Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
For several seconds, no one moved. Hudson kept one hand on the door while his gaze traveled from Abby’s face to Evan’s coat, then settled on the iPad beneath Evan’s arm. His expression changed so quickly that Abby almost missed the first flash of fear beneath the irritation.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Hudson asked as he stepped into the opening, using his body to block her view of the room. He tightened the belt of the hotel robe with a hard pull. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Abby heard the question without understanding it. His bare feet, the damp ends of his hair, and the patch of exposed skin at his throat held her attention with obscene clarity.
“Move,” she said, though the word barely carried beyond her mouth. She put one hand against the door before he could close it. “I need to see her.”
Hudson’s jaw hardened as he looked past Abby at Evan. “You brought her here in the middle of the night?” he demanded, directing the accusation at him as though Abby had not spoken. “What is wrong with you?”
Evan stood so still that only the movement of his throat showed he had heard. He held the iPad against his side and answered in a low voice. “Step away from the door.”
“Don’t give me orders.” Hudson’s volume rose, filling the corridor with the polished authority he used when a waiter brought the wrong bottle or an employee made him wait. “This is between Abby and me, and you have no business interfering in our relationship.”
Makayla appeared behind him before Abby could answer.
She had pulled on a hotel robe identical to Hudson’s, but hers hung open enough to reveal a black negligee she had bought with Abby two months earlier.
Her hair was tangled around her shoulders, and the lipstick she claimed lasted through anything had been rubbed almost completely from her mouth.
The last remnants of Abby’s disbelief gave way. She stared at the familiar dress, remembering Makayla turning in front of the mirror and asking whether it made her look too desperate. Abby had told her she looked beautiful, then fastened the clasp at the back when Makayla could not reach it.
“Abby.” Makayla stopped with one hand braced against the wall, her face collapsing before she managed another word. “Oh my God. Abby, please.”
Hudson turned on her with a look sharp enough to silence most people. “Go back inside,” he said, keeping his voice controlled. “I’ll handle this.”
“It’s not what it looks like.” Makayla spoke over him, the words rushing out as she gripped the edges of the robe. “I know how it looks, but you don’t understand what happened. I was upset, and Hudson was trying to help me, and then everything got confused.”
Abby’s hand slipped from the door. “You’re wearing lingerie in his hotel room.”
Makayla began crying so quickly that the tears seemed to frighten her. “I can explain that. I can explain everything if you’ll let me talk to you alone.”
“Shut up, Makayla.” Hudson did not look at her as he said it. His attention remained on Abby, his expression settling into the weary patience he usually adopted when he believed she was being unreasonable. “You’re making this sound worse because you’re panicking.”
Makayla covered her mouth, but a broken sound escaped between her fingers. Hudson flinched at the noise and stepped farther into the hallway, pulling the door nearly closed behind him.
“Abby, listen to me.” He lowered his voice as if the two of them were surrounded by irrational strangers. “I don’t know what Evan told you, but showing up here like this is completely unacceptable. You should have called me and given me the opportunity to explain before you humiliated all of us.”
“I did call you.” Abby heard the tremor in her voice and hated that he could hear it too. “You declined the call.”
Hudson gave an impatient shake of his head. “I was asleep. I must have hit the button by accident.”
“Your hair is wet.” She looked down at the robe because meeting his eyes had become impossible. “Makayla is in your room half naked.”
“Because she spilled wine on herself and needed to shower.” Hudson spread one hand, inviting her to consider the obviousness of his explanation. “She called me because she was having some kind of breakdown about Evan. I told her to come over because I was worried she would do something stupid.”
Behind him, Makayla made another strangled sound. “Hudson, that isn’t—” She stopped when he looked back at her.
“I told you to be quiet.” He turned on her, and the control vanished from his face. “You’ve done enough damage tonight.”
Abby watched Makayla shrink backward. For years, she had believed her friend could win over anyone, but the woman inside the doorway looked frightened and small, stripped of every easy answer she had ever used to move through the world.
“How long has she been having breakdowns in hotel rooms with you?” Evan asked, his voice level despite the anger tightening every word. He brought the iPad forward but did not offer it to Hudson. “Eighteen months, or did I miss the beginning?”
