CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Thatcher
On my way back to my office, I tried calling Carrie again.
It went straight to voicemail. I sighed.
I’d been hoping to find out if she’d received my flowers.
I had sent arrangements each day. Today’s was a massive arrangement of white roses, blue hydrangeas, cream peonies, and pastel pink dahlias.
I’d had to look back at our wedding photos the night before to see what kinds of flowers were used.
I didn’t even know what some of them were called.
I had run by the florist that morning with a picture so they could see what I wanted and tell me what a couple of the flowers were called.
Hopefully that would go a long way towards making up for missing the Orchid Ball.
I winced. I had to decide whether I was going to tell her about everything with Madison or not.
There wasn’t a bouquet on Earth that could make up for an affair, whether we’d actually had sex or not.
Part of me thought a truly fresh start meant laying all the secrets out there.
Another thought what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.
I’d just have to think about it and make a judgment call when I saw her.Not that I knew when that would be.
I waved to Lisa and was about to go in my office when she hurried around her desk to get to me. “Thatcher, Madison Welles is in there. She insisted that you wanted to see her this morning, so I finally let her in.”
“Why would you do that?” I snapped at her.
Lisa’s eyebrow cocked up and she gave me a look that had me feeling like a little kid about to be chastised by his grandmother.
“I did that,” she bit out, “because you’ve been acting as if that woman is your girlfriend for the past several months.
Even though you have a wife,” she finished on a hiss.
“And let me tell you something. You’re making a horrible decision.
That wife of yours is twenty times the woman Madison Welles will ever be. ”
“You’re right. I’m so sorry. I’m in a terrible mood because I’m afraid I’ve screwed things up with Carrie because I had blinders on where Madison was concerned. Forgive me. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.”
She nodded. “You’re forgiven.”
I kind of wanted a hug, too, but I didn’t want to push my luck. Lisa gave the best hugs, but she hadn’t done that for quite some time. She’d probably think it was weird…
“Do you need a hug, Thatcher?”
I perked up. She’d read my mind. “Yes.”
She held her arms open, and I walked into them like I had for so many years when I was growing up.
“You’ve just been all confused, and that mother of yours hasn’t helped one bit.
” She patted me on the back signifying the hug was over.
“Now, go get this mess straightened out. If I can help, let me know.”
I nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Lisa.”
“You’re most welcome.”
I walked into my office quietly. I had a bad feeling about Madison being in my office by herself. I approached the bedroom, hearing her voice coming from that direction.
Who was she talking to?
The door was open a crack, and I could see her. She was stretched out on the bed, naked, and talking on the phone.
“Yes, I’ve got it handled. Don’t worry. He was just in a weird mood the other night.
Believe me—I’ll get him to fuck me today, and it will be without a condom.
In a few weeks, I’ll tell him I’m pregnant.
He’ll think the baby is his, we’ll get married, I’ll wait a year or so, then divorce him.
No big deal. Then you and I will be together, I’ll get tons of money in the divorce, and I’ll let him have full custody of the baby.
” She laughed. “He won’t even know it’s not his. ”
She rolled over on her back and twirled her hair while she was talking to her apparent boyfriend.
“I’m not a bit worried about paternity testing.
I’m telling you, he’s obsessed with me. Obsessed.
It’s ridiculous how much he loves me. I mean, I left him at the altar three weeks before we were supposed to get married, and he took me back like it never even happened.
Even though he’s married! And I never even apologized. It’s crazy, really.”
I stood there for a moment letting that sink in.
Even knowing everything I’d found out about her over the past few days, it still hurt to hear how much of a fool I’d been.
It was hard to wrap my head around just how much she’d used and conned me over the years.
Knowing that the relationship I’d built up in my head for so many years was not the perfect romance I’d imagined…
hurt. I’d wasted so many years thinking Madison was the love of my life.
I leaned my head against the wall. All of the missed dinners, the texts and emails between Madison and me when I was at home, the lunches and dinners I’d taken Madison to while Carrie sat at home by herself, the calls and texts from Carrie I’d purposely ignored because I wanted to focus on Madison—it all came crashing down around me.
For years, people had made me feel as if Carrie wasn’t good enough for me, and I bought into that on some level. Hearing it constantly from my father before his death, my mother and her friends, Olive and her entourage, my former friends, and Madison, made me believe it was true.
But I knew the truth now. I was the piece of shit who cheated on my wife with a woman who didn’t care about me, much less love me. I had fallen for Madison again, even harder than before and despite being married.
Everyone had it wrong. I didn’t deserve ‘better’ than Carrie. She deserved someone much better than me. I wasn’t worthy of her for so many reasons.
I could only hope that she’d be willing to overlook the past several months and move forward with our marriage.
I pushed the door open, and Madison rolled over in alarm. Our eyes met, and hers widened for a fraction of an instant. Then she regained control. “Anyway, bye, Mom. I have to go. Talk to you later.”
She hung up and beamed at me. She sat up and struck an inviting pose. “I thought I’d greet you with some sex this morning. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how great the other night could have been.” She got a slightly chastising look on her face. “That is, it was great until you kicked me out…”
“Really? You thought it was great? I thought it was the worst start to a sexual encounter I’ve ever had. I am so fucking glad I didn’t go through with it.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
“On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best, I’d give it a zero.”
“How… how can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. Now, who was this guy you were talking to that was going to help you convince me that the baby you’re already carrying is somehow mine?”
All the color drained from her face.
