Chapter Four

Three weeks later

Maddox woke with a loud groan. It felt as though a semi had plowed into him.

Repeatedly.

“You’re awake. Excellent,” a nurse said, appearing at his bedside. She took his vitals and smiled. “I’ll notify Dr. Swansea.” The nurse practically bolted from the room.

“What? Doctor?” He attempted to lift his head, but the pain rocketing through it forced him back down. “Bloody fucking hell.” Grabbing the side of his head in an attempt to ease the agony, he smacked himself in the face with tubes. There was an IV stuck into the side of his hand. How much had he had to drink last night? He closed his eyes and attempted to piece together the night before.

“Maddox... Oh thank God, you’re okay.” Cool fingers touched his face, and he opened his eyes.

A veritable angel stood at his bedside. Love swelled for her, for this woman who was now his wife. He couldn’t believe his luck. Couldn’t believe that she was really his. “Cadence, my love.”

She gave him a sweet smile, but her bottom lip trembled and her lovely eyes were rimmed with dark shadows, as if she’d been crying for hours. “I was so worried.” Pressing a kiss to his cheek, she stayed close to him for a moment. Her light floral scent washed over him, but his chest hurt too damn much to breathe it in like he wanted.

“Why am I in here?” he asked.

Cadence lowered her gaze, hiding her normally playful hazel eyes from him. “There was an accident.”

His heart thumped against his chest, the monitors beeping like crazy. “Go on.”

“You, Jude, and Finn... the driver lost control and rammed the side of St. David’s. Y’all were celebrating the Blue’s win. I wasn’t there because, well, I was home and working... and we still haven’t told our parents about what we’ve done,” she said.

“Son of a bitch,” he breathed. “And the others?” Please let them be okay, he prayed. Please.

“Jude... he’s hurt really bad.” Cadence began to cry. “They don’t know if he’ll ever walk again, and he refuses to see anyone because of his bandages. The doctors insist the scars he sustained might permanent, but that cosmetic surgery could help. Of course, Jude told them to sod off.”

Cold fear ran through him. He remembered getting into his car, but he wasn’t sure if he’d sat on the passenger side or not because when he was drunk, he forgot shit like that. Spending equal time in the States and in Scotland as he grew up had always messed with his head. It was something Jude had found incredibly funny.

“How do you not remember something so fantastically easy?” Jude said, his blue-eyed gaze full of amusement. “It’s due to all the balls hitting that hard head of yours, isn’t it?”

Maddox rolled his eyes. “What’s your excuse?”

“Breasts. Glorious, big-breasted beauties bouncing in my lap.” Jude grinned. “An actor’s life is hard, mate, but I manage to thrive.”

“And Finn?”

“He walked away without a scratch. Apparently, he was sitting in the back of the car.” She gave him a watery smile. “Lucky him, huh?”

For some reason, that didn’t sound correct to Maddox, but he couldn’t argue with what they’d found. “Aye. I don’t remember driving, my love.”

Cadence bit her lip. “Jude was thrown from the car, but you and Finn... you were in the driver’s seat. I know you didn’t mean to hurt my brother, but... I don’t know what to do. My parents are—well, you know how Romanovs are about the ones they love, and they want to press charges. Your parents... They love you and—it’s hard because they love Jude, too. But no one is speaking to each other, and... I’m not even supposed to be in here. They... no one knows I have a right to be here. Your parents are on their way and mine...” She let out a cry of despair, and his world closed in on him. “I can’t choose between y’all. I just can’t, but I—”

“Get out,” he said as the doctor walked into the room. “Get out now.” The doctor immediately did an about-face. “Fuck me. I wasn’t talking to you.”

Confusion collided with despair on her face. “What? You want me to leave? After...”

He wouldn’t make her choose between him and her brother. Jude was blood, and he was... He shook his head. He was nothing to her, not anymore. Cadence was kindhearted and sweet. Whatever lay ahead would destroy them. Since he was twenty-eight to her twenty-three, that made him the older and wiser one of the relationship.

Though it physically hurt him, he shoved her away. She stumbled backward, catching herself against a chair in the corner.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I said get out! I don’t want your bloody pity, and you won’t get a fucking thing out of me to share with your parents. Their lawyers can sort everything,” he roared. “What happened between us is over.”

“Don’t do this,” she whispered, her face as white as bone. “I didn’t come in here to—”

“Leave, Cadence.”

Suddenly, she firmed her shoulders up and nodded. “I’ll give you time to come to your senses, but don’t you dare say we’re over. You’re my bloody husband.”

Hell yes, he was, but when everyone found out, there would be hell to pay. “We’re over,” he flatly replied. “Go to your brother. He needs you. I don’t.”

Liar, a voice in his head screamed. Bloody stupid liar.

With his jaw set, he watched her eyes widen.

For a minute, he thought she would argue with him. Hell, he wanted her to argue with him. He wanted her to tell him she was staying and that, no matter what, they would get through this together.

He couldn’t, though. He’d been the one driving. He’d been the one to hurt her brother—his best mate—so badly their parents were about to come to blows over this. Jude might not ever walk again... and it was all his bloody fault. Not to mention that the press would have a field day with him and Cadence.

