Chapter 8The city truly never slept, but from Eric’s penthouse, Manhattan looked deceptively still. The skyline glittered like it had been strung with diamond, and for a brief, fragile moment, Madine let herself breathe. The glass walls pressed the city up against her skin, dazzling and suffocating all at once.She could still hear his voice in her head, calm and persuasive, the way only Eric knew how to be.“Stay let me protect you both. We can make this work.”He had proposed it the way he might suggest a merger or acquisition… measured, logical, assured. Except this wasn’t business. This was her life. Her daughter’s life.Madine hugged her arms around herself, pacing the length of the living room. She should have laughed in his face. She should have walked away. But when Eric said the word protect, it snagged something deep inside her chest.Because wasn’t that all she’s ever wanted?Pearl’s footsteps pattered behind her. “Mommy?”Madine turned to see her daughter, curls sticking
Chapter 7Madine’s hands shook as she stared at the glowing screen, the blurring together as if her eyes refused to accept them. Her stomach turned to ice.“No… no, no…” she whispered, clicking frantically, but every link she opened only confirmed her nightmare. Headlines screamed from every corner of the internet.“Lawson’s Hidden Daughter?” “Eric Lawson’s Double Life Exposed.” “The Billionaire’s Secret Family.”Her heart slammed against her ribs. She could already feel it spreading. Her colleagues, her boss, everyone in Glasgow would see this.Pearl.Her eyes darted to the couch where her daughter dozed while clutching her bunny tight, blissfully unaware of the firestorm brewing outside. Madine’s throat closed. She couldn’t breathe.“Madine.” Eric’s voice was low, steady, but when she looked up, his jaw was tight, his eyes sharp as steel. He had already seen the headline on her screen.“I have to fix this,” she said, almost to herself, her words breaking. “This… this can ruin everyt
Madine stares into his brown pools for a minute before she steps away from him and takes her hand from his. She coughs nervously before speaking, “I would love to spend the night and save myself the stress of going back to the hotel this late. But I'm still in shock, meeting you again is an experience that has seriously disoriented my person.” She giggles as she says the last part. “I just need to collect myself, away from you.”Eric knows if he lets them walk out of that door tonight, he will regret it. So poses another option. "What if I get someone to drive you to the hotel, you can grab your things and come back here to spend the night? I'm thinking you might not want to be in the same car as me right now, I could get a driver for you. How does that sound?"She thinks about it for a second, she knows that this would make Pearl really happy tomorrow morning, and she can't deny that it puts her mind to rest finally knowing who the mystery man is."Okay, I will spend the night. Could
Eric sits behind his office table looking at the woman who had only been a beautiful memory of his for the past three years, and his daughter.He still couldn't believe he had a child; he never would have imagined that this would be the setting in which he would meet her mother again. But he was grateful regardless, and could not begin to imagine a more perfect situation for them to meet again.The air in the room is tense, they look at each other, eagerly waiting for the other person to speak. Suddenly, Pearl jumps down from her chair and runs over to Eric's side of the table to meet him. Eric picks her up hugs her, and smiles.He looks over at Madine and finally says, “Do you know how many times I went back to that bar?”, with an amused chuckle.Madine is flushed with embarrassment. Memories of the events of that night flood into her mind. The thought that he didn't know anything about what happened that night before they had met crossed her mind. She wants him to understand where h
"Madine? This company has been requesting for an auditing for a year now but our schedule has been very tight. I see you have a week free in your schedule, can you check it out? Moreover, it's a request from the Head office."Madine's direct boss instruct her at work three years after the entire incident. She has pushed it all back into her past and let it stay there. Though there remains a consequence of one of her that stuck.She smiles and nods. "I can take it. Where and when is this job?""East Line Group in New York."Madine's eyes drop ever so slightly. She never even nursed the thought that she would be going back to New York any time soon but she just agreed to the arrangements."It's just a three day trip max and I trust your efficiency. You can get it done in a day or two. It's also at Brooklyn, the heart of New York. You'll even have fun looking around, maybe even revisit those places you used to enjoy going."Madine chuckles.It's at Brooklyn. What could possibly go wrong?
The rays of sunshine the next morning hit Madine's eyes like a spear. She opens her eyes almost comically and everything around her is unfamiliar. She takes a deep breath before standing up.As soon as she does, her breath catches as she sees the breathtaking man sleeping away beside her. His face is like a baby with immense aura of a man. Well, he's a grown man but he's asleep so peacefully, even with a tiny hint of a smile coating his full lips.She remembers vaguely what it was like to get kissed by those lips, getting ravaged by them completely from her head to her legs. She shivers to shake the thoughts away from her head.She picks up all of her clothing from the floor and dresses very silently while worrying about waking him. She successfully makes it out of there, not after taking a picture of the man on the bed.She cocks her head to the side outside as she stares at the picture. "Just for documentation purposes."She hails a taxi and leaves his place just as he opens his eye