CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Thatcher
I sat dejectedly at my desk. I’d heard nothing from Carrie. And an interesting thing was happening. Madison hadn’t been by since the night I’d almost slept with her. And… I didn’t miss her. What did that mean?
There was a light knock on my door before Bryce slipped in. He hadn’t waited for an answer, but that didn’t bother me. I was just glad to see a friendly face.
Except… he didn’t look all that friendly.
“We need to talk.”
I was surprised. Bryce rarely had such a serious tone in his voice.
“Sure, come on in.” I gestured to one of the chairs.
Instead of plopping down and resting one leg over the arm of the antique as he usually did, he sat up straight, his posture that of a businessman coming to discuss something of importance.
“My God. What have I done?” I chuckled.
Instead of laughing, Bryce looked even more uncomfortable. “Thatch, this is… bad.”
I frowned. “What is it? Is everyone okay? Is Carrie…”
He held up a hand. “Everyone is fine. There’s a sticky situation with one of the company credit cards.
The head of accounting brought it to me, because he didn’t want to face you directly.
” Bryce stared at me, and I could tell he was waiting on me to just come clean about whatever purchases I’d made.
Jesus. I went over anything irregular I’d charged to a business account. There was nothing. Certainly not anything that would have caused such an uproar.
My brother sighed. “You’re going to make me show you the evidence, huh?”
“Evidence? You make it sound like I’m being investigated.
Bryce rubbed the back of his neck.
“Am I being investigated?” Yes, the company was ours, but we had stockholders and a board of directors. We couldn’t run things illegally in any way.
“Not yet.” He blew out a puff of air, and I could tell he was on the verge of freaking out.
“Bryce.” His eyes shot up to mine. “Calm down and show me. As far as I know, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“It’s about Madison.”
My mouth dropped open a little. “What about her?” I swallowed hard. Was there some ethics violation I’d broken? That couldn’t be it, though, or my dad would have been ousted from the company day one.
“All the things you bought her on the company card. Tons of expensive jewelry, clothes, bags, shoes, makeup, chocolates, flowers, even her fucking rent.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d do this to Carrie.”
I’d done a lot worse to Carrie, but he didn’t need to know that. “I didn’t do any of that,” I protested. “The only thing I’ve done is buy her a few… maybe a lot… of meals out at nice restaurants. And I used my personal card for that. That’s it.”
He slid a folder across the desk to me. I opened it and my eyes widened at the insane number of purchases I was looking at from a company card statement. It was a card issued to me, but I’d never even been in most of the stores listed on the statement.
It was his turn to look confused. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” I stated, getting upset and wondering what the hell had happened.
And then it hit me. “Oh my God. I know what happened.” I looked up at Bryce, my face turning red with embarrassment and anger.
“I gave a card to Madison because she said the director wanted her to wear nicer jewelry in one of the commercials. But this?” I waved the statement around. “I never approved any of this.”
Bryce had a strange look on his face. “She said the director requested that?”
I nodded.
“That’s complete bullshit. Anything like that comes to me as a direct request and their wardrobe department makes the purchase after going over things with the director to get a feel for what’s needed.
And Madison doesn’t automatically get to keep jewelry from the shoot. That’s negotiated in her contract.”
I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my temples.
The slight headache I’d had most of the day was quickly becoming much worse.
“This is fucking ridiculous. I gave her the card without checking her story. And I trusted her to only make purchases she needed for any of the shoots. I was an idiot, and that’s on me.
But these charges? Chocolates, flowers, designer clothes, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry?
Her goddamn rent? There is absolutely no way she could claim to have misunderstood me to that extent. ”
Bryce looked relieved. “Thank God. I know Madison makes you lose your mind, but I couldn’t believe you’d go stark raving mad. It’s stupid anyway. Why would a billionaire fleece his own company for a few hundred thousand dollars?”
“People have been known to do stupider things than that,” I murmured. I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Like trust their ex-fiancée with a limitless corporate credit card.”
Bryce smirked. “That was stupid.” He leaned forward. “You know, it’s interesting that when I came in here you got scared, but you didn’t ask about Madison. You were worried about Carrie.”
I met his eyes. “You’re right. Madison didn’t cross my mind at all, actually. I just worried that something might have happened to Carrie.”
