Page 105 of Heartless

Parker

“I’m not sure that’s the best use of our security system,” Ryan said calmly as I fast-forwarded through the video footage.

“That’s literally the entire point of having cameras.”

“Stalking your girlfriend?”

“Monitoring people who can’t be trusted.”

I still couldn’t believe she lied to my face after everything that happened between us.

Madison appeared on the screen, and I paused the video for a moment. Taking a breath, I resumed it at normal speed.

“May I suggest you use your phone and talk it out, instead of… monitoring her?”

Madison, dressed in the jumpsuit she wore at Annie’s wedding, carried a small leather bag in her hand as she was leaving The Gem.It was impossible to see her face, but her steps were determined. She looked focused as she headed towards a car waiting at the end of the parking lot.

She hadn’t even changed her clothes.

“I bet this was her plan all along.”

“Doubt it.”

I sent Ryan a murderous look. “I offered to hire her again. I told her to move to her own place. What else could I have possibly said to make her stay.”

“You offered her a job?” Ryan asked as if I was a moron.

“Of course, I have. She would have caught the first flight back to New York otherwise. Her job is her life.”

“I’ve always thought you were the smarter one of us,” Ryan shook his head. “Maybe you should have told her you loved her, you idiot. Maybe that would have been enough for her to stay. And what the fuck was that about her getting a place to live? Do you realize how that sounds?Maddie, baby, go live on your own, while I stay here and stare at my dead wife's pictures every single day.”

“My dead wife was your sister, dickhead.”

“Exactly. Franny would have been the first one to call you an idiot. What woman in her right mind would consider that a love declaration?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be a love declaration. I wanted her to feel in control. Free. Independent. And she just left.”

Ryan chuckled. “Do you hear yourself? It wasn’t a love declaration and you wanted her to be free. I think she understood you perfectly. I don’t think she could be any freer than that.” He pointed at the video footage.

“She must have pretended all along. I’m telling you, she had planned this the entire time.”

There could be no other explanation. If she had any feelings for me, she would have said something.

“Come on, man,” Ryan sounded disappointed. “What does she gain from sneaking out like that? She really cared about you.”

“You have spent ten minutes in total with the woman for the past eight months. How exactly did you come to that conclusion?”

I thought of it as a rhetorical question. Especially after I pulled out my phone and started typing a text to Madison, but I could hear him talking in the background.

Me: Did you have to run away like a coward while I slept?

“And I know she was sick back then, but I’m telling you. She looked like she was in physical pain over your loss.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked.

“Madison. You know, the woman we had been talking about for the last half an hour? The one you had to watch leaving because somehow her note wasn’t enough of an indication.”

Oh, that fucking note. I balled it and threw it somewhere on the floor after I read it.