Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
" M ommy?" I was looking out the window and saw a small red cut on the bottom of my foot. I tripped over a lot of cans of alcohol just to get to the front, which was probably why it was bleeding. No one responded.
The TV played in the background. I’d turned it off before I tucked myself into bed, but there was no one there. Then I heard voices outside.
I tiptoed toward the window that looked out to the front lawn. This happened almost every single night. My mommy and dad would go out with their friends, leaving me to fend for myself. Although I was only eight years old, I could make myself cereal for breakfast and even make Ramen for dinner.
I was trying hard to figure out how to get the peanut butter out of the jar to make a sandwich too, but sometimes the knife would get stuck inside because the peanut butter was so hard and expired. No one was there to get it out. At school, I learned this was not how everyone lived, but I was so scared of getting taken away from them that I kept our secrets quiet. I told no one that they drank and yelled at me all night long. I tried to be a good daughter and show them I could be better.
Once I got to the window, the voices grew louder. I peeked out to see my mother naked and my father screaming at another man. Mommy had bruises all over her neck that didn’t look good. Maybe I should go out and bring her a Band-Aid?
"You lying, cheating whore," my father screamed at her. Oh no. This didn’t sound good.
"I never wanted to be with you. You got pregnant and made me live with you. Now look at you," my father spewed. I wish I could tell you that was the first time another man gave mommy bruises on her neck, but it wasn’t. They often cheated on each other, whatever that meant, but the word was thrown around a lot.
I leaned back against the window, clutching my knees to my chest. Sometimes I wish I had someone who would just love me and protect me. When I grow up, I’d marry a prince. I would never allow someone to treat me like that. I would be with someone who loved me.
My head hurt.
No, it throbbed as the sun shone through unfamiliar windows, and I shifted on the unknown bed, desperate to wake up and grasp my surroundings. The pounding inside my head protested otherwise. The events of the night were a complete blur; all I could recall was being at a new bar, engaging with a couple of frat boys, some of whom got overly handsy.
I shot up, sensing a substantial weight beside me. The throbbing in my head subsided.
"Fuck," I mumbled, attempting to blink through the haze. A log cabin with large, rough-hewn beams created a cozy atmosphere. A central stone fireplace dominated the room, its warmth still lingering. A kitchenette to the side was adorned with wooden cabinets, and a quaint dining area completed the rustic charm. A quick glance outside the window confirmed my location amidst tree trunks, indicating I was somewhere in the forest.
Pulling the comforters off, a cool breeze drifted between my thighs. Raising the strange oversized T-shirt I was wearing, I confirmed my suspicion of lacking underwear and pants. "Mother. Fucker," I hissed. How did this happen again? Groaning, I finally turned my attention to the person next to me.
If I had somehow landed in a cabin in the woods against my will, I would lose my mind.
"It's fucking cold," a man groaned as he grabbed the covers I'd taken off and pulled them back up. The force made me tumble backward onto the bed. I tried to get off, but only tangled myself in the undone sheets.
His long black hair was tousled, and his tanned skin was covered in intricate tattoos. Muscles defined his shoulders, then he turned around—Walsh Solis. Despite the bewildering situation, I couldn't deny the instant arousal I felt toward him. The familiarity of his presence and the sight of his body stirred something within me.
"Walsh," I whispered. Of course it was him. Who else would it be?
He brushed a lock of hair off my face. His go-to move.
"Madison," he uttered, his morning raspy tone caressing my name, each syllable wrapped in a velvety warmth. His brown eyes bore into mine, holding a love so potent it felt like an unbreakable bond, an intense connection that transcended the chaos of the situation.
"I was starting to think that maybe I’d gotten myself kidnapped into the woods, and now I think my intrusive thoughts were probably true."
The corners of his lips twisted into a slight grin before his hand wrapped around my neck and pulled me closer. His nose stroked my cheek.
"What happened last night?" I asked, trying to put a little space between us, but his grip tightened around me.
"You remember nothing?"
I shook my head. He sighed before letting me go and running his hands through his hair before groaning at the ceiling.
"We should eat breakfast before we talk about it." My heart hammered inside my chest as though it wanted to jump out. This wasn’t good. No. No. No.
