CHAPTER SEVEN #3
I bit my lip nervously. That part of who Thatcher’s dad was hadn’t gone unnoticed by anyone. But it had hurt Thatcher, his siblings, and his mother terribly. I didn’t like to hear people joke about it.
I realized Karen was still talking, and I dragged my attention back to her. “And so, without further ado, I’ll hand the microphone over to my son, Thatcher. Because who better to introduce our new spokesmodel?”
Well, that was weird. Why would Thatcher be the best person to introduce the new spokesmodel? Maybe it was a CEO thing? Since Bryce was director of marketing, I would’ve thought he’d be the obvious choice to do it.
I looked up and saw Bryce and Celia hurrying towards me, and my eyes widened in alarm. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Celia said with a smile I knew was fake. “We just saw you standing alone and thought you might need company.”
Bryce was more honest. “And we wanted to beat Olive over here.”
I turned to see my vindictive sister-in-law staring at me with narrowed eyes. “She doesn’t seem happy about it.”
“I don’t know what more I can say than Mom did,” Thatcher’s voice boomed over the speakers.
“But I can tell you a bit about our new campaign strategy. Bryce, Celia, and I believe that Caldwell Financial needs a fresh vibe in the media. Because of that, we’re working hard on creating a new advertising campaign that will launch before the end of the year.
We want to appeal to a younger audience while retaining our core group of customers, and I think we’re well on our way to doing just that. ”
He stepped to the side as if he was making room for someone to come stand beside him. “It’s my pleasure to introduce one of Atlanta’s own as the new spokesmodel for our campaign. Everyone, please join me in welcoming Madison Welles back to Atlanta!”
There was brief moment of silence before people broke into loud applause. A tall, gorgeous brunette in a slinky dress walked out to join Thatcher in the center of the dance floor.
I turned to Bryce and Celia. “Wow. She is… well, she’s just about the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Bryce looked kind of sick, and Celia chuckled nervously. I didn’t know what was going on, but something was definitely off.
I turned back and was surprised to see someone come and take the microphone from Thatcher. I’d assumed Madison Welles would want to say something. Instead, the jazz band struck up a cover of “The Way You Look Tonight,” as Thatcher and the spokesmodel proceeded to dance together.
Um… record scratch. What the hell was going on? Why was my husband dancing with that gorgeous woman? And why did they look so damn perfect together?
I looked to Bryce and Celia for answers, but they were conveniently talking to others.
I sipped my wine slowly as I watched Thatcher dance with the beautiful woman who would star in the new campaign he, Bryce, and Celia had worked on together.
I wondered how much contact he’d had with this woman.
My mind flashed to all of Thatcher’s late nights.
Could he be spending all of that time with this stunning woman?
I dismissed the thought. Thatcher’s worst fear was becoming a philandering asshole like his father.
Still, I couldn’t shake my feelings of unease.
Seeing them dance together didn’t help. They seemed unusually comfortable with each other.
I was glad when the dance was over and other couples started moving out on the floor.
Before long, we moved to the tables for dinner, and I was relieved when Thatcher came to sit by me. “Hey,” I said, rubbing his leg under the table.
“Hey, baby,” he kissed my cheek. “Sorry to have neglected you tonight. I hope everything’s going alright.”
Besides being eviscerated by his mother and him dancing with an elegant spokesmodel? It was fine.
Bryce, Celia, Olive, and their dates joined our table.
As did Madison Welles. She sat directly across from Thatcher, and I noticed him tense up when she sat down.
Everyone seemed to.
I waited for Thatcher to introduce me, but he didn’t. Finally, I introduced myself. “Hey, I’m Carrie. I’m Thatcher’s wife.” I reached out my hand for her to shake.
Madison’s smile wasn’t exactly friendly. She stared at my hand long enough that I thought she wasn’t going to shake it. Confused, I started to pull back, but she finally gave my hand a limp shake.
“Charmed.”
Olive snickered as everyone else remained silent. I looked around, not understanding the tension at the table. No one would meet my eyes.
I bent towards Thatcher. “What’s going on?” I whispered in his ear.
He brushed off the question. “Everything’s fine.”
Nothing felt fine, but I decided to just eat the delicious food to help soak up all the wine I’d had to drink.
Bryce and Celia provided most of the conversation as they peppered Madison with questions about the campaign.
