She slept in a guest room.

The last eighteen hours have been filled with turmoil. We haven’t had a chance to speak about what really matters. Us. The future. On the boat, I would have sworn that we had one, as soon as I cut my father out of my life. Now, I’m left uncertain once again. Was it just about the money? It can’t be.

You have to put your heart on the line, Cameron. You made assumptions once, and it led to nine years of pain. Don’t repeat the same mistakes.

“Would you like to come to the hospital?” I ask her as we eat an early morning breakfast. Just cereal and toast, because I’m far too exhausted to cook this morning. I’ve had less than three hours sleep, and I feel like a zombie. “I called them as soon as I woke up. Aunt Emily woke up briefly last night. They’re allowing visitors.”

She nods quickly. “That’s good news, isn’t it?” she asks cautiously. “That they’re letting people see her?”

“I think so. Dr. Sharma was optimistic when I spoke to her.”

“You spoke to the doctor?” She gulps down the rest of her coffee, and carries the mug to the sink. “Do doctors normally carry on phone conversations with relatives of their patients?”

I shrug. “I donated twenty million dollars to St Michael’s last year. I’m sure the money helps.”

Her gaze softens. “You did?”

“They had a fundraiser for heart disease.”

“And your mother died of a heart attack.” She walks up to me. Standing on tiptoe, she kisses me on the cheek. “You’re a good person, Cameron Drake.”

I wish I was. My father preyed on my fears and separated us. The weight of the guilt I feel my role in the failure of our relationship crushes down on me. Never again, I vow silently. Maddie is the most important person in my life. I’m never going to forget it again.  

Emily isn’t alone when we walk in. My grandfather greets Maddie with pleasure, but my father sighs in a long-suffering manner. “The doctors want to limit the visitors to just family,” he complains.

“Maddie is family, Joseph,” my grandfather snaps with a frown, and my father subsides, quelled for the moment. “Ryder was here earlier,” he continues. “You just missed him. He went to the cafeteria to get some coffee.”

“I’m sure we’ll run into him.”

Maddie moves to my aunt’s side, inhaling sharply when she takes in Aunt Emily, asleep on the white hospital bed, wires trailing from her arm plugging into softly beeping monitors in the corner of the room. “Her color’s better,” I reassure her. “You didn’t see her yesterday. Trust me, she’s definitely showing signs of improvement.”

My father nods in agreement. “Dr. Sharma was just in here. She left to do her rounds, but she’ll stop by again in a couple hours. Cameron, are you staying?”

I want to have it out with my father, right here, right now, but I hold on to my control. Now is not the time. “We both are.” I stifle a yawn. “Is there some place where we can sit?”

“There’s a private waiting room next door that they’ve put at our disposal,” my grandfather replies. “If you two are going to be here for a few hours, would you mind if I go home and rest?”

I keep forgetting he’s an old man. I watch him walk to the door with unsteady feet, leaning on the walking stick in his hand. “Get some sleep, grandpa,” I tell him quietly. “Maddie and I will watch Emily, and we’ll call you if something changes.”

“I’ll come with you, dad,” my father says. “I could use some shut-eye myself.”

Again, I have to bite back my caustic words with difficulty. My father had only been in the hospital for an hour yesterday, maintaining that it was pointless to sit at Emily’s bedside when she was unconscious. He was in bed at eleven. If Joseph Drake is worried for his sister, you wouldn’t know it from his behavior.

The two of them leave and Maddie and I settle down in the waiting room. “Cam, I have to ask you something,” Maddie blurts out after a few minutes of silence, anxiety writ large on her face. “Do you still want to buy the cottage? Do you still need me to pretend to be your fiancée? Or are we done?”

“I beg your pardon.” An outraged voice cuts through the air, and I look up to see my grandfather in the doorway, my father hovering behind him. “You’re pretending to be engaged so you can buy the cottage?” My grandfather’s face is red with rage. “How dare you, Cameron? How dare you try to swindle me this way? You wanted the cottage so badly that you’d resort to lying to me?”