My mind raced thinking about what could have happened. "We slept together."
It was the only conclusion I could think of. He knew it would upset me. I was sitting in his shirt with no fucking pants on, in bed with him. There was literally no other reason we’d have to have this conversation over breakfast if he knew it would upset me.
"Please."
He sat on the side of the bed, facing the wall, and his shoulders flexed. Part of me wanted to ask him more about his tattoos and what the intricate designs inside of them meant.
"Breakfast first," he stated as he stood and threw on a discarded shirt.
"I assume you dressed me?" I asked. "Well, undressed, then dressed me again."
He nodded as he walked toward the small kitchenette, grabbing a pan and cracking a few eggs from the tiny fridge.
"What kind of place is this?" I asked, rising from the bed. Walsh's shirt hung mid-thigh as I approached the small window, hoping to identify our location.
"We're in the woods," he stated.
"No kidding. So my kidnapping theory is spot on."
"You don't even want to know the full extent of it," he grumbled, scrambling some eggs and adding salt and pepper.
"Then tell me, damn it," I demanded, practically running to his side. "Just spill."
He only glanced up, his haunted eyes appearing exhausted.
"For once in my goddamned existence, I wish someone would just tell me the truth. Do you know what it's like to live with parents who find joy in torturing you, ruining everything you could have wanted—a family?"
Hot tears exploded from my eyes. "I had to live with my grandmother after my dad lost custody and my mother died from an overdose." I wish I could have told him the extent of it, but the words never seemed to form.
"Madison." His voice was soft as he clicked off the burner.
"Please don’t give me any sympathy. I am telling you this because I cannot have you hiding the truth from me. I need to know what's going on because just last night, I thought I'd never see you again. Although, I was an idiot because somehow, I knew I'd end up right here."
"That's why you weren't shocked."
"No. I am surprised I'm standing here, but shocked? No. I knew someone was desperate for us to be together, and we'd keep finding ourselves back in front of each other until we realized it."
I walked into the small bathroom, trying to get a reprieve from the tension in the room. The mirror told a different story. I looked…rested. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and brushed my teeth with an extra toothbrush before going back out into the main room. My stomach grumbled at the smell of bacon cooking. "I guess I figured you'd probably want one more fuck in before you got married."
"Eat." He put some eggs and bacon on the plates and poured some warm coffee into a mug. Then he gestured to the small, homemade table in the corner with two chairs. I nodded, knowing there would be no resolve with him until I appeased him.
"Is this your place?" I asked, shoving eggs into my mouth. My stomach was grateful he was forcing me to eat, because I was starving after drinking all night.
"No." I sighed at his response. I guess I was only going to get one-word answers this morning.
"Whose is it?" I asked, my tone teetering on the edge of annoyed.
He huffed out a breath as he looked down at his plate. "It’s Ember and Rain’s."
"What the fuck?" I threw my fork, and it clinked against the plate. "Does she know I’m here? She’s going to be livid you brought me here."
"She doesn't know you're here, chill." He lifted a piece of bacon up to his thick lips and took a bite.
I hated the fact I was in her house. It felt like an invasion of privacy. I was a total bitch to her, but I’d spent the last few years trying to put—and maintain—my distance between us. When she slapped me across the face, I was shocked, but I deserved it, if not more. I should have been a friend, but treated her like a road to get the revenge I felt I needed on her brother.
But look at me now, wearing nothing but her brother's shirt inside her cabin.
"So, we fucked. And now you are leaving to get married."
He let out a low chuckle.
"I got married." I paused, letting his words sink into my head.
As I gazed at him, the words echoed in my mind, each repetition raising more questions than answers. A swirl of confusion danced in my eyes, trying to decipher the puzzle that was Walsh Solis.
"Wait a minute…you got married?" I let the words hang in the air, seeking clarity.
He met my gaze, his expression unreadable. "Yes," he affirmed, but the simplicity of his response felt elusive, leaving me to piece together a narrative that made sense.
"So, you just got back from your wedding in Dansport randomly last night, and then...how did we end up in bed together?" I questioned, desperately trying to unravel the threads of the previous night's events.
