Page 57 of Ruin Me
“Ife, wait in the study. I’ll explain what you need to know, but allow us to get dressed first.” I pointed her toward the room.
Although my daughter stayed our family home whenever she visited, she worked with the designers who decorated the penthouses. Once she stomped down the corridor, I turned to Madison. She seemed frozen as if a hellish scene played out in front of her.
I cupped her cheek until she focused on me. Guilt and shame filled her eyes and she stared at my chin instead of looking at me directly.
“Little bunny, we knew she’d find out eventually.”
“Not like this. Never like this. What are we going to do?” Tears welled up on Madison’s lashes before sliding down the sides of her face and into her hair.
“I’m going to talk to her. Make her understand.” I stood and pulled Madison from the sofa. “And you are going to put someclothes on and wipe the guilty look off your face. You have nothing to be sorry for, and Ife can be reasonable.”
“Okay,” Madison said in the smallest voice I’d ever heard from her. I pushed her toward the bedroom, but she stopped and picked up our discarded clothes.
I helped, putting on mine in a rush before heading toward the study. Ife, my baby girl who wasn’t a child anymore, paced the study and wiped her face. She reminded me so much of her mother. From the her deep brown complexion to the way she stomped whenever someone or thing frustrated her. This time I was the source of her problems.
I entered the room. “Ife…”
She swung around and pointed toward the door behind me. “What was that, and don’t tell me it wasn’t what I think it was. I heard… How long has this been going on behind my back?”
I leveled her with a pitying stare. “First, you aren’t a child so I know you understand what you saw. Second, only guilty people would say to someone without vision problems they didn’t see something they clearly did.” I reached out my arms to capture her shoulders and hold her still because she continued to tread back and forth.
She evaded my hold with a grimace.
“Third, I never intended to hide my relationship?—”
“Relationship? No, whatever is between you two is not a relationship.”
“Are you going to listen or interrupt everything I say?”
“When what you’re saying isn’t making sense, of course I’m going to chime in and tell you about yourself.”
“You obviously have some things you want to get off your chest before you’ll allow me to respond.” Despite the anger flooding my veins, I folded my arms and sat on a leather-bound chair to patiently wait her out.
The moment was already fraught with high emotions. I channeled the skills I used as a CEO whenever conflicts arose at the company that I was willing to handle with more logic. Although whenever Madison was involved, I tended to lead with my feelings, doing so in this instance would hurt my daughter.
“Why her? Why Mads? You could have any woman in the world.” Ife looked expectantly at me, but I refused to add flames to our argument until she got all her bile out. She huffed and rolled her eyes, probably remembering other disagreements we had where I used this tactic.
“I never said anything when you hoed yourself around and became community dick?—”
“Don’t disrespect me just because you’re mad. I’m still your father, whether or not you agree with my choices.”
“Fine! I never objected with the other women you were with because I knew you were lonely after Mom died, but… Mads is different. She was mine first. My best friend. My safe space. Why’d you have to take her from me when I needed?—”
“I haven’t taken her from you, sweetheart. Madison will always?—”
“You just don’t get it, do you? When you dump her like the others, how am I supposed to act around her?”
My face firmed and the fierceness I felt at the possibility of a life without Madison must have escaped and been visible on my face because Ife reared back.
“No. You can’t be serious.”
“There will be no dumping Madison. I will mar?—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence. You can’t expect me to accept your relationship as if everything is normal when it can never be the same.” Ife shook her head, her pacing became more erratic as she mumbled, “Whatever fever dream you two are in can’t be serious. She just got here. There’s still time to end it before it’s too late, and maybe just maybe there will besomething to salvage between us.” She stopped and turned, a feverish light in her eyes. “That’s it. You end this… nonsense now. I’ll try my best to forget I walked in on what I walked in on and heard what I heard. She’ll go back to D.C. and things will eventually return to normal.”
I frowned, very opposed to the idea of Madison going anywhere without me. “And what happens when she returns to Douglas?”
“Why would she? She avoided coming here for years. She stopped visiting her parents once, she can do it again.”