I was beginning to think Madison Welles was socially awkward and that’s all there was to it. I’d even started to relax and enjoy myself a little bit. Then, midway through dinner, Olive dropped a bombshell.
“Thatcher, how does it feel to be spending so much time with Madison again?”
I glanced at her. “Again?” I asked. What did she mean?
Olive put a hand over her mouth feigning surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t Thatcher tell you? He and Madison…”
“They dated through high school,” Celia blurted, covering up whatever Olive was going to say.
I whipped my head around to stare at Thatch. “You… dated her?” I studied Thatcher’s profile. His jaw was clenched so hard I was a little worried about his teeth.
“I did.” He cut into his lobster, trying to act unbothered by the line of questioning.
“Oh.” I looked across the table at Madison. She gave me a quick little smile that was not friendly at all and stared at Thatcher with undisguised possessiveness in her eyes, as if he still belonged to her.
“Wow. Thatch hasn’t trusted you with anything, has he? Poor thing. That must hurt.” Olive gave me a mock sympathetic look.
I was trying to maintain a polite smile on my face, but it was starting to falter.
I glanced around. Why wasn’t Thatcher saying anything?
I glanced at Bryce and Celia for some sort of clue about what exactly was going on, but they were staring at their plates.
What hadn’t Thatcher trusted me with? Was it more than the fact that he’d dated this goddess in high school? That was bad enough already.
“Thatch,” Madison said, ignoring the conversation. “Can we go to La Maison for lunch again on Monday?”
“You’ve… taken her to La Maison?” I asked Thatcher, unable to hide the hurt in my voice. He got very still and didn’t look up from his plate.
Madison laughed quietly. “Taken me? My God. We go all the time. I told him last night that it’s become our place.”
My eyes jerked to hers, and I felt my face go pale. My heart was pounding, and I felt as if I couldn’t take a full breath. Last night? Thatcher had told me he had a meeting last night.
I felt sick. My hand shook as I put my napkin on my plate. I was about to go inside and find a bathroom to hide in for a bit.
Olive must have sensed it, because she hurried to say, “Wow, I guess you don’t even know that Thatcher and Madison were engaged, then.” She grinned at me.
My mouth went dry, and I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Engaged. Thatcher and Madison Welles not only dated, but they’d also been engaged. And now his company had hired her, out of all the possibilities in the world, to be its new spokesperson.
And the campaign had started months ago. I realized with a sick feeling that it probably coincided with when Thatcher started behaving differently.
“No, I didn’t know,” I finally croaked out, reaching for a glass of water. I looked around the table. No one would meet my eyes except Olive and Madison.
They all knew. They’d all let me be blindsided by the information and look like a fool in front of the whole table. That Olive would do something like this was not surprising. But Bryce, Celia, and… Thatcher? That shocked me. How could they have let me walk into this blindly?
That’s when I happened to look up. I gasped as I realized most people at the party were watching me with interest. That included Karen who was leaning against one of the tent poles with her arms crossed and a victorious smile on her face.
All conversation had stopped.
I sucked in a breath. Literally everyone at this party knew about Madison and Thatcher. Everyone.
Except me.
And they all seemed to be enjoying my reaction. It was as if I was the planned entertainment tonight.
I felt lightheaded, like I might faint.
“Yeah, it wasn’t very long after their engagement ended before he ended up married to you.” The look on Olive’s face told me exactly what she thought of our pairing.
I tried to pretend like I wasn’t falling apart inside, but I couldn’t.
Karen, Madison, and Olive wanted to make me look as much like a na?ve idiot as possible.
I had been set up. The words I’d overheard earlier about the poor, stupid wife being kept in the dark about her husband’s secrets came back to me.
It was me. I was that wife.
“I was so, so sad I had to call off our wedding, Thatch.” Madison said, pouting prettily. “And with only three weeks until the big day. I just couldn’t put off my career anymore,” she said to me, “and Thatcher wanted my entire focus on him.”
Thatcher ate with a single-mindedness that would’ve been impressive if I didn’t want to push his face into the ramekin of butter sauce served with his lobster.
“You’re the one who called it off, then.” I said flatly, looking at my husband’s ex-fiancée.
“Yes. I was offered a modeling contract in Paris that I just couldn’t walk away from. Thatcher begged me not to cancel. He said he’d wait forever for me, but my career came first then… so…” she trailed off, ending with a shrug.