Chapter 28 #2
“That child is a McCormick, and it will be raised as one. Do you understand?” she demanded, but with a smile on her face.
My eyes drifted around us, guests walking by, smiling, drinking, laughing—no one realizing this wasn’t a conversation.
No one realizing she was blackmailing me.
“You will either hand that child over to us, or you can be responsible for Max’s failure. For his business’s failure.”
My head started to sway. I had to get out of here—get away from her. “Leave me alone.”
“If that’s what you want, Daisy, but then you’ll be responsible for the swift and sudden failure of your husband’s business.
His ruination,” she clipped. “Then you’ll not only have saddled him with a child that’s not his, but no way to support it or you.
” She paused to smile and wave at someone in the distance she knew, as though she wasn’t too busy threatening a pregnant woman to be social.
“Is that what you want? I doubt it, judging by that ring.” She scoffed.
“Hardly missing one rich groom before landing yourself another. A veritable Jezebel, Miss Turner…or I guess I should say Mrs. Hamilton.” Disdain didn’t drip from her voice.
It suffused it. “I wonder what all of Max’s clients would think about that?
What being married to a gold digger will do for his reputation? ”
I wanted to scream at her. Liar! And then maybe strangle her. I didn’t want Max for his money. I didn’t want him as a backup because Todd left.
I looked at Mr. McCormick for the first time.
He hadn’t said anything to this point, and I wondered if there was any way that meant I could convince him to put an end to this.
Whenever Todd needed something—or had done something stupid—it was always his dad he called first. But instead of a possible ally, all I saw was another victim in his gaze.
He looked nervous. Angry. Complicit. But nervous. His stare left mine and darted around the room, as though he was afraid someone was going to make a scene.
“It’s your choice, Miss Turner,” Mrs. McCormick continued, ripping my attention back to her as she called me that on purpose—to prove her point that what I had with Max wasn’t real.
“You can either give that baby over to its rightful family, or you can be responsible for the downfall of your husband’s business.
His dream.” She sneered the last, like dreams were dirty.
Like they were only meant for those without wealth and power.
“Hey!”
Max.
He shoved between Todd’s parents and lowered straight onto one knee. “Daze, are you all right?” He held my face, turning and searching it for signs of distress. “Daze…you’re pale,” Max said low, rage brimming like a current under the calm.
“Just feeling a little lightheaded.” Darkness eked around the edges of my vision, and I could feel every pump of my pulse as it climbed my neck. I pressed my hand to the top of my stomach, feeling like my little sprout had grown straight up into my ribs. “I think I need some air.”
And to never see the McCormicks again.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
I wanted to protest. Mrs. McCormick’s words rattled around in my mind like spare Legos, but Max took the cup of water from my limp hands and set it on the table.
“Up you go. Nice and slow.” He guided me onto my feet, his body a blockade against the two people who’d cornered me.
Taking my hands, he turned in front of me.
“Come near my wife and child again, in public or private, and I’ll be filing a restraining order.”
Todd’s dad’s eyes bulged. “Mary—”
“How dare you threaten—”
“You’re lucky I’m threatening you,” Max growled, cutting her off menacingly. “It’s because of my friendship with your son that I’m threatening you. If it weren’t for him, I’d be calling the police.” And then he bracketed his arm around my waist and guided me out of the event.
The people, the space, everything turned into a foggy blur until we reached our hotel room.
“Max…” I didn’t even sound like myself, my throat was so thick.
He came back over and cupped my neck, tilting my face up. “I know, Daze.” His forehead kissed mine. “I’m packing our things, and we’re going home.”
Maybe it was crazy to drive home at this hour when we had a perfectly good room to stay in—one Max had paid for—but I didn’t want to stay.
I wanted to drive. I wanted to let the road untangle what just happened.
What she’d said. What Max risked by being with me.
And then I wanted to curl up in the safety of our bed and pretend like nothing could touch us.
At least until morning.
We rode in silence, Max’s hand never leaving mine from the moment he’d taken it inside the ballroom until now. He was always there for me. No matter what. No matter how it hurt him.
“Do you really want to be responsible for ruining his career?”
That was what hit the hardest. Not the threat to me, but to Max.
Before…before I could pretend ignorance. It had been his choice not to tell me how he felt about me, just like it had been my choice to try to ignore my attraction to him. But now I knew. I knew all he’d done for me. All he was doing for me. And I couldn’t—wouldn’t let him do this.
Maybe I could be convinced he didn’t want those things more than he wanted me, but I’d be a fool to think I took first place over his business. I wouldn’t let him convince me that he’d weather whatever storm the McCormicks threw at him.
Before I knew it, the onyx carpet of freeway turned to tree-lined local roads that snaked toward the coast. Toward Max’s house. The house we’d been playing home in. And I felt like a fool.
I thought I was safe—that we were safe. I let myself believe the warning he’d delivered to Mrs. McCormick was enough to drive the point home, but then they showed up at the fundraiser and pulled that rug—that magic carpet dream I’d been riding—right out from under me.
The only point that mattered was the baby I carried was a McCormick, and I’d no sooner be able to get rid of my ties to that family than my daughter would be able to get rid of half of her genes.
I sat frozen, seeing the familiar moon-drenched outline of the coast through the trees.
What was I thinking, believing I could fit safely into Max’s world?
Assuming that just because he’d wanted me there for so long, there’d be no hurdles.
Hoping that I could just start over—start again with the right man when I was pregnant with another man’s baby.
Ironic that Todd had left me, but apparently, I wasn’t allowed to leave him, his family, or their prestigious name.
“Are you okay?” Max finally asked, his voice rough like the night tide against the shore.
