Page 17 of The Billionaire's Secret Heir

Chapter Five

Madi arrived home feeling the stress rolling off her body in waves as she packed up snacks and water for an afternoon walk with Becka. Since Calista’s death, strong emotions had been her daily companions. She was grief-stricken, guilty, angry, and, especially when it came to Becka and their future, fearful. The meeting with Beckett had brought on a whole new set of feelings and left her raw and exhausted. Then she and Bret had a heated argument in the parking lot. Hopefully walking would get her endorphins going enough to let go of the darkness hanging over her.

Madi buckled Becka into the jogging stroller. “How about a snack, big girl? I’ve got goldfish for you. Okay?”

“Okay. Fish!”

Madi had grown used to talking to Becka in full sentences, not baby talk. She’d done this since the beginning. It wasn’t intentional, but simply the rhythm she had fallen into. Though Becka didn’t understand everything, she understood a lot and was already very verbal for being almost two. It made Madi feel less lonely throughout the day.

“We’re going to do a long walk today to burn off steam to keep me from going all Hulk smash.”

“Hulk smash!” Becka parroted.

“That’s right. No Hulk.”

“No Hulk.”

No matter how much you want to smash something. Like the headlights on Bret’s car.

Madi had felt slightly uncomfortable about Bret’s help since he had never mentioned payment, but it wasn’t until the meeting today that it became clear that he was looking for a payout from whatever she got as child support. His anger when Beckett offered to pay his hours made that very obvious. He and Calista probably had some kind of arrangement. Madi knew her sister would do practically anything to keep her lifestyle and her modeling jobs had slowed to a trickle in the past year. She should have realized sooner that Bret had other motives for helping her.

After the meeting, he had fumed all the way down to the parking deck below the office building, then turned on Madi. “What did you say to him?”

“Only what I’ve said to you: that I wanted custody.”

“And?”

“And that I didn’t need as much money as you had asked for. Beckett said they would come up with a counter-offer and that he would pay your fees. Since you’d been working for me for free, I thought you’d appreciate the offer.”

“The guy is a billionaire!” Bret had showed his appreciation by storming off after shouting at her. If she didn’t see him again for a while, it would be too soon. She felt used. Like all his kindness had been an act, all with the goal of getting a paycheck.

They set off toward Proctor Park, where Becka could get out to play for a bit. It was a brisk, twenty-minute walk and Madi loaded up her guilty pleasure podcast, a pop culture show called I Hate Green Beans that never failed to make her laugh.

At one point, Madi had been a runner. But that was before Becka, or BB, as Madi referred to the time before taking care of her niece. Technically she could run with Becka in the stroller, but it just wasn’t the same running pushing a stroller. It hurt her arms and the bumpy roads and sidewalks jostled Becka too much. After a few missed days turned to weeks and months, the habit was easy to lose. Walking didn’t give her the same rush as a good run and it certainly didn’t help keep her in shape, made obvious by the full pants size she’d gone up since she stopped.

Walking allowed her to appreciate her neighborhood. Though there were other historic and beautiful areas, Madi felt like The Heights was the best place to live in all of Houston. The craftsman-style bungalows had once been considered the suburbs and were now sought-after as a central location. Houston’s suburbs sprawled out a full thirty miles outside of the city in some directions.

Which might be where Madi had to move if she couldn’t get a deposit in to her landlady. She was overdue on the renewal paperwork because she simply couldn’t afford it. Better appreciate the charm while she could. Even where the original homes had been torn down, building codes kept new construction true to the area. Some newer, tall homes looked like they belonged in New Orleans or Galveston with black-wrought-iron railings and hanging baskets of bougainvillea. More than a few homes kept the original buildings intact with their wide front porches and tapered columns. Some had tall second-story additions that looked like they had sprouted up along the back. Nestled among the neighborhoods were coffee shops and boutiques, restaurants and bars.

The thought of having to leave this area filled Madi with sadness. She had lived in her rental since before Becka was born. It hadn’t been as run-down before Becka, back when Madi had more time to mow the lawn herself. Though it was technically her landlady’s job to do things like touch up paint, Madi had always done that as well. Mrs. Covell should have handled those things, but didn’t. Now they were simply more things in the BB category. Ever since Madi first held Becka in her arms and knew that she would be caring for her full time, everything else faded away.

She didn’t even mind leaving her accounting job at a local Cadillac dealer. Now that finances were a huge issue, she regretted that she hadn’t done more to keep those ties. Perhaps they would have let her work from home or given her a part-time position now. They had taken great care of their employees and hadn’t wanted her to leave. But when Calista mentioned that she needed to go back to work and put Becka in day care, Madi put in her notice immediately and hadn’t spoken to any of her former co-workers since. Becka had won her heart and taken over her life.

As they neared Proctor Park, Becka started kicking her feet and wiggling in the stroller. “Playground! Playground!”

Madi smiled. It sounded more like Becka was saying “k-crown.” It had taken Madi forever to understand what she was really saying.

“Yes, we’ll go to the playground. Hang on, Becka.”

Becka. Beckett.

As Madi followed Becka onto the playground, her mind spun back to Beckett Van de Kamp as Madi freed Becka from the stroller. Her name must have been a nod to her biological father. But why hadn’t Calista mentioned him before? Or secured the child support payment from the beginning? Madi had Googled him when she got home from the meeting before Becka woke up. A quick search revealed that he was not just a successful businessman, but a billionaire. With a B.

Van de Kamp International had nothing to do with the fish stick company of the same name (she Googled that as well, feeling vindicated when she saw the familiar label), but was a powerhouse of a shipping company. The Van de Kamps were Dutch and Beckett’s father Sander had founded the company after coming over from the Netherlands. He was still listed as the CEO, but it seemed like Beckett handled more of the operations, based on the search.

What surprised Madi was that Beckett didn’t have a ton of press, unlike some of the other single, wealthy men in Houston. Roman Bennett, another billionaire who played football for the Houston Roughnecks, had a ton of articles written about him. Of course, he had the double whammy of being rich and a pro football player. Before he had gotten married, Roman was touted as Houston’s Most Eligible Bachelor, multiple years running.

Beckett had a fraction of the press Roman did, most of it from years before. Gossip blogs and society pages had some stories and photos of Beckett with women on his arm, but very little after two years ago, which would have been around the time Calista got pregnant. Madi wondered if something had happened in his life that kept him more or less out of the public eye after that. He had been engaged sometime last year, but he and his fiancée had split. That was one of the last articles she found about him and Madi felt a sense of relief at the thought that he was single. Not that she should care.

---