trust him.
“I’m serious.” He turned her to face him. “I meant what I said this morning. You’re important to me, Adelie. This—our marriage—wasn’t a marketing gimmick.”
Another tear leaked out. She wriggled free of his touch. “I knew better than to agree to any of this. I’m leaving.”
“You can’t,” he said. “There will probably be cameras everywhere, if you say she got a story on you.”
Adelie was fed up. She tossed her hands. “Then it’s probably time I stop hiding and face up to it, don’t you think? I need to learn how to some time. Might as well be now. Goodbye, Maddox.” She pried off the ring and thrust it at his chest, carting her suitcase and the sting of his betrayal in her wake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The news splashed on every channel and every front page in Vermont. Headlines blared, Billionaire Marries His Model; Alice Hit the Jackpot: Marries Her New Boss, along with unflattering pictures of Adelie in his house from the confrontation, and even several romantic shots of the two of them in Paris. Figures, that Ruby would have hired someone last minute to spy on them and take a few pictures.
Unless Maddox had told her exactly where they would be. Maybe that was the reason he’d been so hesitant to answer Ruby’s calls while they’d been there. He hadn’t wanted Adelie to overhear the scheme.
Adelie didn’t want to wallow. She was tired of hiding; that was what had spurred this entire fiasco in the first place. Besides, what was the point? There wasn’t anywhere she could go where her face wouldn’t be in everyone else’s.
She meandered through town, needing a new purpose. Her grandma had always said helping others during your distress was the best way of coping. If only she’d done that before, instead of hiding like a coward.
She hadn’t been entirely certain where she was headed until her car slowed in front of Ella’s apartment building. She and her cousin had been close friends throughout their childhood, but they’d grown apart as they’d grown up. Ella’s complicated family situation hadn’t helped matters, and neither had Adelie’s shy, anxious tendency to withdraw from anyone with a pulse.
The apartment complex was squat and brick, with multiple levels and in need of drastic repairs. The fact that Ella was about to marry a billionaire wasn’t as much of a shock to her as it was that moment, now that Adelie knew something about how the wealthy lived. Undoubtedly, Ella and Hawk’s home would be like a palace compared to this place.
Adelie exited her car, locked the doors, and made her way to the glass door. Ella’s apartment was on the third floor. Adelie climbed the stairs rather than taking the elevator, and she paused outside the door only a moment before knocking.
Ella answered as chipper as a bird in springtime. Her already smiling face lit up at the sight of Adelie.
“Hey!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here? I heard the happy news. You decided to spread the word, huh?” Then, without giving Adelie a chance to answer, she reeled around and shouted over her shoulder. “Grammy! Charlotte! You’ll never guess who’s here.”
Adelie’s heart ticked like a clock. “Grandma Larsen is here?” Guilt swam over her. She hadn’t spoken much with her mother’s mom since she’d come to help clean Ella’s apartment the Christmas before last.
“Come in, come and see my dress. You’re going to die over this fabric.” Ella yanked Adelie in, and the touch alone was a comfort.
“I—I came to see if you needed help.”
“Pfft.” Ella waved her off. “You already did so much. Come hang out, tell us how newlywed bliss is working out for you.” She added a wink as they made it past the hall that served as an entryway into a small dining and kitchen area.
Ella was notoriously cluttered. Even as girls, her room had always been messy. This mess wasn’t the usual, however. Scads of white fabric covered every surface in the room. A small TV blared behind Ella, but Adelie couldn’t see what it played through her grandma’s all-encompassing hug.
“You got married and didn’t tell me!” Grammy Larsen’s tone carried a kind reprimand.
Adelie winced and lowered her eyes. Grammy Larsen tipped a finger to her chin and had such a happy sparkle in her eyes, Adelie knew she wasn’t being scolded. Just teased.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks, but…”
Glancing around, the feeling that this had been the wrong place to come swept over her. Ella was floating on clouds, sky-high in love with her handsome catch. A man who had actually dated her, had gotten to know her and fallen in love with her. Truth stung her eyes, and she blinked hard.
