Page 41 of Heartless

No answer.

I used my time to look around the room. All her shoe boxes were neatly arranged in one corner. The doors of the simple armoire gaped, showing elegant dresses hanging inside. All of them were almost the exact same length.

It seemed like she was comfortable here and yet I wondered if I should move her to The Pink Diamond. Was it normal to have all that free, luxurious space and stuff your girlfriend in a small room that was used for storage for a few years? Definitely not.

I didn’t know if Sylvia could somehow find out where Madison spent her nights. Not to mention that she would probably assume her daughter slept in my bed. But why risk getting caught pretending to be together because of something as trivial as the room I kept Madison in?

Coming up with an excuse for moving her in front of the staff would be the hard part, though. I couldn’t let them get suspicious about us.

When Madison finally came out of the bathroom, dressed in a navy blue, knee-length dress, I wondered if she chose it because it matched the color of my suit. The question if she did it on purpose was onthe tip of my tongue, but she walked over to the armoire and started returning the other dresses she took with her to the bathroom when I came to pick her up half an hour ago and found her still in her robe.

I cleared my throat. “You look good.”

That was an understatement. She was drop-dead gorgeous with her blond hair falling down her shoulders and back in soft waves. And Worthy of the WOW Katie had uttered the first time she saw Madison.

Aphrodite indeed.

“Thanks,” she replied absentmindedly, not even glancing my way. Not that the compliment was anything special, but she basically had no reaction, and that irritated me. Was she that confident in her appearances or she just didn’t care about my opinion of her one bit?

Walking over to the stack of shoe boxes, she squatted down and started shifting them. She found what she was looking for and took the pair of high heels out of their box. Then she turned to face me, squeezing the shoes in a white knuckle grip.

I laughed. “Relax. It’s just dinner.”

“For you.” She took a deep breath. “Now. Crash course on dealing with my mother. Don’t give too much personal information.” She pointed at me with one of her shoes. “She remembers everything and she will use it against you if presented with the opportunity. But also don’t hold too much back. She will think you have something to hide and will make it her life's mission to find out what that is. Can you handle that?”

“I know how to have meaningless chit chat, Madison.”

She lifted one foot from the carpeted floor, bringing her heel close to her behind, maintaining perfect balance as if she were a statue.

“Do you practice something?” I stood up from the bed and approached her.

“What? Why?”

She quickly put the other shoe on too and was again almost as tall as me.

“Your balance is admirable. And you have a perfect posture. If you practice something, it seems like information your boyfriend would know,” I justified my curiosity.

“I practiced ballet when I was a kid. Now focus on my mother, please, not my posture.”

I pressed my thumb and forefinger together and dragged them across my mouth as if I was zipping it.

“You go first. I’ll be second.” She pointed at the door.

“Excuse me?”

“Through the lobby. I don’t want to be the jezebel that sleeps with the boss, remember?”

“I wasn’t planning on fucking you in the lobby on our way out,” I smirked. She sent me an unimpressed look, and I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Fine.” I walked out first, cursing her ability to complicate things.

She made me wait for her in the car for fifteen minutes. Once she slid into the passenger seat, she put her seatbelt on and continued instructing me, as if there never was a pause in our conversation about her mother.

“Don’t brag or show off. She hates it when people talk about money and financial status.”

I drove off. “I thought being rich would get me bonus points.”

“It will. She likes rich people, but she doesn’t like it when they talk about how much money they have.”

“Fine. I will look rich, but won’t say anything to confirm that I am.”

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