walked in behind MJ. They sat in the dim light on the leather sofas that lined the walls. It could’ve been their intense, curious expressions that sent a foreboding sensation through Maddie at the sight of them.
“He won’t stand for this!” Roger shouted outside.
Every eye in the lounge darted to the patio door as a woman with long, jet-black hair streaming water down onto her black halter dress stepped over the threshold with Roger standing directly behind her.
The woman scanned the room with wide, ebony eyes, her lips curved into a cunning smile. “My mother, Gina Montgomery, is alive,” she announced. “Enzo Rocha is my grandfather.” She stepped inside and lowered her eyes at Merrick. “And you’re my father.”
“My mother’s alive?” MJ said, almost choking the words out.
Maddie resisted the urge to run to him and hold him in her arms.
“Gina’s alive?” Merrick gripped the arm of the couch and pushed himself up onto his feet. “Who are you? Why should we believe you?”
“You shouldn’t,” Roger said, stepping inside. “Enzo put her up to this. She’s trying to get her hands on a property you own, Merrick.”
The woman laughed. “That property was supposed to be my payment for keeping Maddie Simcoe away from MJ so she wouldn’t tell him our mother’s alive.”
Maddie’s stomach roiled. In front of her, she watched MJ’s back and shoulders stiffen. “Wait,” he said, comprehension setting in. He turned to Maddie with so much hurt in his eyes, she knew no explanation, no amount of begging would ever be enough to make this up to him. “You knew my mother was alive and you didn’t tell me?”
She opened her mouth and couldn’t find her voice.
“I warned you not to trust her,” the woman, MJ’s sister, said, blinking at Maddie in false sympathy.
“Your grandfather threatened to fire my dad,” Maddie said. Standing in front of MJ with the truth out in the open, Enzo’s threat seemed insignificant in comparison to the secret she’d kept from him.
“I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me.”
Maddie wanted to run from the room, but her feet wouldn’t budge. She wanted to fall to the floor and beg him to understand, but her knees wouldn’t bend.
His chest expanded with a great breath. His hands rose to his head and he clutched and pulled at his hair. “I have to get the fuck out of here.”
Pushing past her, he stormed down the hall to the entryway and threw open the front door. Maddie ran after him. “MJ, stop!” He couldn’t run off into the rain and lightning.
She paused at the door for only a second before dashing out after him. She couldn’t see him, but heard his footsteps crunching over the path of broken shells. Catching up to him under a tree weighed down with heavy limes and rain-soaked leaves, she grabbed the back of his shirt. “Stop! Please!”
He spun and batted her arm away. “I’ve never wanted to strangle someone so much in my life. And the fact that you betrayed me terrifies me. It kills me, Maddie. Not you! Anyone else in this fucking world but you.”
Desperation overtook her, and she grabbed the front of his shirt. “How could I tell you? She abandoned you. I know exactly how that feels, MJ. I couldn’t do that to you. I love you too much to bring that hurt into your life.”
He gripped her wrist and tried to tear her hands away, but she held tight. “That’s bullshit,” he said. “You were afraid your dad would get fired. Like that’s anything at all when it comes to telling me my mother’s alive.”
“My dad’s in the hospital! You don’t think that’s a coincidence do you? Your grandfather did this. I came here and he hurt my dad!”
“You don’t know that.”
Maddie dropped her hands. “You have more faith in your grandfather than you do in me?”
“You’re about equal now in my book.”
She sucked in her lips, willing her emotions to steady. Crying wouldn’t help her. She had to make him see reason. “Do you remember the first time we got drunk?” she asked.
“What does that have to do with this?” he spat.
Undeterred, she continued. “It was the day before I turned eighteen.”
Maddie held the phone receiver tight in her sweaty hand. It had been so long since she’d seen her mom, and now she sat on the couch crushed. “You’re not coming home?” she said. To Maddie’s ears, her own voice sounded like the same little girl she’d been the day her mom left.
“I can’t make