Page 6 of Seduced in Ink

Guy smiled, and Madison just blinked, grateful that she wasn’t drinking anything or she would have likely choked.

“Excuse me?” Madison asked, confused, angry, and really fucking worried.

“Honey, you’re fat. No one is going to love you. Or even want you. And while I understand that that is a curse on our family now, we have found a way to get you to the next stage of your life. As I said, this is Guy. He comes from good, respected family stock, has a great job, and will take you in hand. He is going to be the man you marry.”

Madison just blinked, confused, horror sliding over her. Her mother had called her those things before. But marriage?

What. The. Fuck?

“What?” Madison gasped.

“Don’t worry. It happens all the time. There are still arranged marriages these days. We found you the perfect match because, apparently, you’ve been spending too much time on whatever you’ve been baking,”—baking being code for eating, no doubt. After all, her mother was never subtle—“to find yourself a man.”

“No. You can’t just tell me who I’m going to marry.”

“Do not embarrass me,” her mother whispered.

“You’re the one who’s embarrassing me.”

“You will do this. For once in your life, you will do what I tell you and make us proud. Do not be such a disappointment.”

Before Madison could say anything, before she could truly understand what was happening, an arm slid around her waist and squeezed her hip. She froze, knowing that touch.

Remembering that touch.

“Madison, baby, there you are.” And then Aaron Montgomery kissed the side of her temple and grinned down at her.

Madison blinked up at him, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“Excuse me,” her mother snapped. “This is a private conversation.”

Madison looked up as Aaron raised a single brow. “Not too private, considering I could overhear you,” he growled. Although his voice sounded completely pleasant, Madison heard the warning there.

“Aaron,” she whispered.

“No, no, Madison. I think it’s time we stop holding our secrets back.”

Confused, she just looked up at him.

“Secret?” her mother snapped. Like always, her father simply stood there, quiet.

Madison felt like she should hate them both. But they were her parents. She had tried for so long to be good for them. To understand why they hated her so much.

But it was a lost cause.

“I wanted to talk to you both first,” Aaron began. “But I asked, and she said yes. Madison and I are getting married.”

Madison blinked, her brain going blank. Her mother gasped, and her father looked nonplussed.

“Married?” her mother whispered, her tone incredulous.

“Married.” Aaron looked down at Madison and grinned.

He was such a good actor. Madison saw the warmth in his eyes, even slightly doused by the anger that was also there. “I’m going to marry your daughter, Mrs. McClard. And that means that guy over there? He’s not needed.”

“Madison, this can’t be true.”

Madison heard the anger in her mother’s tone. Knew her mom thought that Aaron could never want a girl like Madison. She braced for the words.