Jabbering with her roommate and stepsister, Charlotte, Ella lifted what appeared to be the train of her wedding gown, gushing over the difficulty of sewing with lace and keeping the seams from cinching, when she glanced over.
Adelie’s lower lip trembled. She slammed her eyes closed. Blast it all, this wasn’t why she was here. She’d come to help, to try and forget. The last thing she needed was to spread her marital problems here when Ella was about to get married.
“What’s wrong?” Grammy Larsen asked.
Adelie sank into a chair and plunged her head into her hands. Against her better judgment, the entire story spilled out, from being selected as Maddox’s model for Wonderland, to the attack at Coleman’s, to their rushed marriage and impromptu honeymoon. Finally, she shared Ruby’s interference and the insinuations she’d made regarding Maddox’s reasons for proposing marriage in the first place.
“That makes no sense whatsoever.” Ella’s anger ignited in her tone. Charlotte passed Adelie a tissue, as Grammy Larsen perched against the table, frowning in Adelie’s direction. “I just can’t believe he was using you the whole time.”
Adelie sniffed and blew her nose. “I thought the same thing.”
“Hogwash,” Grammy said, startling the three younger women in the room.
Adelie wiped her cheeks. “What is?”
“If that man really used you to get his business ahead, then shame on him. He’ll have to answer to God for fiddle-faddle like that—and to me, for that matter.” Ella folded her arms and nodded her agreement. Adelie had no doubt Grammy would rush in and demand answers of Maddox for mistreating her the way he had.
Grammy slid a chair closer to Adelie, sat down, and took Adelie’s hands in her soft ones. “But what do you think, Addy girl?”
Adelie nearly smiled at the old nickname her grandma had never stopped using for her, but she was still too distraught.
“Search deep down, in your inmost thoughts and heart. I’m not saying there aren’t men out there who are scum and who do take advantage of women in all kinds of awful ways. And I’m not saying the women who get bamboozled by them can always tell it’s happening. But that doesn’t mean this Maddox of yours is one of them. You said you thought he cared for you?”
&n
bsp; Her thoughts sprang to the kiss they’d shared while watching the Eiffel Tower through the darkened Paris night, of waking in his arms, of their flight home and how he hadn’t been able to keep his distance from her, how he’d always had a hand on her knee or in hers even when they were the smallest distance apart. That hadn’t seemed false.
Adelie’s throat was too tight to speak, yet she somehow wrangled out the words.
“Yes. There were moments between us that felt so real.” Not a dream. She wasn’t going to wake from this. She’d had a connection with Maddox, one he couldn’t have been faking.
“And you say you left before either of you could say much. After this Ruby butted her nose into your business.”
Another nod.
Grammy Larsen patted her hand. “Then you know what you need to do.”
“I do?” Adelie’s gaze darted from Grammy’s kind, wrinkled eyes to Ella’s sweet countenance and Charlotte’s fervent nod.
“Go talk to him,” Ella interjected. “It’s normal to have problems. Hawk and I had our first fight over how to cook spaghetti.” She giggled as though it was ludicrous. “I know it doesn’t compare to what you’re going through, but you’ve got to talk to him. Hear what he has to say. Let him defend himself or plead guilty, but either way, he’s the one you need to be working through this with.”
A rock slid into her stomach, yet something else slid inside her with it. Something warm and encouraging. Something that told her she could do this. Maybe it was Grammy Larsen’s gentle yet coaxing manner or Ella’s helpful sweetness.
Adelie smiled through her tears. “And here I thought I’d come here to help you.”
“Of course, you can help me,” Ella chuckled, pulling her into a hug. “Just get home and talk to that husband of yours.”
Home. Home had always been Grandma and Grandpa Carroll’s house, but the first image flashing in her mind with the word was Maddox’s. Could his home become hers after all?
Alice And The Billionaire's Wonderland (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 3) Page 18