“Didn’t think I heard, huh?” I smirked at her. “I heard the whole damn thing, darling. And don’t worry. If the horrendous ‘almost’ sex we had hadn’t cured me of my ‘obsession’ with you, your behavior over the past few months would absolutely do it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“After the awful ‘almost’ sex…”
“Quit calling it that!”
“Fine. After the terrible ‘almost’ sex, I started thinking about all the red flags I’d been looking past or making excuses for you for.
But I suddenly couldn’t quit thinking about them.
Then I found out you were even worse than I thought.
” I leaned forward. “I had an interesting chat with Ethan Gold the other day. Imagine my surprise to hear we had an open relationship in college.”
She flinched. “He’s always been such a liar. You know that.”
“Do I?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall. “From where I stand, the only liar around here is you.”
She stared at me. “But we’re so good together.”
“No. You can go be good with whoever that was on the phone. But you might want to give the baby over to his parents if they’re decent.
Yours sucked and you’re going to be even worse.
Anyway, I’m officially letting you know that you’re fired from the Caldwell Financial campaign.
You’ll be the face of our company for exactly one year.
Then we’ll be going in a different direction. ”
“You can’t do that! You’ll have to get it approved through your mother first, and she won’t sign off on it…”
“Mother has nothing to do with it. This is Bryce’s, Celia’s, and my company, or did you not know that?
Since Mom went rogue and signed you for the campaign without my permission a few months ago, Bryce, Celia, and I had the small amount of power she had at this company taken away.
We needed to ensure she could never do something like that again. ”
“I’ll fuck up your launch party…”
“No, you won’t. You’re under contract. Plus, I’d happily blackball your name with modeling agencies in Atlanta. The Caldwell name goes far in Atlanta, Madison, or had you forgotten?”
She got tears in her eyes. “Please, Thatcher. For old times’ sake. Won’t you extend my contract for one more year?”
“Absolutely not. And I’m going to need that corporate credit card I gave you.”
She gaped at me. “I don’t have it with me. I’ll have to give it back to you another time.”
“Bryce already had it canceled. So even if you try to keep it, it won’t work.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine.” She got up, grabbed her purse, rifled through it, and pulled out the card. She slapped it down in my outstretched hand.
“Just so you know, Bryce has a meeting set up for you with both our accounting and legal departments right now.”
“For what?” she sneered. “You gave me the card.”
“You told me it was for jewelry the director wanted you to wear in one of the commercials. That was a lie. And I’ve seen the statement. You charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry, clothes, bags, purses, shoes…”
“You told me to keep it for anything else I might need for the ad campaign,” she protested.
“Bryce told me the process for getting purchases approved. You took advantage of me.”
She shrugged, smirking at me. “You were willing to give me the card. That’s on you. Besides, you’re a fucking billionaire.”
“Care to explain why you charged flowers, high end chocolates, upscale takeout, and even your rent to the card?”
Her face paled for a moment before she regained her composure. “You can’t possibly prove that you didn’t tell me to make those purchases.”
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and played some of our conversation back to her.
She gasped. For the first time she looked truly horrified. “You can’t use that,” she shrieked. “I didn’t give my consent.”
“Georgia is a one-party consent state for audio recordings.” I quickly texted it to Bryce. “Security will escort you out. I don’t want to see you anywhere near this building in the future. Bryce will be getting your keycard credentials back from you at the close of your legal meeting.”
“What are you doing? You love me! You can’t do this to me.”
“Think of all you’ve done to me.” I paused to let it sink in. Her face flushed, but she didn’t apologize. “The last time I ever want to see you is at the launch party day after tomorrow. Then we’re done.”
“You can’t mean that.”
I went to the wall and pressed the intercom button that connected me to Lisa. “Lisa, could you please get security up here to escort Ms. Welles to her meeting?”
“No problem, Thatcher.”
“But I left some things in my dressing room…”
“We’ll have it packed up and brought to the launch party, mailed to the address you listed in your new hire paperwork, or burned. Whichever is easiest.” I looked at the clock. “Security will be here in roughly two minutes. You might want to get dressed.”
“Damn you, Thatcher!” She scurried around and hurriedly got dressed right before security came in.
“Here she is gentlemen.”
“This is totally unnecessary. I was going to leave on my own.”
They each took her gently by the arm and walked her from my office.
“Good riddance,” I said to myself, sinking into my desk chair and sipping my morning coffee. I’d really dodged a bullet. I couldn’t believe I’d been so wrong about her for so many years.
Now If I could get my wife to talk to me again, things would be looking up.
I smiled as I leaned back and turned my chair to get a better view of the Atlanta skyline.
I was lucky I’d married someone as easy going as Carrie.
It would probably take a few dinners, flower deliveries, and maybe a few nice pieces of jewelry, but I was sure she’d forgive me for missing the Orchid Ball.
Maybe I’d even take her to Rome or Paris for a week sometime soon.
Yes, she’d forgive me. A thought occurred to me, and my mood darkened.
The smile fell from my face, and I sat up straighter in my chair.
I just had to hope that she didn’t find out about how far the affair went.
I scrubbed a hand over my face thinking of all the times I’d given time to Madison that should have been Carrie’s.
Carrie knew about at least some of that.
Maybe, with counseling, she’d get past it.
I just never wanted her to know that rest. Hell, I wished I could forget kissing Madison that night I’d almost betrayed my wife completely.
And I had decided I never wanted Carrie to know.