Eleven p.m. Her mother would be getting ready for bed. Madelaine dialed her number.
“Hello, my darling. Nice night? Why are you calling me?”
“Because you started to say something about marrying for love. Didn’t you love dad or something?”
Carol waited a beat then burst out laughing. “Of course I loved your dad. But I was talking about Liam and me.”
“What?”
“How long have Liam and I been seeing each other? Nearly ten years in case you don’t know.”
“Yes, okay. Where is this going?”
“There’s a reason why we haven’t married before now. It’s all to do with Petny’s will. And Liam wanting to make things right for Troy, especially because his brother died as well as his mother.”
Madelaine was quiet.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
Carol sighed down the line. “And now with the deadline looming, Liam feels very anxious that Troy honours the stipulation for his own good.”
“And why hasn’t Troy done that before now?”
“Don’t know. Being a bloke, I suppose. Or just never found the right girl. Or maybe he just plain resisted because he didn’t want to play the game. I don’t know. I know Troy only from a distance, not at all like Liam knows you.” Carol paused again. “If Troy marries, then Liam and I will get married after that.”
Madelaine’s heart strings tugged. “But why have you waited?”
“I love Liam, Madds. You know that. We hadn’t been able to ‘come out’, if you like, while Petny was alive because after Angie and Marc died, he’d threatened to strike Troy out of his will if Liam so much as looked at anyone else. When the old boy died, we were so used to meeting at my place, and hardly ever going to Liam’s it just stayed that way.” Carol sighed again, then stifled a yawn, and apologised. “It’s been a long road, Madds. I can understand why Liam has waited, and now he feels it’s only right to get Troy married before he can finally have some happiness again as well. We’re happy, it’s just that we’d like to be married-happy.”
Madelaine went quiet.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Carol said.
“Yeah?”
“You’re thinking that now there’s not only Troy to get over the line, there’s Liam and me as well.”
“I’ve got a big job all of a sudden.”
“Madds. Sleep on it some more. There’s still time. If you don’t want to go through with it, Liam isn’t going to hold it against you.”
Madelaine was silent again.
“Don’t feel pressured, Madelaine. It was put to you as a business choice, not an emotional one. I’m sorry it seems calculated and mercenary, but it is what it is.” Carol waited a moment. “You won’t be letting anyone down if you decide not to go ahead with it.”
“Only Troy. Losing him his sixty-five million.”
“Well, he seemed set to blow that all by himself before Liam even thought of you. Don’t go there, Madelaine.”
“And then there’s you and Liam!”
“Everyone—me, Liam, Troy will be just fine if you decide against it.”
“Why do I feel as if I’m the only one carrying this whole thing? It’s wrong.”
“It surprised you, that’s all, and it’s a big ask, I know, but nothing’s being forced on you.”
“Mum, it means I’m marrying a man in less than three months, someone I’ve known for just on a month, who gets a zillion dollars on our wedding night and you don’t think that makes me feel bad?”
“Don’t yell, sweetheart. Have you talked to Troy about it?”
Madelaine wanted to yell some more. Instead she spoke through her teeth. “He doesn’t know yet.”
Carol groaned. “Oh, I see. All right. Get off the phone. I’m ringing Liam.”
“Mum…”
“If we’re all to be one big happy family, the bridegroom needs to know he’s in the mix. Goodnight, my darling, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
And Carol hung up. Madelaine stared at the phone in her hand. Bridegroom.
Her world was going crazy. She’d been approached to have an injection of cash for her business only to learn that…well, really, that she was being lined up like a medieval bride bartered for a bunch of coins.
A big bunch of coins, she conceded. But it didn’t make her happy.
For God’s sake, all she wanted was a bit of a cash injection…
Now she was going to marry a man she was hugely attracted to…it was just that he didn’t know she was going to marry him.
And that would blow any real chances of loving Troy Charles and having him love her back.
For God’s sake, she wanted to love first then marry. And love him. She was headed there anyway, she thought.
Marrying him first before love would blow it, sure as anything. That’s not how it’s done. Not how she wanted it to go.
He’d resent it. He’d be trapped. If they had any chance it would be blown out of the water now.
She sat on the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands.
What to do now? What to do?
She pulled her top off over her head, ditched her capris, her undies and bra and headed for the bathroom and a shower. She tried not to think as the hot water cascaded over her.
She soaped up, shampooed, rinsed, toweled off, and padded back into the bedroom to slide under the bedcovers.
She pulled the whole lot over her head and muffled a scream.
What the fuck was she going to do?