Shame washed over me. I almost couldn’t bring myself to tell him. Why would I? Why would I want to tell the man who’d done everything and more for me—who loved me in secret for years—that what he’d sacrificed wasn’t enough. That being with me would ruin his dream too.
“She wants me to give up the baby.”
“She’s insane.” His fingers curled into mine, giving them a warm squeeze. “It’s not happening, Daze. She can’t touch the baby or you. Or us.”
A cry untethered from my throat.
“I love you, Daze. Both of you. I won’t let anything happen, do you hear me?”
Max Hamilton loved me, and I’d never been more certain of anything in my entire life. But this wasn’t about loving me—or me loving him. This was…whatever it was, love wasn’t enough.
“You’re wrong.” I covered my stomach with my hand, feeling the baby turn. “She can touch you.”
“What?” He stiffened. “What did she tell you?”
“She…they can ruin you, Max.” Fear reamed all steadiness from my voice.
“Everyone there…all the contacts you’re trying to make, the ways you’re trying to grow your business—they can take it all away.
” I paused to catch a breath. “A few words from them and everything you’ve worked for will be ruined. ”
“Daisy, that’s not—”
“You can’t tell me it’s not, Max,” I insisted, my voice rising, my heart pounding.
“I know them. I know what you and Todd went through building MaineStems. I know how many connections he made for you—all because of his family. You can’t say no because I know the truth.
I know what their name means. I know how—”
“Daze.” He shook my hand until I stopped, realizing I wasn’t stopping to think, let alone breathe. “You know I will fix this.”
Tears strung up along my lashes. “You shouldn’t have to.”
And what would he risk to do it?
He’d loved me through every obstacle, but what if this was the one that broke him? What if loving me meant losing his business—his dream? What if he couldn’t have both, and he came to resent me for it?
“I need you to trust me, baby. Please.” He pulled my knuckles to his lips, tattooing them with his plea. “Please.”
I did trust him. It was never a question of trusting him.
I just knew what the McCormicks were capable of, and I knew they wouldn’t relent.
They hadn’t relented on Todd when he’d tried to do his own thing.
They’d even let him barter on the family name to help MaineStems grow, but it was an insidious kind of help.
The kind that grew like a blueberry bush, producing fruit even as it completely invaded its surroundings, choking out every other kind of life.
“I do trust you,” I said, my lip quivering as I let out a sigh and turned to him.
The glow from the dash caught on his tousled hair and the hard profile of his face. He’d never been more handsome than in this moment. My knight in a gleaming black tuxedo, willing to fight any battle for me, even one that could mean the death of his dream.
Just knowing that made my heart swing harder at my chest with every beat, wanting to crack out of its cage and go to him. To leave me to the consequences of my situation and free him to be happy.
“I’m sorry, Max,” I heard myself say, a heartbroken husk overtaking my voice.
His hand pulsed around mine. “Don’t apologize, baby. None of this is your fault. None of it.” He dragged my hand to his mouth again, kissing the back of it like he could infuse his confidence straight into my veins. “I’m going to handle it.”
My eyes burned, but I refused to cry. I didn’t want to waste whatever moments I had left to look at him like this. Like he was mine. Moments that turned out to be too few because it felt like I blinked and we were pulling down the driveway, Max parking in front of the house minutes later.
“Daisy…” He groaned and leaned over the console, cupping my cheek. “What is it?”
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t fair that he had to keep cleaning up the mess of my life. It wasn’t fair that he had to keep saving me. It wasn’t fair that to keep the woman he loved, he’d have to risk the dream he chased.
It wasn’t about asking him to choose. It was about having to live with the consequences of his choice.
Until Max, I never would’ve dreamed of Todd or any other man putting me first. None of them had, just like my mother had told me, none of them would.
Until Max. But Max would put me first. He always had.
Always would. He’d pick me time and time again and never think twice about what it could cost him.
How could I live with myself knowing the position I’d put him in? Knowing the choice he’d make? I was the reason he’d been alone for four years. I was the reason he’d given up on the idea of marriage and a family. I wouldn’t now be the reason he lost his dream too.
“Let’s go inside…to bed,” Max rumbled, stroking my cheek like he was searching for tears to wipe away but found none. That was because they were all inside, filling the deep well I’d dug for decades.
I didn’t have the strength to argue when he carried me inside, only realizing when my feet hit the floor that he’d carried me because I’d taken my shoes off at some point during the drive home. Upstairs, he unzipped the back of my dress, the material falling in a gold whoosh to the ground.
“Max.” I shivered as his lips fell to my shoulder.
“I have to go back to Boston in the morning. To finish up everything from tonight,” he said, clearly sounding like he wished there were any other option. “It shouldn’t take me long, but I’m going to leave first thing, so I’ll be back before noon, and then we’ll talk about this. About them.”
I nodded, my throat too thick to speak as he ushered me into our bed. The only thing that felt better than the comfort of climbing into familiar sheets was when Max settled in next to me and drew me to him, his thigh fitting between mine like a hot pillow.
The ridge of his knuckles lifted my chin. “I love you, my little wife.”
My pulse withered in my chest. We’d just said those words for the first time to each other only a few days ago.
The feeling had been there for longer, but like a foundation laid beneath the surface.
Still, the words felt tenuous—what we had with each other still felt fragile and uncertain.
A victim of our ever-changing circumstances.
Would you still if it cost you your dream?
It was what I thought, but what I said was, “I love you too.”
And I couldn’t let him continue to be the one always saving me. Not because I was too independent to be saved, but because I loved him too much to let him be the one to suffer. I would figure out how to fix this. Somehow. Some way. And then I’d find my way back to him once it was safe.
But that was tomorrow’s problem.
Tonight…I’d take one more night in this fantasy with him. My husband.
The king of flowers. And the king of my heart.