Upon Madison’s arrival at the old residence, the butler greeted her, "Welcome back, Madison, Master Nelson is in the garden."
"Thank you, I can make my way there," Madison said with a small smile.
The Nelson family’s staff were all fond of the unpretentious and approachable lady.
In the garden, William was sitting in a chair with a cup of water beside him. He was overjoyed to see Madison.
"Hey, Madison! Over here! Didn’t Matthew come with you?"
"No, Grandpa. Matthew is busy with work today, so I came by myself."
"That boy is always buried in work."
"Well, his company has him quite busy, and he is the CEO; he's bound to work harder than others."
"You’re always speaking up for him. How about you’ll stay for dinner with me tonight."
"I’d love to, Grandpa," Madison replied with a beaming smile.
Shortly after dinner with William, Madison received a call from Patrick, a childhood friend of Matthew's.
"Madison, we're at Nightshade Bar. Matthew is drunk; could you come pick him up?"
"Alright, I'm on my way."
Madison excused herself from William and left.
---
At Nightshade Bar, inside a high-end private booth, sat five handsome men, the centermost lying down appeared particularly striking.
All five grew up in the same block: the eldest, Matthew; the second eldest, Victor; the third eldest, Mitchell; the fourth, Liam; and the youngest, Patrick.
Indeed, they had too much to drink. Matthew, not feeling well with a hangover, wanted to lie down for a bit and pressed his hand to his temple.
"What's up with Matthew today? Why did he drink so much?" Patrick noticed that the big boss was not in high spirits today.
"Brianna is coming back tomorrow," the man with an envy-worthy handsome face responded.
"Damn, what's she coming back for?" Patrick cursed outright.
"Who knows."
"Victor, how did you know she's returning?"
"Matthew told me."
"Hmph, Matthew tells you everything. I'm not Matthew's favorite little pal anymore."
"When were you ever?" the man in the black shirt retorted.
"Mitchell!!!"
Laughter erupted among them.
"Matthew isn't still hung up on her, hoping to rekindle the old flame, is he? What about Madison then?"
"Let's not pry; trust Matthew to handle it. I'm out," Liam interjected, as he had an early business trip tomorrow, with tasks assigned by Matthew.
"We're heading out too. Patrick, you take care of Matthew and get him home safe," Victor and Mitchell spoke up in unison.
With that, the three of them left just like that.
"Hey, hey, hey, what are you guys doing, just leave Matthew to me?"
"We're all busy; you're the free one, so naturally, you're responsible for escorting Matthew."
With no empathy for Patrick's feelings, the three buddies really just walked away. Patrick, looking at Matthew slumped on the couch, thought of the gentle, beautiful, and understanding Madison. So, he pulled out his phone to call Madison to come and pick up Matthew.
Madison arrived at the Nightshade Bar to find only Patrick sitting there, keeping watch over Matthew.
"Sorry, I'm late. Is it just you here?"
"Hey, Madison. You made it. The others had things to do and left early. I have a game scheduled later tonight, so I called you," Patrick said as he put down his phone, having just been engrossed in an exciting video game.
In the bar, a handsome guy playing video games while watching over an even more handsome, drunken man was quite an unusual scene, but given that the bar's boss was Mitchell, Patrick was carefree.
"Why did he drink so much? His stomach has been acting up these past few days, and it just got a bit better."
"Uh... maybe he got a little too happy with us around and drank more than he should have. Next time, I'll make sure to keep an eye on him for you," Patrick offered, glossing over with an excuse.
Madison was quite familiar with Matthew and his childhood buddies. Together they established JK Group, which grew increasingly large and took over half the business in Horizon City, even expanding to overseas markets. Occasionally, they would come over for dinner or encounter each other at the old residence.
"Hey, Madison, you didn't drive here, right? This is Matthew's car key. Go ahead and drive his car back," Patrick offered Madison the keys.
"I took a cab here, so I'll drive back."
"Alright. Then let me help you get Matthew into the car."
"Sure." Without Patrick, she really couldn't have managed to get Matthew into the car on her own.
The two of them assisted a rather unsteady Matthew into the back seat of the car, and Madison took her place behind the wheel.
"Madison, are you sure you can handle the car? Do you want me to call a driving service?" Patrick asked, concerned that Matthew's car might be too big for Madison to handle comfortably.
"It's okay; I'll take it slow."
"Alright then, be careful on the road, and goodbye."
"Got it, I'm off." With that, the car slowly merged into the flow of traffic.
Madison drove carefully, nervously focusing on the road ahead at a casual pace, which elicited honks from the cars behind her.
Unbeknownst to her, the man who had been sound asleep in the back seat opened his eyes. In fact, Matthew had stirred a bit when Madison arrived at the bar to speak with Patrick, but he had kept his eyes shut and remained silent. Now, watching her petite silhouette so tensely gripping the steering wheel, moving at a crawling pace, he found an unexpected sense of peace.
Earlier that evening, he had received an unexpected call from Brianna informing him of her return and asking him to pick her up at the airport. He turned her down, stating that it wouldn't be convenient since he was now married, before hanging up and tossing his ring back into the office drawer in frustration. That phone call had caught him off guard and left him feeling uneasy. In a bid to calm his nerves, he had joined Patrick and the others at Mitchell's bar and ended up drinking a bit more than usual.
Three years ago, he had prepared a grand proposal, but the “leading lady,” Brianna, had failed to show up, leaving him with an engagement ring amid a sea of flowers, becoming a laughingstock of Horizon City after she chose to chase her ballet dreams in Paris.
The half-hour ride home took Madison almost an hour, but thankfully, near the end of the trip, she noticed Matthew was beginning to wake up.
"You awake? Can you walk?" she asked. Matthew didn't respond.
Madison bent down to help him, and leaning on Madison, the two of them walked inside together. Madison laid Matthew on the couch, then she went to the kitchen to prepare a glass of water. By then, Matthew was mostly awake and seated himself up on the sofa. When Madison came back with the water, she saw Matthew frowning and lost in thought on the couch.
"You okay? Drink this," she said.
"Yeah, just set it down. It's late; you should go to sleep. I'll clean up in a bit."
Madison lingered in the living room.
"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" Matthew asked, noticing she hadn’t gone to her room.
"Uh, no. I went to see Grandpa today. He said when you're free, you should come over for a meal, and not to overwork yourself."
"Alright, I got it. I’ll go over with you tomorrow to eat."
"Okay."
Madison still hadn't mentioned her pregnancy. It was only three months until their three-year agreement would come to an end…