Chapter 8 - The Son He Almost Lost
Charles stepped from the shadows.
Madison didn't move.
Rachel quietly reached for her phone.
Charles noticed.
“Don't.”
A gun appeared in his hand.
Madison stared at the father she'd mourned for eight years.
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to correct a mistake.”
“I’m your daughter.”
“You chose Carter.”
“I married him.”
“You gave him an heir.”
Madison understood.
This had never been revenge alone.
It was obsession.
Charles had spent years reducing human beings to pieces on a board.
Vanessa.
Madison.
Vincent.
Even Ethan.
“You're sick.”
Charles smiled.
“No. I'm patient.”
Madison's phone vibrated.
Vincent.
Charles took it.
“He always comes for you now.”
“Too late.”
Charles studied her.
“You want him punished.”
“I wanted a husband.”
For the first time, Charles's smile disappeared.
“You sound like your mother.”
“Good.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Charles turned.
Madison moved.
She struck his wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Rachel kicked it away.
Vincent came through the door.
Charles reached for another weapon.
Vincent tackled him.
The fight lasted seconds.
Vincent could have killed him.
Madison saw it in his face.
“Vincent!”
He stopped.
Police arrived moments later.
Charles Bennett was arrested alive.
That mattered to Madison.
She didn't want vengeance.
She wanted evidence.
A trial.
Truth.
The hospital employee Charles had bribed confessed.
Medication had been deliberately altered during Madison's labor, increasing her risk of hemorrhage.
Vincent heard the confession beside her.
He went pale.
“If I'd been there—”
“Don't.”
“I should have been.”
“Yes.”
“I could have—”
“You don't get to make my survival about your guilt.”
Vincent nodded.
She appreciated that.
Weeks passed.
Ethan grew stronger.
The divorce moved forward.
Vincent visited his son according to Madison's schedule.
No guards inside.
No business calls.
No Vanessa.
Just Vincent and Ethan.
One afternoon, Madison returned early and found Vincent asleep in the chair.
Ethan rested against his chest.
Vincent's hand protected the baby's tiny back even in sleep.
Madison stood in the doorway longer than she intended.
Her feelings hadn't disappeared.
That was the cruel part.
Love could survive where trust couldn't.
Her phone buzzed.
Rachel.
We found the missing account.
Madison opened the attached statement.
$312 million.
Account holder:
Madison Carter.
She had never seen it before.
Then she saw who had authorized every deposit.
Vincent.
But the first deposit had been made six years before their marriage.
Madison stared at the date.
Impossible.
She called Rachel.
“What is this?”
“I don't know.”
Madison enlarged the original account-opening document.
The beneficiary line contained her maiden name.
Madison Bennett.
And beneath it was a handwritten instruction:
For the woman Vincent Carter will marry.
Madison looked toward the sleeping man holding her son.
Then she noticed the signature.
May you like
It wasn't Vincent's.
It belonged to his father.