He sighed, as if contemplating how much to reveal. "It's complicated," he admitted, and the weight of those words settled in the room.
Complicated. The word echoed like a haunting refrain. I grappled with the ambiguity of the situation, caught in the crossfire of emotions.
"I don't understand," I confessed, my voice betraying the frustration bubbling beneath the surface. "You're telling me you got married, yet here we are..."
"Things are not always what they seem, Madison. There are layers to this, layers I never intended to drag you into."
I felt a mixture of anger and confusion. "Drag me into it?"
His eyes softened, a flicker of vulnerability surfacing. "I didn't plan for any of this. Sometimes life takes unexpected turns and we find ourselves grappling with choices we never thought we'd make."
The room hung heavy with unspoken truths, leaving me suspended in the unknown. The anger bubbled beneath the surface, and when I flung the plate of eggs and bacon bits at his face, it didn’t surprise either of us.
He dodged left, the plate shattered against the wall, and the food fell to the ground as I stared at him.
"Fuck you. Fuck you for all of this. Fuck you for your elusive lies. Fuck you for stringing me along whatever game you are playing. When will you grow the fuck up and tell me the truth?" I stood, the chair clattering onto the ground.
"Damn it, Madison." He stood, closing the distance between us as he grabbed my waist and held me to him. I writhed beneath his grip. "You aren’t the only one fucking up. I messed up."
His deep-brown orbs darted back and forth as if he was trying to read my mind. "I love control. I love my power. I love having a very formulated plan in life that will lead me to the ultimate leadership role I’ve always dreamed of. It is the whole reason I couldn’t be with you the first time we slept together. Somehow, you came in like a tornado and fucked it all up," he confessed, the cadence of his voice carrying the echoes of an internal struggle.
A pause lingered, pregnant with the unsaid. "I never intended on hooking up with you all those years ago. It wasn’t in my fucking life trajectory. When I saw you folded like a fucking pretzel in front of me, I wanted to worship at your feet. I’d never met a goddess who walked this earth until the day I laid eyes on you."
His words pierced the air, and my breath hitched. Emotions surged within me, a tempest of conflicting feelings, as his intense gaze bore into mine. I yearned to look away, yet the magnetic pull kept me locked in his scrutiny.
"But last night, it all went to shit," he stated, a bitter edge seeping into his tone. "Because I was supposed to be in Dansport tomorrow announcing my engagement, and now I am going down there with a wife on my arm."
The revelation hung in the air like a storm cloud, and my breath caught in my lungs. The puzzle pieces snapped into place, forming a picture I was reluctant to see.
"Wha-what do you mean…wife?" The word hung between us like an impending tempest.
Refusing to confront the truth, I closed my eyes, a feeble attempt to shut out the reality I dreaded. Yet, in the encroaching darkness, his next words lingered, waiting to be unveiled.
He met my gaze with a cold, unyielding resolve. "Last night. I saved you from the party with the fraternity guys. I’d walked over and found you there, and when I realized I needed you to myself, it solidified what I wanted. We exchanged vows, and the priest declared us husband and wife in the quiet chapel."
Disbelief and shock swirled within me, creating a storm of emotions. I yearned to dismiss his words, to classify it all as a twisted fabrication, a sadistic game. Yet the coldness in his eyes, the calculated precision in his confession, left little room for doubt.
"Why?" The word escaped my lips in a whispered plea, a desperate inquiry into the abyss he had dragged me into. "I thought you were joking. I didn’t really mean that I would have married you if everything was right. I thought you were on your way?—"
He sighed, but there was no remorse in that exhale, only the acknowledgment of the shitshow he’d dragged us into. "It wasn't planned. It wasn't orchestrated as part of some grand design. I didn't intend for it to happen like this, but circumstances played their hand, and, well, here we are."
He said it so easily. As if getting married to someone was just something he needed to check off his list of things to do. A maelstrom of emotions engulfed me. Anger, confusion, and a strange vulnerability mingled within. The realization that I, in a state of inebriation, had unwittingly stepped into a union that defied reason, left me grappling with the surreal nightmare of our unholy bond.