“Oh my God.” Maddie covers her mouth, looking like she’s going to be sick. Her face turns white. She rises to her feet, her movement unsteady and jerky. “Cameron,” she turns to me with a distraught expression on her face. “I’m so sorry.”

It doesn’t matter, Maddie. But it’s too late. Even as I open my mouth to tell her that I couldn’t care less about the cottage, she ducks past my grandfather and my father, and she flees.

“Cameron?” my grandfather repeats, entering the room, his voice icy. “Explain yourself. Did you really hire that woman to impersonate your fiancée?”

“And of all people you could have picked, you chose Maddie Morland?” my father interjects. “What a mistake. That woman is like a leech. Once she gets her claws in you, she’ll suck you dry. People like her are only interested in money, Cam. You should know that by now.”

My temper, hanging on by a mere thread, snaps. “Shut up,” I snarl to my father. “I’ll deal with you in a moment.” I turn to my grandfather. “Yes, I asked Maddie to pretend to be my fiancée. I had to. You were all set to sell to Ryder, to force your own daughter to move out of her home.”

I’m suddenly tired of all the bullshit. “You don’t value your own family,” I tell him quietly. “Emily sneaked out one night and got in a car accident, and you’ve punished her all her life because of it. She ceased to matter the instant she defied you.”

My grandfather goes white with shock. I’m not done. “And you,” I lash out at my father. “God, the fucking apple didn’t fall far from the tree, did it? Nine years ago, you drove away the only woman I’ve ever been in love with. You told me she’d taken your money, and fool that I was, I believed you. I fell for every single word.”

For too long, I’ve done the right thing by my family. My grandfather has treated Emily like a second-class citizen her entire life; I’ve never challenged him. My father’s shown me in a thousand ways that he has no moral compass; I’ve given him a place to live.

I’m through. I care about Aunt Emily, but the rest of my family are on their own. I give my father a withering look. “You had to know there would be consequences if I ever found out the truth. I want you out of my house within the week.”

The weight that presses down on me seems to fall away as I cut the cord on my toxic parent. “Sell the cottage to Ryder if you want,” I tell my grandfather. “I don’t give a damn anymore.”

“I don’t want it.” Ryder’s standing in the doorway, an expression of disgust on his face. “I heard the whole sordid thing.” He shudders. “My entire life, I had to deal with my father’s bullshit. Zoe got pregnant and I thought I could move past it. Children need family, I told myself.” He shakes his head vehemently. “No child of mine is going to grow up in such a toxic environment. Cam, I’m sorry. Had I known, I wouldn’t have tried to buy the cottage.”

“Not your fault.” I push the men with only one thought on my mind. I need to find Maddie. She’s out there, beating herself up because my grandfather found out about the cottage. I need to tell her I love her. Nothing else matters.

Ryder follows me to the corridor. “I’m really sorry,” he repeats. “Find me if you ever need to exchange notes on horrible fathers. Mine cheated on my mother, got another woman pregnant, and never took responsibility for the child, my sister Gigi.” There’s a pensive look on his face. “Gigi wants nothing to do with the Drakes. I’m beginning to think that she’s a lot smarter than I am.”

“At this moment, I have to agree with her.”

“You love Maddie, don’t you?” he asks. “It wasn’t just a ruse for the cottage.”

“I don’t think it was ever a ruse,” I confess. “On the surface, I might have convinced myself of that, but deep down…” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Deep down, it was always Maddie. It will always be Maddie.”

“Then go after her, man.” There’s exasperation in his voice. “Why on earth are you here talking to me?”

With heroic effort, I refrain from pointing out to my cousin that he was the one who started the conversation. Giving him a wave, I sprint to the exit.

Glancing into the open door of my aunt’s hospital room as I pass it, I notice something that freezes the blood in my veins. My grandfather’s slumped in a chair at my aunt’s bedside, gazing at his daughter with a troubled expression on his face. But my father is nowhere to be seen.

Fuck. Things are bad enough with Maddie. The fate of our relationship rests on a knife’s edge. If Joseph Drake managed to sneak out while I was talking to Ryder, there’s no telling the damage he might do. And this time around, there won’t be any second chances.