Chapter 80: Reclaim Anderson

Chapter 80: Reclaim Anderson

Leo

The bar wasn’t packed.

Barely a handful of people scattered across the low-lit space, most of them nursing drinks in silence.

That was probably why she had chosen it. Somewhere quiet enough that no one would overhear whatever mess she wanted to dump on me this time.

I scanned the room once and found her almost immediately—tucked into a corner booth, half-hidden by the angle of the wall.

She stood the second she saw me, relief washing across her face so openly it almost looked rehearsed.

“Leo. Thank you for coming.” Her voice was thinner than usual. “I was almost convinced you weren’t going to show up.”

“Madison.” I stopped a few feet from the table. “I was honestly surprised to get your message.”

Earlier, while I was still working the heavy bag—before Ivy walked into the gym and everything went sideways—I had received a short text from her asking to meet.

My first instinct had been to ignore it completely.

We weren’t close. We weren’t even friendly. Ivy and Madison might have shared blood, but they never shared anything that resembled a real sisterly bond.

Madison always moved through the world like she was above it, and Ivy was the quieter, softer contrast.

The last thing I needed was Ivy’s sharp-edged sister stirring trouble for the sake of petty half-sibling drama.

Then Anderson showed up at my door with Poppy and my mother in tow and that changed the calculation.

If Anderson was inside my house and his fiancée was suddenly requesting a private meeting, something was off.

I decided to find out what. Looking at her now, I could see it clearly. Anderson’s polished Barbie-doll was cracking.

Her hair was slightly messy. Her eyes were red-rimmed. The usual composure had vanished. “I didn’t know who else to go to,” she said, running a hand through her disheveled hair.

“Madison. Are you okay?” I asked, studying the way her shoulders had drawn inward. “You don’t seem like yourself.”

“Andy dumped me.” The words came out sharp and bitter. “He’s in love with Ivy.”

Under the table, my hand curled into a fist. On my face I kept everything neutral. “Oh… is he?”

“They were having an affair behind my back.” She leaned forward over the table, eyes glittering. “Ivy seduced him.”

“She did not.” The correction left my mouth instantly. “Your boyfriend was the one who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.”

She drew back slightly, confusion flickering across her features. I wasn’t finished.

“On two separate occasions Anderson forced his kisses on my girlfriend. Even when she cried and fought him. Even when she begged him to stop. He didn’t.”

Madison stared at me. “And you believe her?”

“Completely.” There was no hesitation. “You might not have been aware of it, but Anderson watched Ivy and me get intimate that day at the lake like the fucking pervert he is.”

“What?”

“He left that part out, didn’t he?” I let out a short, cold chuckle. “What a coward.”

“He didn’t tell me that.”

“Now I’m telling you.” I started to rise. “Find a new fiancé, Madison. The old one is a waste of air.”

Her hand shot out and closed around my wrist before I could fully stand. The grip was desperate. I looked down at her, surprised by the sudden contact.

“Leo… I’m pregnant.”

The words landed in the quiet between us, shaky with something that sounded like real fear and for a second I simply stared at her.

Then I laughed.

The sound came out louder than I intended, edged with disbelief. I touched her hand lightly, still half-convinced she had hit her head or taken something.

Was this why she called me out here? To tell me she was pregnant?

“Honey, it obviously isn’t mine. Why the hell are you even telling me this?”

I had never touched Madison. Never would. Not by accident, not to save a life, not for any reason under the sun. The idea that she would even imply it was almost funny.

“It’s Andy’s,” she said, and the tears finally spilled over. “And he wants me to get rid of it. I don’t want to.”

That made me sit back down. Damn my stupid, inconvenient conscience.

Under normal circumstances I would have walked away without a second thought. Other people’s relationship disasters were not my problem.

But Madison was openly breaking down in a nearly empty bar, shoulders shaking, mascara starting to run. Turning my back on her completely would have made me feel like the exact kind of bastard I already got accused of being.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“I don’t want my child to grow up without a father.” She reached for a napkin and pressed it under her eyes. “And I can’t get rid of it. I’m scared.”

“You need support raising it?” The question left my mouth even as every warning bell in my head started ringing.

Helping Ivy’s sister raise Anderson’s child was a complication I did not need. But I couldn't just leave her to do this alone.

She looked at me with wet eyes. “I need Andy. I need the father to be in its life.” Then she shook her head hard, almost violently. “No… no. I just need… I don’t know.” Her fingers dug into her scalp. “I don’t even know what I need right now.”

“Calm down, Madison.” My voice came out flatter than I meant it to. “You’re spiraling.”

“I don’t know what to do—”

“I’ll help you.” The decision formed before I could talk myself out of it. “In any way I can. In any way you need. I promise I’ll help you.”

“Thank you. Thank you, Leo.” She wiped at her face with the back of her hand.

Then, in the space of a single breath, the vulnerability on her face hardened into something sharper.

“This is Ivy’s fault—”

“Watch it.” The warning left my mouth low and immediate. “You’re blaming her for Anderson being a fucking creep? She doesn’t want him. He’s all yours. He’s the one who refuses to understand that she’s moved on.”