Unless a miracle happened.

She didn’t deserve to have to hope for a miracle. She did not deserve what would be said about them both.

“Leave now. If and when I need you, I’ll text you.”

“As you wish, you stupid arse,” was her only reply as she stormed out of the room.

***

Two weeks later

Maddox would change his mind soon. Cadence just knew he would.

He only needed some time, lots of healing, and her love.

Their love.

So she went to his—their—flat and waited for him to call or text while she wrote and worked, and wrote and worked some more.

Only his call never came. Neither did his text. And he never came home. He didn’t show up for rugby practice either. It was as if he disappeared from the planet, which she knew couldn’t be possible because there were legal dealings going on.

With a heavy heart, she met her parents at the new hospital Jude had recently been transferred to. She sighed, checking her phone as the doors opened and discharged patients went home.

“Nothing.”

She slipped her phone into her back pocket and walked inside, waving to the staff as she caught the next elevator to the sixth floor. Her parents were already there, at Jude’s side. Her daddy looked worried and her momma devastated as she fussed over her son’s unconscious form while Waverly resembled a zombie, a beautiful pale zombie without the gore around her mouth.

“How is he?” she asked softly.

Waverly held up his hand, which was joined with hers. “The new pain meds are working.”

“That’s good.”

When no one agreed, she tried again. “That’s good, right?”

“Not really. He’s in a medically induced coma,” her daddy said. “They’re not telling us when he can come out.”

“Is it to manage the pain?” She glanced at her brother’s face. At the scars that traveled down one side of his cheek and neck, all the way to his fingers.

“It’s the only way he can get any relief,” her momma said softly. “I hate seeing him like this.”

As she began to sob, her dad wrapped her in his arms. “Love, he’ll be okay. I swear to it. Whatever needs to be done, no matter the cost, I will make it happen.”

“I know you will, Christian.” Her mom sniffed, burrowing into him like he was her shelter from the storm. Cadence’s heart pinched. It was exactly what Maddox should be doing for her now. He hadn’t been hurt as badly as her brother. To be sure, he should have been discharged by now.

“Everyone who needs to pay will, Zoe. They will pay for hurting our boy.”

Cadence sucked in a breath. “Everyone?” she asked. Not out of loyalty, but her dad took it that way.

“Every bloody one of them.”

“But what if... you mean Maddox, too?”

“Everything indicates he was the one driving.” Her dad let out a weary sigh. “I know Maddox is like family.”

More than you know, she wanted to say, but didn’t.

“I do have an investigator on this because something is off with Finn’s story.” He thumped his chest lightly. “I can feel it.”

She blew out a breath filled with relief. “That’s good. I think Maddox deserves to be considered innocent until proven guilty.”

“Really?” Waverly all but spit at her. “Your brother is in a coma, and all you are worried about is your husband’s reputation?”

“Your what?” her parents asked at the same time.

“My Maddox. You know I’ve always loved him... Can’t we discuss this later, once we know everything?” Cadence started backing up. “I mean, let’s not jump to conclusions.”

Her momma gasped. “Is that an engagement ring and a wedding band?”

Crap. Crap. Crap. How would she get out of this?

“They’re married. I was there.”

Cadence glared at her sister. “Thanks for clarifying.”

“You married Finn?” her momma asked.

“No, Maddox and I got married two months ago.”

“Does his parents know?”

She shook her head. “Only Waverly and Jude.”

“And Uncle Sebastian.”

“But not us. Not the people who raised you and love you...” Her dad shook his head. It was all Cadence could do not to throw herself in his arms and beg for forgiveness. She hated disappointing him and her mom, but she’d always felt like her dad understood her more than her momma. Or maybe he was more indulgent of her ways.

“I do love y’all, but I love Maddox, too.” She sniffed once and then, as if a dam broke, she started to sob. “But he’s pushed me away and said he didn’t mean it.”

“When?” her momma demanded.

“At the hospital after I told him what happened. That everyone was arguing and you blamed him for Jude’s pain.”

“Oh, Lord.” Her momma stood up, crossing the distance between them. “Why did you tell him that, honey? He’d just been in an accident. He’s not thinking straight.”

“Because we tell each other everything, and he’s my husband.” Her momma’s arms came around her, her hand stroking Cadence’s hair while she simply held her. “We made vows. We’re supposed to stay together when things get hard.”

“It’ll be okay, baby. Everything will work out for the best.”

Her dad joined them, hugging them close. “I promise to get to the bottom of it all before anything worse happens to Maddox.”

Cadence glanced at Waverly, who looked sad and apologetic. “Sorry for ratting you out. I’m scared.”

“So am I.” Cadence broke away from their parents and ran to her sister, squeezing her tight. “Don’t push me away. I couldn’t take it if another person I loved did that to me.”

“I promise I won’t,” Waverly said.

Cadence believed her.

Maybe, just maybe, everything would work out for the best. Hopefully, Jude would be able to wake up, pain free... and Maddox would be hers again.