116\u2013The Guest Who Hurt Me\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madeline:\u00a0<\/p>\n
We arrived home after dropping off Sawyer, and as the news had said, the storm settled in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sat with a coffee mug in front of me, my hand in my hair and my eyes on the files.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlpha Graham is here,\u201d Nina informed as she walked upstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I did not understand why Graham had come, so I told Nina to let him in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was sitting at the table on the second floor, working, when Nina went downstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a while, Graham stepped up. He looked worried.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I started to wonder if something new had happened with the sickness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been thinking about the case myself,\u201d I mentioned it to Graham as I watched him wander toward me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was out on the terrace because I wanted fresh air while I thought about the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been thinking about talking to you for a while but I kind of talked myself out of it. But when your husband showed up, I knew I had to do it,\u201d he stated, already making me tense with the way he spoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, go ahead. What is it?\u201d I replied, leaning back on the sofa and watching him settle across from me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His eyes were on the floor, and his hands were held tightly together, as if he truly needed to have this talk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d he uttered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, I do not understand. What are you trying to say?\u201d I wondered, noticing how anxious he looked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard about Sawyer cheating on you,\u201d he told me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As soon as he said that, I dropped the pen on the table and leaned back, giving him an exhausted look.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you all focusing on my and Sawyer\u2019s relationship?\u201d I remarked as he adjusted himself in the seat again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you know that he is cheating on you?\u201d Graham questioned, this time not hesitating to give me a firm look.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Graham, Elgin had a misunderstanding,\u201d I replied through my clenched teeth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the fact is that Elgin is an alpha, and I am sure he did not see it wrong. Anyway, the point is that I cannot imagine my daughter staying under the same roof with a man who is such a cheater,\u201d he stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Graham finally spoke what had been bothering him, and I clicked my tongue, letting him know immediately that I did not like his tone or the way he talked about my family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it has nothing to do with you, Graham. Sawyer is an amazing husband and a better father than any of you could have ever been. If I had known you would come here and talk about him like this, I would not have even let you in,\u201d I responded bitterly, making it clear he could not step into my home and speak poorly of my husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave you a choice, Madeline,\u201d Graham retorted, which made me twitch my eyes in confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I could not remember what choice he meant, he began to explain it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
116 The Guest Who Hurt Me\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you I am ready to take full responsibility for you,\u201d he stated, making me shake my head to be sure I heard him correctly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d I asked softly, trying to understand where he was going before I called him out for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou heard me. Madeline, I want to accept you in my life. You and your children, our children. Why do you want to tolerate that man who is openly cheating on you in your own home?\u201d he replied, shocking me with his bluntness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not think you understand what you are saying. I am a married woman. You are a married man. And what made you think I would want to go back to you?\u201d I demanded sternly. \u201cBefore you say you had a reason to shut me out of your life last time, it is the past now. I have no such feelings for you. I do not want to be in a relationship with you,\u201d I continued, taking a clearer stand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched him. His jaw clenched visibly as he nodded and tightened his fists before releasing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I sacrificed myself for you and you just fell out of love with me?\u201d he questioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His voice sounded like he was trying to pressure me, as if he wanted me to take my words back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGraham, I was never in love with you. It was a foolish crush. And I am not upset about it because I did get beautiful children out of it. But that is all. I do not want you. I do not want you in my life like that,\u201d I replied, making myself clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it seemed he had more to say, because the moment I gave him my decision, he let out a sarcastic chuckle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was pain in his laughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, seriously, you are right. So you betray me, you take keys from me, explore my father\u2019s office, steal files, and then I pay for your crime with a five\u2013year punishment of being stuck in a marriage I did not want. And now you get to tell me that you are just over me. Marvelous,\u201d he commented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pain in his voice made my heart skip a beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd before you say it was just a crush, what do you say about our mate bond? Does that not mean anything to you either?\u201d he asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His fingers tapped on the hard surface of the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I did not know what he wanted to hear, but I was becoming very uncomfortable with the conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It seemed he noticed, because he started to laugh again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWow, Madeline. Fine. So here is what is going to happen. I am going to need my daughter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For a moment, I did not even understand what he meant. It felt like I was hearing a distorted melody.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was having a hard time swallowing his threat that seemed brutal and unhinged at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
116\u2013The Guest Who Hurt Me\u00a0 Madeline:\u00a0 We arrived home after dropping off Sawyer, and as the news had said, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-daddy-novel-by-novelnozi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19317,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112\/revisions\/19317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}