Madison’s eyes narrowed slightly, the familiar calculating edge sliding back into place.

“Then help me make him see that.” She reached for my hand again. “Help me make him see that I’m the one he should love. Not her.”

“Anderson and I aren’t exactly friends,” I reminded her. “I hate him.”

“I know.” She didn’t flinch from the admission. “I’m saying there might be a way for you to keep Ivy without interference… while I get my fiancé back.”

There it was. The version of Madison I recognized.

Sharp-tongued, strategic, always looking for the angle that benefited her most. The broken girl from thirty seconds ago had been real enough, but this part of her had never left.

Still, she had my attention.

I would do a great many things if it meant locking Ivy to me permanently. Anderson circling her like a dog that refused to accept he’d lost was a problem I intended to solve one way or another.

If Madison’s desperation could be useful in removing him from the picture, I was willing to listen. “How exactly do you plan on doing that?” I asked.

She leaned in, voice dropping. “Andy still thinks he has a chance with her. As long as that hope exists, he won’t fully come back to me. And as long as he’s hovering, he’ll keep trying to drive wedges between you and Ivy. You’ve already seen it. He’s not going to stop.”

I stayed silent, letting her talk.

“If he believes Ivy is completely out of reach—if something happens that makes it impossible for him to keep fantasizing about a future with her—he’ll have nowhere else to go but back to me. Especially with the baby.” Her hand drifted almost unconsciously to her still-flat stomach. “He might hate the idea of being a father right now, but the reality of it will hit him eventually. I just need time and… distance between him and my sister.”

“And what do you think I should do?”

Madison’s gaze was steady now. “Make it clear she’s yours in a way he can’t argue with. Something permanent that leaves no room for him to keep hoping.”

I understood exactly what she was circling around.

A visible, irreversible claim. Things I already wanted. Things I had already begun working toward in my own ways.

The fact that Madison was now offering to align her goals with mine didn’t make the idea less appealing. If anything, it simplified the board.

Anderson removed from Ivy’s orbit. Madison occupied with her own damaged relationship. Ivy left with fewer external voices telling her I was dangerous.

I sat back and studied the woman across from me. “You’re asking me to tighten my hold on Ivy so you can reclaim Anderson.”

“I’m asking you to do what you already want to do,” she corrected. “I’m simply pointing out that our interests overlap.”

A humorless smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “And if I help you… what’s to stop you from turning around and using whatever I do against me later?”

Madison didn’t pretend to be offended. “Because if Andy comes back to me and the baby is born, the last thing I’ll want is more chaos. Stability benefits me more than revenge ever could.”

I wasn’t foolish enough to take that at face value. People like Madison always kept a second blade somewhere. But the immediate logic held.

Anderson out of the way.

Ivy more firmly mine.

A temporary alliance with the last person I expected to need.

I drained the rest of the water the bartender had left earlier and set the glass down.

“I’ll think about the details,” I said. “In the meantime, you don’t contact Ivy. You don’t show up at my house. If I find out you’ve been stirring anything else, this conversation never happened.”

Madison nodded quickly. “Understood.”

“And you don’t abort that baby unless it’s your genuine choice. Not because Anderson is pressuring you, and not because you think it will make him stay. If you need practical help—money, a doctor’s appointment, housing—you come to me directly. Not through anyone else.”

Her eyes widened slightly at the last part, as if she hadn’t expected concrete offers. “Why would you—”

“Because I said I would help,” I cut in. “That part wasn’t a negotiation.”

She swallowed and nodded again. “Thank you very much, Leo. I owe you one.”

I stood. This time she didn’t try to stop me.

“I’ll be in touch when I’ve decided how useful this arrangement can actually be,” I told her. “Until then, keep your mouth shut and your drama away from Ivy.”

I walked out of the bar without looking back.

I pulled out my phone as I reached the car, thumb hovering over Ivy’s name. She was still at the house with my mother and Poppy. With Anderson somewhere under the same roof.

Instead of calling her, I decided to pull up the surveillance cameras in the home. I'd rather watch her secretly then make her feel caged by my affections.

She was in the living room with Poppy. No sign of Anderson. All of a sudden, he came into view from another camera.

He was behind the sofa, listening in on their discussion.

The thought of him breathing the same air as her made something dark and restless coil under my ribs.

Madison’s proposal sat in the back of my mind like a dangerous weapon I hadn’t decided whether to fire yet.

I could keep doing this the slow way—earning Ivy’s trust day by day, wearing down her fear, planting the idea of a future until she stopped flinching from the intensity of what I felt.

Or I could accelerate everything.

Make the claim so public and so permanent that Anderson would finally understand there was nothing left for him to chase.

Either way, Ivy wasn’t going back to him. Not while I was still breathing.

Suddenly, Anderson appeared in front of them, angry as ever. Before anyone could understand what was going on, he pulled Ivy by the arm.

Another camera caught him pulling her into his bedroom. My fingers immediately reached forward to start the car since Anderson couldn't be trusted.

On asecond thought, I dropped my hand. Instead, I switched to the camera in his bedroom.

Then I leaned back… and watched them.