Chapter 6: Chapter Six

Looked like Madison couldn’t put it off any longer. She opened her messages, content to text Heather rather than call. hey! got time off from work so I’ll be at the wedding! She hit send, then waited for a reply, which came within seconds.

Heather: omg! really? yay! I can’t wait to see you.

Madison smiled and leaned against her headboard, her pillow cradling her back. It would be fun to see Heather again. What were the chances she could spend the weekend in Vegas and not see her parents? Another message arrived.

Heather: when are you arriving? how long are you staying?

“Shit,” she muttered. She really should’ve secured a way home before contacting Heather. idk. I haven’t made travel plans yet but I’ll let you know soon. The longer she texted with Heather, the more excited she became.

Heather: cool. I need your dress and shoe size. you can do a fitting when you get here. mom said she could alter as needed.

Madison texted the information then added, so who’s the lucky guy anyway? any one I know? Before Heather’s response came through, Madison’s phone vibrated in her hand. Her entire body froze at the name on the screen. Finger trembling, she pressed the button to accept the call. “Hello, Mother.” Her voice wavered.

“Madison. Good to know you’re still alive and simply ignoring me as usual. Did you get my message?” Her tone was clipped but formal.

She gritted her teeth. “Yes. I was planning to call you back tonight,” she lied. She sat upright and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

“Your cousin is getting married.” She put an unnecessary and rather unpleasant emphasis on the word cousin, almost like she was offended.

“I know.” She stood and paced, chewing on her pinkie nail. “She asked me to be her maid of honor.”

Mom gasped, then gave a haughty grunt. “Well, I surely hope you told her no.”

Madison stopped pacing, her heart thundering. “Why?”

“Honestly, Madison, if you bothered to check in once and a while…” Mom cleared her throat, and Madison could see her straightening her back, lifting her head, and jutting out her chin in that I’m-better-than-you way she had about her. “She’s marrying William.”

Slow, hot anger burned in her chest and spread to her limbs. “My ex, Will?”

“The one and the same.”

Madison jerked the phone from her ear and glanced at her messages. And sure enough, Heather had replied with: please let me explain before you get mad. That was all the confirmation she needed. Madison squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force this knowledge from her mind.

“Madison!” Her mother’s sharp tone snapped her back to the present. “This wedding is an atrocity. You need to come home immediately and set William straight.”

“What?” she said again. Her head spun, and her stomach clenched painfully. This was not happening.

“You and William belong together, and you need to tell him that before he makes a mistake.”

Madison laughed, which earned her a disapproving sound from her mother. “You’re kidding, right? Will and I haven’t been together in years.” And it had been her choice to end things. She resumed pacing. “I am not coming home to stop Heather’s wedding. That’s ridiculous.”

Betrayal thickened in her veins, though, at the realization Heather had conned her. And she was pissed at herself for agreeing to be the maid of honor in her ex’s wedding. She should’ve insisted on knowing who the groom was before she’d agreed. Then again, she’d never expected her cousin to marry the guy Madison had spent four years of her life with. She curled her free hand into a fist and took a deep breath.

“Well, you have to do something, Madison. You cannot let him get away.”

“Let him get away?” she asked incredulously. “I’m the one who broke up with him, remember?”

“Yes, and it was the worst decision of your life, and you’ve made quite a few of those.” Disgust dripped from her words. “William is handsome, smart, wealthy, and he comes from a good family. He’s the entire package, and you tossed him away like trash. I know if you come home and speak with him, you two can make amends.”

“Make amends?” she shouted. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “I don’t need nor want to make amends with Will. And I can’t believe you’re even suggesting this.” Actually, she could believe it. That was just how her mother was—planning, plotting, insisting Madison do things simply because Mother thought it was right.

“You have no idea what you’re turning your back on, Madison. Every good woman has a strong, wealthy man at her side. But if you keep it up, you’ll be alone the rest of your life. Is that what you want?”

Madison laughed bitterly. “It’s the twenty-first century, Mother. A woman doesn’t need a man to be worth something. And I’d much rather be alone than married to a man like Will.” A man who was a mirror image of her father and stepmother, who thought he could dictate every facet of her life simply because he had a large bank account. Maybe Will marrying Heather was a blessing.

“A man like Will?” She spat the words as if they were vile. “Do you really think you’re going to find anyone better than him out there at that silly little college of yours?”

She balled her hand into a fist again, her fingernails biting into her palm as she resisted the urge to scream at her mother for being so careless and clueless.

“With your attitude and stubborn independence, you’ll be lucky to find any man to marry you, let alone one as wonderful as Will.”

“I already have,” she snapped before she could stop herself. Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened at the same moment her heart stopped. She cringed. Why had she said that?

“Interesting.” There was a pause. “Well, I suppose I’ll meet him at the wedding, yes?”

Madison could feel the color drain from her face, and her stomach somersaulted. Oh, God. What the hell am I going to do now? “I haven’t decided if I’m attending the wedding,” she lied. She’d been doing too much of that the past couple days.

“I thought you said you agreed to be her maid of honor?” There was a smugness to her tone, like she relished in the fact she’d caught Madison in a lie.

“I said Heather asked me. I didn’t say I’d accepted.” And she hadn’t, but leave it to her mother to misinterpret things and twist them around to her benefit. “But you know what… I am going to go to the wedding, and I am going to be her maid of honor. I fully support her marrying Will, and I hope they’re happy together.” She nearly choked on the words.

Her mother laughed mirthlessly.

“I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.” She ended the call and sat on her bed. Hands shaking with anger, she texted Heather. is it true? are you marrying my ex?

Heather: yes.

Her one-word response was a punch to the gut. All the air rushed from Madison’s lungs, and she doubled over. She had no lingering feelings for Will—none—but why had Heather lied? And why, for the love of God, had Madison let her mother get to her like she had?

What was she going to do now? She couldn’t show up at the wedding alone. She wouldn’t give her mother the satisfaction. And she sure as hell wouldn’t let Will think she hadn’t moved on from him. But where was she supposed to find a fiancé in a matter of a few weeks?

The walls started to close in on her, and she needed some air and space to make sense of what happened. She stood abruptly, snatched her messenger bag from the floor, and draped it across her body. She’d barely made it out of her room before she had six new messages from Heather. Ignoring them, she made a beeline for the front door.

“Hey, how’d it go with your—Whoa. What’s wrong? Where are you going?” Lil asked from where she sat on the couch.

“Not good.” Madison yanked open the door. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Wait a sec, and I’ll go with you.” Lil set her laptop on the coffee table.

“No.” Madison gave her a sad smile. “I really just need to be alone right now, okay? I promise we’ll talk when I get back.”

“Oh, okay. Sure.” Lil nodded.

Without another word, Madison left. She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn’t stay in that apartment a moment longer. So, not only did she have to face her parents and be maid of honor in her ex’s wedding, she needed to somehow find a guy to take home with her, a guy who would be cool with lying about being engaged to her. That, or she needed to come clean to her mother. And that option was the absolute worst-case scenario.