THE WAR BRIDE CLUB (43 page)
Read THE WAR BRIDE CLUB Online
Authors: SORAYA LANE
Madeline heard footsteps on the tiles, tracing the same path as she herself had just walked. She shut her eyes. Would it be best to get this over with, whatever it was about, or run? Run away, take Charlotte, and go somewhere he could never find them? She was starting to sweat, starting to worry that she should never have gone public with her story.
“Madeline?”
She kept her eyes shut, stayed in her own little world for a heartbeat, then slowly allowed them to open. She could feel him behind her.
“Madeline?”
She turned.
“Roy.”
She hadn’t said his name in so long that it felt foreign on her tongue.
He looked awkward. Perhaps he was as unsure as she was, but he had the upper hand. He’d come here looking for her and she’d been taken unawares.
“You did well up there tonight.”
She wanted to close her eyes again, to block him out. What was he doing here?
What was her estranged American husband even doing in the same room as her?
“Roy, why are you here? How did you find me?”
He smiled, and it was an expression she didn’t remember. In all the time she’d lived in America with him, she’d never seen his eyes crinkle at the sides in a genuine smile, never seen his eyes shine like that. Not since they’d been together here, in London, more than two years ago, had she seen a grin like that from Roy.
“I’ve been here two weeks.”
What?
She didn’t say anything.
“I came here looking for you, Madeline. I needed to tell you sorry, I need to make things right. And then I saw the posters pinned up around town, advertising your speaking engagement.”
Madeline kept her thoughts to herself. Now wasn’t the place for a scene. There was no way he could make things right, and there was no way he was taking her daughter away from her or making them return to America.
If he’d listened to her speech tonight, then he’d understand that already.
“Roy, I don’t know why you’re here, but I’m not going back.”
He sat down in the chair opposite her. His hands hovered, like he wanted to touch her, but she just stared at him. They feel to his lap as he watched her.
“Madeline, what I did to you, what I put you through, it was unforgivable. I don’t know how I can say sorry, what I can do to show you that I truly regret everything that happened.”
She wanted to laugh. But even more than that she wanted to cry. And scream. And yell.
Then send him back to wherever it was he’d come from.
But she didn’t.
“If you’re looking for forgiveness, you’re not going to find it here. A divorce? Consider it granted. But not forgiveness.”
Madeline was proud of the strength in her voice. She was a different woman now, more mature, and she wasn’t going to back down.
“I don’t want a divorce.”
Madeline sighed. So he
did
want her little girl.
“I have to go, Roy. I don’t know what you want from me, but whatever it is the answer’s no, unless you decide on divorce.”
He grabbed her wrist then, then dropped it just as fast as she glared at him and snatched it back.
She was not going to be controlled, not ever, not by him.
“I’m sorry. Can’t you see I mean it?” He sat back in the chair then lunged forward again. “I’ve found a place to live because I want to be with you and Charlotte. I want to prove to you that I can be the husband I should have been. I want to be her father.”
Madeline shook her head. “No. You’re not going to fool me into taking you back, Roy. Never.” She tried to control her voice but she was starting to feel vulnerable. Unsure.
Here she was talking to a man who was supposed to be on the other side of the ocean. Who she was never meant to see ever again. The father of her child.
Her husband!
“Madeline, I don’t think you understand.” His voice was soft again. “I’m not proud of what I did or what my family did, but I’m prepared to leave it all behind. If you’ll give me another chance, I want to stay here, in London, with you.”
It was as if the room was spinning, like she couldn’t get enough oxygen into her lungs.
What was he saying? How could he ask her to take him back? After all he’d done?
“I don’t believe you.” But she almost did.
He knelt before her, taking her hands into his own.
“I’ll do anything, Madeline. Please give me another chance?”
She couldn’t answer him. She didn’t know what she felt, what she could say.
“What makes you think you can be happy here? Without your family? What makes you think you could live on the other side of the world and leave everything you know behind? What makes you think I’d even consider taking you back after what you did to me?”
Had he not listened to anything she’d said in there? Did he not understand what it was like? How it felt to be alone in a foreign country? How it had felt to be her?
What he’d done to her?
“But I wouldn’t be alone here, Madeline. I would be with my family.” His entire face broke out into a hopeful smile again. “Because my family is here. It’s you and Charlotte. I want you to give me one last chance.”
Madeline’s body started to shake. Her face was burning hot.
“I, I don’t know.” She stuttered out the words. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll think about it,” he asked her. “What I did to you was wrong, every kind of wrong, but please say you’ll think about it. For Charlotte’s sake.”
Madeline found herself nodding even though all she wanted to do was run away from him. To hide in the bad memories and say
no
.
“Madeline?”
“You may visit your daughter Roy, but that’s it.
I won’t ever take you back.”
His eyebrows arched as he watched her face.
“Just tell me you’ll think about it. That you’ll let me try to prove myself to you.”
“You may be a father to our daughter, that’s all I’ll agree to. It would take years for me to ever forget or forgive, Roy. If ever.” She was proud of her strength, proud of how she was dealing with the man who’d once taken everything from her.
“I love you, Madeline Parker.” He dropped a gentle kiss to the hand he held. “I love you, and I’m so sorry that I disappointed you. I should never have let my mother treat you like she did, and I should never have let her try to poison me against you.”
Madeline shut her eyes.
Maybe he did love her. Maybe he
was
sorry.
If he wanted to prove himself then she’d let him. Not as a husband, but as a father. Maybe one day he’d prove himself enough as a man, but she wasn’t ready for that, not yet.
June had found love in her soldier husband. Betty had fallen in love in America. And Alice had made her marriage work.
Maybe one day she would fall in love again. Maybe it would be with Roy. Or maybe not.
Right now, she was just happy to be back home with her daughter.
THE END.
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