CHAPTER EIGHT-3
718 Words
Within ten minutes, Mason was building a nice fire in the grate and arranging the screen so that she could drape her wet garments across it.
He moved to the small kitchen, then joined her on the couch, handing her one of the tumblers containing four fingers of amber-colored liquid over ice.
“Share whatever you’d like,” he prodded gently.
Maddie took a small sip, and then a deep breath.
“I met Eric in college when I was going through grad school,” she said. “Saw him walking across the quad, and he took my breath away. And I was completely shocked when he asked me out. At first, I thought he’d lost a bet. Eventually I realized he was serious, and I said yes.”
“Why would you think he’d lost a bet?” Mason asked, genuine confusion on his face. “I mean, look at you. You’re gorgeous.”
A slow blush of pleasure worked its way across her features and made her green eyes sparkle.
“Anyway,” she continued, once she was sure her voice wouldn’t convey the deep want for him that she was suddenly overwhelmed with, “we dated for six months, then got married. And for a while, it was nice.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming up,” Mason commented.
“And how,” Maddie agreed. “It started with little things, and it was so gradual that at the time, I didn’t notice. I see it all so clearly now, of course, but back then...” her voice trailed off, and she shrugged.
“Nothing I did was good enough. Nothing. Not the way I talked, not the way I dressed, my goals, my ambitions. None of it. And he... wore me down, after a while. I did what he wanted when and how he wanted, so I wouldn’t ‘embarrass him’,” she snarled as she set down her drink long enough to make air quotes with her fingers.
“I gave up on children, because Eric didn’t want them. I gave up on owning my own business – an animal shelter – because Eric had a problem with it.”
She scooped up the tumbler and took a healthy drink this time.
“May I have another?”
“Sure,” he said, and refilled her glass.
“Thank you. And that’s the way it was, for years,” she continued. “Finally, I decided I’d had enough, so, I went and retained a lawyer. I was planning on leaving. But the cops showed up at the house the next morning to tell me he’d been killed.”
Maddie rose to her feet and began to pace. “But wait, it gets better. Two days before his funeral I got a packet in the mail, Mason.”
“What kind of packet?”
“It had all sorts of stuff in it. Page after page after page of irrefutable proof.”
“Of what?”
“Proof he had not only been unfaithful during our entire marriage, but that he definitely preferred men – which explains why we only had s*x maybe six or eight times in fifteen years.”
“Eight times... in how many years now? Fifteen? Did I hear you right?”
“You heard me correctly.”
“Wow. Just... wow,” he managed. “Sorry I interrupted. Continue.”
“There were also documents proving he’d been embezzling from Dad’s company. Proof that he was an all-around s**t of a human being, and that the last fifteen years of my existence was a complete and total lie. Looking back, I think the only reason he ever looked twice at me was to worm his way into my father’s company so he could steal from it,” she finished.
Mason’s jaw hung open. “I...I don’t know what to say, except you didn’t deserve that, Maddie. Any of it.”
“You’re right, I didn’t,” she nodded in agreement then took another drink that emptied her glass again.
“And to top it all off, evidently whoever killed him sent copies of what I got to at least one news station, and it’s blown completely up. Everybody in the freaking world now knows all about his activities, and I’ve had reporters literally camped out at my doorstep ever since.”
Mason winced. “Ouch. That must be awful.”
“Yeah,” she chuckled mirthlessly. “I had to pretend to catch a plane to throw them off long enough to be able to come here without any of them following me.”
“So not only are you having to deal with being widowed,” he said gently, “but processing the fact that he was a fraud, as well.”
“Exactly!” she slurred slightly. “You know how hard that is?”
“About being widowed, yes, I know all too well.”
- Writer
