Room-maid(86)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I couldn’t process what was happening. My dad was there, in a tux.

And so was Tyler.

They were together. And Tyler worked for my father’s company? Why hadn’t he told me? An unsteady pulse started throbbing against my right temple.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Madison?” Tyler sounded confused. “What are you doing here?”

My mother was in her element. “And then we come to the matter of your apartment. Frederica was more than happy to show you the worst possible places to stay so that when an opportunity became available with one of our most valued employees, well, we liked the comfort of knowing that you’d be looked after.”

The apartment? Pigeon?

Tyler?

They’d had a hand in all that? Was I actually in control of any part of my life? I’d walked into all their traps, trusting and unknowing.

Naive, as my mother had said. She had a cold, calculating grin on her face. Like a viper who’d been lying in wait for the perfect time to strike.

And she’d found it.

But Tyler? How could he have agreed to be part of this? My heart wrenched painfully.

“Why?” I asked him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but my mother was faster. “Why else? For the promotion we gave him.”

A ringing started in my ears as blood rushed into my heart, making it beat faster and faster until I felt like my chest was going to explode. All that time, when I was trusting him and trying to respect him and his rules and be his friend, all that time he’d been deceiving me?

For that stupid promotion?

That he had lied to me, tricked me, was bad enough. That he’d made me think he might have feelings for me and wanted us to be in a relationship was terrible. But that he’d allied himself with my mother?

That was a betrayal I would never be able to get over.

She’d won. My mother had promised to make me regret my choices, and she had. She had ruined everything in my life that meant anything to me.

It was all lies.

I grabbed my skirts and I ran. I heard Tyler calling my name, but I ignored him. I had to get out. Get away from all the people in this room who thought they knew better than me. That I was too stupid to make my own decisions. That they needed to be in control of me, watching over me, deciding how I spent my time and who with.

He caught up to me in the front hall, reaching for my wrist. “Madison, wait. I didn’t know the Huntingtons were your parents.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It’s okay. You can stop lying to me now. I know everything.”

“I’m telling you, it’s the truth. None of what she told you back there is real.”

“Which part? That my desperate aunt arranged all this for money? Tricking me by taking me to horrible apartments I couldn’t bear to live in so that your place would seem like paradise? Or that you were willing to put me up in your place for free so that you could get your precious promotion? Did you have a good laugh with my mother over making me clean when I had no idea what I was doing? Was pretending to want me and kissing me part of the deal, too? So you could make sure I wouldn’t move out?”

“No! I kissed you . . . because . . .” He ran his fingers through his hair, showing me his frustration. “Because I was falling in love with you. I’m in love with you. And I shouldn’t have kissed you, because you had a boyfriend that you’ve been with for eight years. The first time the two of you had just broken up and I was such a hypocrite to make a move, especially after I instituted that stupid rule that we couldn’t be together.”

My breaking heart wanted to mend, to rejoice that he loved me, that he had been trying to be a gentleman and not make a move on someone he thought was vulnerable. Problem was, I didn’t believe him. I was so truly sick of being lied to and manipulated and, seriously, Tyler would choose this very moment to confess his undying love? “Did my dad put you up to that part? The rule? Because that sounds like him.”

“How could you think me capable of any of this?”

Now it was Oksana’s words that filled my head. That Tyler was ruthless and ambitious. That he wasn’t the good guy or the hero of my story. That I knew if this was Brad who’d been caught in the lie, he’d be doing the same exact things Tyler was trying to do right now. Distract me with protests of love. Claim he hadn’t known what was happening. Deny everything he’d done.

“Look.” Now he sounded desperate. “I told you about my promotion. From the beginning. We celebrated it. Why would I do that if I’d gotten it in exchange for hurting you? If I were trying to trick you, I wouldn’t have said a word about it.”

How did he expect me to believe that? How was I supposed to see him as anything but another lackey willing to do anything my parents wanted in order to achieve his goals? “Or you did that to throw me off the scent. How did you never tell me where you worked?”

“It wasn’t intentional! Sometimes those things don’t come up. Like you never once said who your parents were. You never said their names.”

Was that true? I couldn’t remember. “You know my last name!”

“You aren’t the only family named Huntington!” His voice softened. “I didn’t make the connection. You’re just Madison to me. My Madison.”