Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,104
of the above. “The only thing I want from you is for you to go away. I know you can forget about me. You’re very good at it. I’d ask for the guy’s name—the sperm donor—but I don’t think I could believe you, and I don’t honestly care. He’s only been slightly less involved in my existence than you have.”
The silence stretched in the room, and I nodded. Maddy actually looked a little lost.
No worries, she’d rally. Then get mad at me.
It was a cycle.
One I was getting off of.
“Thanks, Mr. Wittaker,” I told him. “I’ll see myself out. I can call you…”
“I’ll call you,” he said, rising smoothly and walking me to the door.
“Frankie…”
I paused, but I didn’t turn around.
“You will receive a tidy sum on your eighteenth birthday. It’s a trust from my parents. I’ll leave the details with Mr. Wittaker.”
I pivoted. “Excuse me?”
She gave me a tight smile. “You have trust. I’ve never mentioned it because I didn’t want you counting on something that could be taken away, but you’re well on your way to meeting the conditions of it. So I’ll leave the details with Mr. Wittaker.”
“Great. Bye.”
I had a trust?
At the door, Wittaker stepped out with me and pulled the door mostly closed. “Are you all right?”
“I have no idea,” I told him. “I still think she’s lying about something, maybe a lot of things.”
“Possibly, and she never got to whatever point she wanted to make with you.”
No, she hadn’t. And I really didn’t care.
I couldn’t.
“Let me know about that trust thing?”
“Of course, leave it in my hands. Go on and have Beth take you all to the executive elevator to go down. I’ll keep them busy for a few minutes.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Another small smile and he returned to the conference room, and I just stood there.
That was that.
No more Maddy.
Right?
Chapter Twenty
Everything I Do
Archie
As tempted as I was to stay and have words with Maddy Curtis, I couldn’t do that. Not when Frankie walked into the conference room where Jake paced, Bubba strummed his fingers against the table like he played some imaginary piano, and Coop stared off into space. The latter worried me more than the first two.
He was taking the news of his father’s betrayal hard. I felt for the guy. I felt for him because I’d had a front row seat to Edward’s multiple betrayals over the years. Honestly, I’d always wondered why Muriel and Edward married. The fact that I arrived six months to the day after their wedding pretty much secured the answer.
Coop wasn’t me, which meant I had to dig deep and find that empathy for his situation. Even if I couldn’t quite experience it the same. He was right about one thing—both of our fathers had fucked our girlfriend’s bitch of a mother.
That was not the kind of bonding we needed.
“Baby Girl,” Jake said a second after she slipped into the room. The secretary—Beth—was with her. Frankie had her arms folded around herself. Defensive posture. Her eyes, so lit with fire earlier, were tired and more than a little shadowed.
I hated that cunt so fucking much.
“We, um…we need to go,” she said. “Wittaker is going to keep Maddy and her attorney in the conference room so we don’t have to deal with them on the way out.”
Her voice came out a lot stronger than she appeared. All of us were up, and Ian got to her even before Jake did. I hadn’t even seen him moving. Wrapping an arm around her, he tucked her to his side, and we followed.
On the way to the private elevator, I glanced toward the conference room where Maddy Curtis waited.
Jake’s hand landed on my shoulder. The force in his grip kept me firmly locked into place. “Trust me,” he said, “I’d be right behind you, but this isn’t the time.”
“Reason from you, Benton?” I cut him a look.
“Sometimes, Standish, even I know when to wait to throw the punch. You want to do the most damage, right?”
Damn right I did.
Nodding once, I turned and followed him into the elevator. Frankie gave me a pained little smile, and I just added the discomfort in her expression, posture, and eyes to the list of payback I planned to extract from the bitch who gave birth to her.
The single decent thing she’d ever done—give us Frankie.
Still not enough to forgive her for treating her so fucking badly. Despite being alone in the elevator, Frankie wasn’t talking and none of us were pressing. As it was,