Bryce was quiet a moment. “You haven’t done anything you can’t come back from yet, right? I know you’ve got a lot of explaining to do to repair things with Carrie, but you haven’t done anything physical with Madison. Right?”
Fuck. I felt shame wash over me knowing I’d almost messed around. Just like our father. “I wish that were true,” I said softly.
Bryce looked shocked. Then pissed. “What the fuck, Thatcher? You slept with her?”
I shook my head. “No, but I almost did. I messed around with her. We kissed several times, and right as I was about to go through with it, I stopped it. I realized the condoms available to me were from Dad’s stash in his bedroom suite.
” A shiver of revulsion ran through me at the thought.
I ran both hands through my hair, not caring if I messed it up.
“But I’ve screwed up so badly. For months I’ve taken Madison out to lunches and dinners, I’ve missed important things with Carrie, I texted, called, and emailed Madison from home all the time.
It’s bad.” I met his eyes. “And I blew off helping her decorate for the Orchid Ball. Worse? I got the date wrong and didn’t even show up for it.
That’s when I was in bed with Madison, about one step away from fucking her. ”
“You had a full-blown affair.” He looked disgusted.
“Yeah. I did.” I swallowed hard. “And I know I screwed up.”
“Because of this?” he indicated the credit card statement.
“No. It’s other things. Over the past few days, I’ve thought about some red flags I’ve been ignoring.”
“And?”
“And I find myself wondering if I even know the real Madison anymore. Or if I ever did.”
Bryce studied me for a moment. “You know, Celia and I never liked her.”
I gave him a look. “Thanks for telling me now,” I said sarcastically.
He chuckled. “We both tried to tell you more than once over the years. You wouldn’t listen. You were too far gone.”
I nodded. I was sure he was right. “You know, I’ve treated Carrie like crap for months. I don’t know if there’s any way I can come back from this.”
He looked concerned. “Do you think she’s going to leave you?”
“I’m afraid so. She hasn’t come home since I missed the Orchid Ball.”
“That was just a couple of days ago, right?”
“Three. But it seems like longer. She won’t answer any of my texts or voicemails, either. No one will. Her parents, her friends… they just send me straight to voicemail. I’ve sent gifts to her parents’ house every day, but I don’t know if she even cares. Hell, I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t.”
Bryce shook his head. “I hate to say it, but it’s not looking good.” He stood up. “I have to go to a meeting. I hate to leave you like this. Will you be okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” It felt like a damn lie, and I think he could tell. “I’ll get the credit card back from Madison the next time I see her.”
He nodded. “I’ve taken the liberty to cancel it, but I’d still like you to get it back.
I’d like to press charges against her or at least have her sign an affidavit acknowledging she’s responsible for the purchases she made.
Honestly? Since you gave her the card and told her to buy jewelry with it, I think we would have a hard time proving misuse or theft.
I’m going to check with our legal team and let you know what I find out. ” He gave me a slight wave and left.
I was alone with my thoughts. And none of them were good.
***
A couple of days later, still upset over the fact I couldn’t get in touch with Carrie, I walked into the coffee shop across from the Caldwell Financial building.
I was meeting Ethan Gold, another of my friends from Emory University, for coffee.
He’d been unable to come to the get together we’d had several nights ago and wanted a chance to catch up with me.
“Hey,” I said as I walked across the shop to the table he’d saved for us.
He stood and shook my hand. “I don’t have long, but I hadn’t heard from you in so long, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to catch up with you.
” He glanced at his phone when it buzzed and typed out a quick response.
He was a high-powered attorney in his father’s prestigious law firm.
He already had a coffee in front of him and one waiting on me, so I took a seat.
He hadn’t really heard from me. Ashcroft and Madison had gotten everyone together. Ethan had just asked for my number when he couldn’t attend.
Always one to jump right into a conversation without any niceties, he said, “Ashcroft told me you’re fucking Madison again.”
I almost spit my coffee out and looked around quickly to make sure no one I knew was in the shop. “I mean… not really,” I said. “I’m kind of re-thinking that whole thing.”
“Why? Because your wife is fucking gorgeous?”
“I forgot how direct you are.”
He shrugged, and I cleared my throat. “How do you know Carrie is gorgeous?”