Hudson’s eyes narrowed. “You went through her private messages?”
Evan shifted closer to Abby protectively, without touching her. “The hotel confirmations, transfers, photographs, and voice messages are all there.”
Hudson gave a short laugh that contained no amusement. “So you invaded your fiancée’s privacy, dragged Abby out of bed, and drove her through a storm because you found some messages you didn’t understand. You’ve always been paranoid about Makayla having friends you can’t control.”
Evan’s face remained composed, but the hand holding the iPad tightened until his knuckles whitened. “Don’t try that with me.”
“Try what?” Hudson stepped fully into the hallway and let the door close behind him. “Point out that you’ve neglected her for years? She’s been miserable, Evan. Everyone knows it, but Abby and I were the only people willing to listen.”
The inclusion of Abby’s name made her stomach turn. Hudson was reaching into years of conversations, gathering her sympathy for Makayla and arranging it into a defense for what they had done.
“You encouraged me to spend more time with her,” Abby said as the memory rose. “Every time she said Evan was working too much, you told me to take her somewhere.”
Hudson turned toward her at once, his expression softening with practiced concern. “I was trying to support your friendship.”
“You were trying to make things seem normal.” The answer came with a certainty that frightened her. “All while you were sleeping with her…”
His face tightened. “That is an ugly thing to accuse me of after everything I’ve done for you.”
Abby stared at him. “After everything you’ve done for me?”
“Yes.” Hudson stepped closer, lowering his voice as if he could restore their familiar roles through proximity.
“Nine years, Abby. I gave you nine years, a home, a future, a place in my family. I have spent months planning a wedding around every preference you claimed to have, and now you’re prepared to throw all of it away because Evan wants someone else to blame for his failed relationship. ”
The words landed in places he knew were tender. Hudson had always understood her fear of being ungrateful, her instinct to measure what other people gave before she considered what they took. Until that moment, she had mistaken his knowledge for intimacy.
“You were sleeping with her while we planned the wedding.” Abby raised her left hand between them, and the ring caught the corridor light. “You let me stand in your mother’s garden and promise to marry you while she watched.”
“Nothing happened that day.” Hudson’s answer came too quickly, and for the first time he seemed to hear himself. He recovered by straightening his shoulders. “You’re taking unrelated events and turning them into some calculated plot because that version makes it easier for you to be angry.”
“There are eighteen months of messages.” Abby’s voice broke on the number. “How many months would I be allowed to be angry about?”
“I am not discussing private details in a hotel hallway.” Hudson glanced toward the elevator, checking whether anyone had appeared. “You’re emotional, and Evan has been feeding you information without context. Come inside, calm down, and let me explain what actually happened.”
Abby looked at the closed door. Makayla’s muffled crying reached them through it, irregular and breathless.
“No,” Abby said as she backed away. Her engagement ring felt tight around her finger, though it had fit perfectly that morning. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Hudson’s concern disappeared. “Of course you are. I’m not letting you leave in this condition with him.”
“You don’t get to decide that.” Evan moved between them when Hudson reached for Abby. He kept his hands at his sides, but the quiet warning in his voice altered the air around everyone in the corridor. “Do not touch her.”
Hudson’s tone shifted, gaining a predatory smoothness that made Abby’s stomach turn.
“There it is,” he said, as if Evan’s warning had proved a point long argued in secret.
He gave a small, satisfied nod, the kind Abby had seen him use in conference rooms when a rival admitted a mistake.
“You’ve wanted this for years, haven’t you?
You finally found your chance to play the protector, and she’s too upset to see what you’re doing.
Is that what this is? Is that what you think you are to her? ”
The words seemed to echo in the corridor, even after Hudson’s mouth closed.
Abby stared at Evan. Rain had soaked through his coat and darkened his blue Oxford shirt in uneven patches, the fabric clinging to his chest and arms. There was a physicality to him in that moment—his mass, his proximity, the bluntness of his stance—she had never seen before.
Hudson noticed it too, but he misread it, seeing only opportunity to deflect blame.