Page 110 of Mad Rivals
I dive into edits on the bid for Newman. I throw myself into other projects, too.
None of it really helps. Before I know it, a week has dragged its way by, and I haven’t heard a word from Madden. The Fourth of July comes and goes, and the new bids for Newman are due on Monday morning. I slip into my favorite dress and spend a little extra time on my hair and makeup since I know I’ll be seeing Madden at today’s meeting.
I’m not trying to impress him. Instead, I just want to feel overly prepared and confident as I walk in to face the man who just broke my heart.
I pull into the parking lot first—just like last time.
I get out of the car and head toward the tasting room.
And when I walk inside, I’m hit with a surprise I never saw coming.
CHAPTER 47: Madden Bradley
An Epic Disappointment
“You didwhat?” my father asks.
“I backed out of Newman.”
“Why in God’s name would you possibly do that?” he demands.
“Because I took enough away from her, okay?” I hiss. “I need to go. I have workouts this morning.” I’m about to hang up when he stops me with a reminder.
“You’re forgetting about the legacy, Madden. I’m so disappointed in you.”
“Enough about the legacy!” I yell over the phone. “I am so goddamn tired of this legacy. It isn’t worth giving up everything that ever mattered to me.”
“Your family isn’t worth it?” he sneers. “Every damn thing I’ve done for you, and this is how you repay me?”
“You keep saying that. Tell me exactly what you did for me.” My voice is low as I wait for it.
“Don’t you think it fell into place a little too easily? You playing most of your career in Chicago where you always dreamed, your brothers each in the cities of their choosing. It doesn’t work that way, son.”
“So you engineered it?” I spit.
“I used the connections I had to get you what you wanted. And when I needed you in San Diego, I used those connections again.”
I suck in a sharp breath at his confession. I should have known. He orchestrated my trade. He needed me here for whatever reasons he had, and here I am giving away projects that should have been ours.
What an epic disappointment I must be.
Well, truth be told, I’m fairly epically disappointed by my own father, so I guess we’re even.
“But even I couldn’t have predicted you’d be so stupid as to give away a project you had in the bag,” he says.
“Sorry to disappoint you. I have to go.” This time I really do cut the call, and even though he’s disappointed, I feel good about my decision.
I wanted Kennedy to have the vineyard. I put work into changing around my bid to give Newman exactly what she wanted, but in the end, it was my conversation with Spencer during workouts last week that sealed the deal.
I didn’t want Grace to choose Bradley Group because I’m teammates with her husband. I wanted her to choose us because we had the best plan to move forward.
But we didn’t. As it turns out, Spencer confessed that his wife loved Kennedy’s vision for the place. And knowing that she could easily add in the sustainability features to her plans while also knowing I wouldn’t really be around to handle the project with the attention it deserves…it was a no-brainer.
And honestly, what went down last week was a small part of it, too. I hated the look in her eyes when I broke things off. I didn’t want to go in today and face her, so in some ways, I took the easier way out.
I was in Chicago for three nights before I came back here.
I stayed out of it but stayed close in case my father needed me, and I instructed him to get his shell companies the fuck away from Bradley Group if he expected me to take over the company.
