Stella
He was still laughing under his breath when my parents stepped into the dining room. The sound vibrated faintly against my arm where it rested beside him, far too relaxed for the battlefield we had just walked into.
I leaned closer and squeezed his thigh beneath the table.
Dating was one thing. My parents barely tolerated that. But grandchildren? That idea would detonate this house like a grenade.
My dad came around the table carrying plates. He set one down in front of Maddox with a polite nod.
Before I could pull my hand back, Maddox calmly took it and placed it over his cock beneath the table.
A strangled sound escaped me.
My dad paused and gave me a strange look.
Then he smiled politely.
“How are you, Stella?”
The heat of Maddox hardening beneath my palm made my cheeks burn.
“Good, Dad. I’m doing really well,” I squeaked, trying to slide my hand away.
His grip tightened.
Firm. Unyielding.
My mother swept in behind my father and placed the serving platter on the table without looking at either of us. The tension radiating from her was almost visible.
Then she turned and left the room again.
“Do you need a hand?” I called after her.
“No, thank you,” she said stiffly from the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes and watched my dad follow her.
“And you—cut it out,” I hissed, turning toward Maddox.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asked, arching a dark eyebrow.
I flung my head back in defeat.
“Ugh. Nothing.”
“Now about your period predicament.”
I sighed.
Then, slowly, a smile crept across my face.
If he wanted to play…
I slipped my fingers deeper between his legs, cupping his balls deliberately. His legs spread a little wider beneath the table, silently accommodating the movement.
“Why is it I have too much shame and you have none?” I grumbled.
“See, we balance one another out,” he murmured calmly. “Just imagine—our child would be the perfect creation.”
His voice lowered just as my parents reentered the room.
The table was finally laid out. Plates, cutlery, glasses—all perfectly arranged as if this were any other family dinner.
Maddox released my hand.
My parents were both watching us now.
The tension at the table thickened instantly. Everyone seemed uneasy.
Everyone except Maddox.
To keep the situation from combusting immediately, I reached for the serving dishes and began plating food.
Relief washed over me when the others followed suit.
For a few seconds, the only sounds were cutlery and shifting plates.
Then my mother struck.
“So,” she sniffed, lifting her fork. “Where are you living these days?”
“She’s living with me,” Maddox said casually, biting into a piece of gravy-soaked chicken. “Mm.”
My father froze mid-cut.
“She is living with you?” he asked, waving his knife vaguely in the air.
“How is that possible? You can’t—Tobias! Is that allowed? He is double her age,” my mother chimed in.
My mother’s voice rose sharply, slicing through the room like broken glass.
“Tobias, why aren’t you saying something?”
I sighed and scooped up some mashed potatoes with a limp carrot dangling off my fork.
My dad cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Dr Lexington… should you be fraternising with your patients?”
“Yes! That’s it,” my mother snapped, leaning forward triumphantly. “You could lose your licence.”
I cut into the chicken on my plate, prying it apart.
It looked dry.
Maddox’s chicken was always juicy.
I was still learning how to cook. My mother had never liked me in her kitchen.
Maddox dabbed his lips with his napkin before responding calmly.
“Stella isn’t my patient.”
“He’s lying, Tobias. We asked him to stop her from—well—you know.”
“Did I set a price?” Maddox asked mildly. “Did you pay me? Has Stella ever set foot in my office?”
I stabbed one of the green beans. It wasn’t very green.
More… greenish-grey.
“I think you’ll find the answer is no,” Maddox continued smoothly. “And I didn’t break any law or code of conduct.”
“She is a child.”
“At twenty-three?” Maddox chuckled.
“Grace—” my father began.
But my mother cut him off.
“Don’t, Tobias. You know the trouble she caused. I thought he could cure her.”
A dull headache began to throb behind my eyes.
I dropped my fork.
“Mother,” I said calmly, “I am shacking up with Maddox and loving it. This isn’t a short-term relationship. Why, we were just discussing our children earlier.”
I smiled politely.
“Children?” my mother screamed, pushing back from the table.
“Grace—”
“I will not be a grandmother!” she wailed, beginning to cry.
“Not with this cooking, you won’t,” Maddox added lazily, tossing fuel straight onto the fire.
I forced the growing lump in my throat back down.
Yes, I’d screwed up plenty in my life.
But with her it was never about me.
It was always about her.
How I embarrassed her.
What her friends would think.
How it might damage my father’s reputation.
She had buried me under guilt and shame for years.
“I don’t want her anywhere near me or my family,” I said quietly to Maddox. “Sorry, Dad.”
He would always take her side.
“Thank you for the sub-par dinner, Mrs Byron. Your party catering was far superior,” Maddox drawled as he stood and offered me his hand.
“I’ll report you,” my mother spat.
“Dad,” I said as I stood, “I will make sure I make a series of posts online so raunchy that she—” I pointed directly at my mother, “—won’t leave the house for months.”
I slipped my hand into Maddox’s.
We turned for the door.
“Sort her out,” I added over my shoulder as we walked out of the room.
“You know,” Maddox said thoughtfully as he opened the front door for me, “if she added more butter to the potatoes—and maybe a little parsley—they wouldn’t be so bad.”
I paused on the threshold and turned my head slowly to look at him.
The man had just watched my family implode and now he was critiquing the side dishes.
“Why don’t you go back and tell her,” I said dryly.
He slipped his hands into his pockets, considering the idea as if it were genuinely tempting.
“Maybe next time,” he replied after a moment. “She seems a little… excited.”
I stepped out into the cold evening air and burst out laughing just as the front door shut firmly behind us.
The sound echoed down the quiet street, the tension from inside the house finally draining out of me.
Maddox watched me with that same maddeningly calm expression, like chaos was simply another form of entertainment.
He was completely nuts.
But honestly?
That might be his best quality.