Anger grew heavy, replacing any sadness or confusion. "You son of a bitch," I spat, each word laced with venom, as if the force of my fury could obliterate the reality he had revealed. "You orchestrated this entire farce, didn't you? Marriage, vows, all of it."
My hand stung from the slap I delivered to his face.
"I didn't change the circumstances, Madison. I adapted to them. You should know better than anyone that I excel at shifting the plan."
The rage swirled within, a tempest threatening to consume me. "Adapting? Is that what you call it? Manipulating, deceiving, ruining lives—those are more accurate terms for your actions."
A twisted smirk played on his lips, a chilling reflection of his amusement at the chaos he had caused. "You're always so perceptive, Muse. Yet, here you are, entwined in a marriage you don't remember, a pawn in a game you never signed up for."
I clenched my fists, my nails biting into my palms. "I want out of this nightmare. Annul this sham of a marriage."
He chuckled, the sound resonating with mockery. "Ah, naivety. Annulment isn't that simple, Madison. Especially not when it serves my purpose."
Hatred bubbled within me, a visceral emotion fueled by betrayal and manipulation. "Your purpose? What sick, twisted purpose could this possibly serve?"
His eyes gleamed with an unsettling satisfaction. "I need you with me. I need a wife. I told you that yesterday. It is simple, Madison."
None of this was fucking simple. I was married. I was in the last year of school—oh my God, school.
I was in full-blown tears as I dropped to the floor. My vision blurred and my lungs threatened to collapse. "You told me yesterday that if the circumstances were different you would marry me. I took that into consideration."
He was speaking to me the way a mother would scold a toddler. It was juvenile, and I stood and slapped him across the chest, only to be met by the sting of my own hand against the hardness of his abs. "I never agreed to this. The circumstances aren't different. Your family hates me."
Feeling overwhelmed, I ran toward the door, and he called out for me, but I ripped the door open, off its hinges, and let the cold air sink deep into my lungs. I stumbled down the steps, realizing even though it was midafternoon, there was darkness because of the thickness of the pines above us.
My ears rang and I dropped to my knees in the cold, wet mud. "Come inside, you are going to freeze."
I snapped my head in his direction. "Now you care about how I might feel about this situation?"
He closed his eyes, inhaling as if this was troubling him. I emitted a low groan. "What are we supposed to do now? Am I supposed to just come with you? School? Please. I love school." My voice was cracking and tears flowed freely.
"I will arrange all your classes to be finished online. For now, you are to come to Dansport and live in my house where we will need to figure out how to announce that I am already married."
"No. I am not coming back with you. You may have forced me to do something I was never going to have a choice in, but I will not willingly come with you." He closed the distance between us.
"You don’t understand, Muse. You have no choice. I will take you kicking and screaming, but you are coming back with me." I closed my eyes. This was my reality, my new life, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with Walsh Solis.
"Ember is going to hate you when she finds out." I didn't even want him to answer or try to make an excuse for that, so I just cried, sinking in the mud beneath me. "Why me?"
I took a deep breath, looking up at him. "Because it had to be you. Because it was always you. It was always going to be you. Because for once in my life, I needed to be selfish and make you mine."
"I don't understand what you want from me. If this is your way of continuing to punish me for what I did?—"
"It’s not." His voice softened.
"Your dad is going to be upset you didn't marry that girl. You were supposed to balance the scales, Walsh, not put them in your favor. I was willing to let you go. It has been over four years, and we only hooked up one time. Why couldn’t you just let me go ?" I shouted the last few words. Desperation clung to me as I unleashed all the hatred I had in every single bone in my body toward him.
He walked behind me and lifted me into his arms bridal style. I was making his shirt, and mine, a complete mess.
He whispered in my ear as he brought me back into the warmth of the cabin, "You'll understand soon. For now, accept the reality—I am your husband. Deny it, fight it, it won't change the fact that we're bound by vows."
As the weight of his words settled, a festering hatred took root within me. He had taken away my choice just as my parents had done when I was a child. They were never there to protect me, save me, or help me. No, the two people who were supposed to love me the most, hurt me in a shady way. Just as Walsh was.