Drew woke up to missed calls and messages. All from his uncle. Guessed Aiden's editor friend had published the press release Aiden sent her last night.After the "wedding breakfast", they had all gathered in his office and crafted the perfect press release that sold the story they wanted everyone to believe. Well, it had been Aiden that had done most of the crafting while he and Madeline laughed, cringed and told him outright nos.Let the games begin.Ignoring the notifications on his phone, he rolled off the bed and walked into the bathroom. When he was done with his ablutions, he headed out and found Madeline in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee and looking absolutely too pretty for seven am in the morning.She smiled at him and he had to fight the urge to walk over to her and see what her breath tasted like in the morning."Hey, good morning."He smiled back. "Good morning. Slept well?""Like a baby." She let out a soft sigh. "The bed is heavenly."He poured himself a cup of cof

Maddie stood back as Drew opened the door to admit his uncle and cousin in. Left to her, she would be in the kitchen, but Drew had insisted on her being by his side when he welcomed Rich and Maxwell.She understood the need to present a happy-to-have-you front, but she would have preferred that Drew and only Drew handled them.Rich was dressed so impeccably in a navy blue suit — and who wore suit to an informal dinner with family? — his salt and pepper hair neatly combed back, not a strand out of place. His icy blue eyes swept her form from head to toe and without a word looked away from her in dismissal. "Drew."Rich reminded her of an ambush predator's. Patient and calculative. She couldn't place her finger on why, but she disliked him already.The sound of a catcall jerked her attention away from the sterile greeting between uncle and nephew to where a younger man stood just outside the door."How were you able to snag such a sexy lady, cuz?" The younger man's eyes swept her form b

Maddie opened her eyes and immediately shut them in a cringe. Today was the day she and Drew went on their honeymoon.All for the sake of presenting and maintaining a particular front to the public. This act of pretending apparently cost more than she bargainned for.Even though they would be sleeping in separate bedrooms, they still had to take pictures of them doing stuff — romantic stuff — together, all to be uploaded on their Instagram accounts. Because, yowza! they were public figures, which meant the public were curious about them. And yes, it had been Aiden who had given the lecture.Drew had jumped onboard immediately. This was just another step in achieving operation "save McBride Foods."For her, not so much.There was something about creating a make-believe. The more you created it, the further you entrenched yourself in it and no longer could you tell apart what was real and what wasn't.And she didn't want that.She didn't want to be caught up in how wonderful he could b

Maddie didn't know what to do with Drew anymore.Every morning since they came back from their honeymoon, she woke up to a gift by her bedside table. She ought to be angry at the infringement of privacy, but she had to admit, it was quite sweet.Each gift was accompanied by a card containing a handwritten poem — who knew the rich boy had so many talents?The first gift had been a bracelet of different precious stones. It's poem had read:Eyes as green as the meadowHeart as vast as the oceanHard to learn, but once gottenRemains a loyal friend forever.This morning's had been a loose gown made with Burano lace and a simple but elegant gold necklace. It's poem had been about how she should be draped with the world's finest because she was the finest woman he had ever met.When she brought up the gifts in their conversations, his answers was always either, "friends give each other gifts" or "you are my woman and my father taught me to take care the woman I call mine." And he always thr

Slowly, Maddie recounted the recent happenings; how Maxwell seemed to always appear wherever she went. She made sure she emphasized how she discouraged him every time he asked her to grab a cup of coffee with him.When she got to the part of that day, Drew walked to the window, looked out through it for some minutes and then walked back to her. His eyes were eerily calm. "Don't gloss over what he said, Madeline. Tell me word for word."She glanced at Aiden. Aiden nodded. Taking a quick breath in, she told them what Maxwell said. Word for word, just like he asked.When she was done the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Drew pacing wildly."I promise you, Drew, I did nothing to encourage him. I left immediately…""I'm not mad at you, Madeline. I'm mad at that Maxwell. God!" He growled. He dug his hands into his hair and pulled it from it's root. "The bastard insulted my wife, Aiden. My wife. He had the guts to…I going to kill him.""Calm down, Drew." Aiden said."Don't tell