Chapter 15: Maddy

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Greetings from Paris! I'm so sorry for the lack of activity, I try to read all of your comments! I'll be back for real very soon. But for now, enjoy the last chapter of After Arlington, I really hope you've enjoyed the story and I wanna hear all of your feedback 💕 Ann

"It's seventy degrees in Paris today," Piers said over the phone. Maddy raised her shoulder to keep the speaker propped to her mouth as she sifted flour into a mixing bowl. "And Li picked the hotel. She's annoyed we aren't staying for her launch show, though."

"Well, I want to be here when Maria starts senior year," she said. "God knows she needs the help."

She looked over to her little sister who was currently attempting to turn on the oven. It was quite the chore for someone who had never even used one.

"She'll understand," he said. His voice was electric with excitement. "So do you want to meet before we leave?"

"Sure," she said, putting down the sieve and picking up a wooden spoon to mix the brownie dough.

Paris. It was a temporary escape. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with her life now. She half hoped she could use the money left in her bank account to travel, but she knew her mother would be furious when she found out she'd broken her agreement with the Greenes. It might be best to stick around the house for a while until things cooled off.

Just as she was about to shake her mother's terrifying face from her mind, there was a knock at the door, causing Maria to straighten beside her.

"I've got to go, Piers." She craned her neck to see Maria darting towards the door. "I'll call you back later."

"Okay," he said, and she could almost sense his smile on the other end of the line. "Talk to you soon."

Maddy walked around the corner so she could see whoever it was. But, when Maria squinted an eye through the peephole, she froze.

"Holy shit," she whispered. Her face had paled. "Maddy, it's him."

"It's who?"

"Oh my God, he's reaching for his phone."

Seconds later, Maddy's phone started vibrating, a name lighting up on the screen.

Francis Greene.

"Well, shit," Maddy said, her mind not quite comprehending the words in front of her. He was here, this was it. Her world was about to evaporate. Even though she'd unenrolled herself from Yale and called her landlord, it still didn't quite feel real. She was sure that this, Francis coming to her door to enforce it, would feel real.

"Should I go out there?" Maria asked, her hand inching towards the handle.

"No," Maddy said quickly, moving forward to push her sister out of the way, the phone still vibrating in her hands. "Go put the brownie mix into a tray, then in the oven, set the timer for half an hour."

Her sister hesitated, giving Maddy a long and careful look.

"Trust me, Maria, it's fine," she said, trying to project as much reassurance possible into her words.

After a moment-long stare off, Maria sighed.

"Call out if you need help," she said reluctantly. "I'm in the kitchen."

Once her sister was out of the way, the fear set in, climbing its way through Maddy's body and making her stomach twist painfully.

But there was only so much he could do to her now. The worst he could do was set her free. She needed to remember that.

She opened the door and his head jolted up from his phone, his gaze boring into hers. Beneath the sea blue of his eyes was deep gray bags, and his skin was more translucent than usual. His hair was knotted and unkempt, as if he had been pulling at it in frustration. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.

It was strange, like the stress and anxiety riddling her mind for the last year was slowly being transferred to him. And clearly, he wasn't handling it.

"Maddy," he said. His lips parted, as if he wanted to say more, but no words fell through them.

She didn't know what she was expecting. An apology? More denial? But she didn't expect tears to fall from his eyes, the ever-powerful Francis Greene reduced to crying at her doorstep.

"God," she said, looking behind him before stepping aside. "Come in."

He stepped into her home, walking up the hall.

"First left," she said, directing him to the study before he hit the kitchen and traumatized Maria any further. For some reason, she wasn't scared. Though fear had clawed at her at the thought of confronting him, it was clear he was long defeated.

His shoulders were slumped and his eyes trained on the floor as he fell into a leather desk chair. She hesitantly grabbed the back of another, spinning it so it faced him, and sat down.

"Are you here to tell me I can't go back?" she asked, her voice low as she tried to remove everything personal from her mind. She couldn't think about her daughter too hard. About the girl that shared their genes. She couldn't handle being around him if she let those thoughts in.

Francis looked momentarily confused before raising his head to look at her. He'd composed himself now. "No. I'm not here for that."

"What are you here for then?" she asked softly.

"To say goodbye, I guess," he said quietly. The devilish glint in his eyes that had been a constant trademark of his expression was long gone now. He was almost unrecognizable as the man he'd once been. "And to offer you something."

"Where are you going?" she asked as he adjusted his weight to pull something from his pocket.

"Far away," he said with a sad smile. "Somewhere I can think."

She watched as he pulled out a checkbook.

"I'd like to offer to pay for whatever they're going to take from you," he said, "Tuition. Rent. All of it."

Maddy's face paled over. She was unable to form any words that could acknowledge that. The sheer amount of money flickered before her eyes, the zeros much more than was in her own bank account.

"There wouldn't be any conditions or obligations," he continued. "No contracts or deals. Just enough to make sure you can continue on with your life. I don't want to ruin another thing in it."

"Francis, I can't," she said slowly. "I can't take your money."

"Why?" he asked. "God knows we have enough of it."

She shook her head. "It's not that. It's the whole premise. I can't rely on you or your family anymore. I just need to be free."

"Free," he said, as if the word was unfamiliar. His lips curled into a sardonic smile. "I understand."

"So where are you going?" she asked again, curious as to what exactly Francis' plan was. It was clear he'd abandoned his family in all of this, his eagerness to pay her out for what was to be taken from her making that clear.

"Away," he said, mirroring his answer from before.

"Nothing's changed then," she said, fidgeting with a hair tie around her wrist. "It's just like you to run away from your problems."

He looked at her for a long moment. "I don't think I'm running away. I almost feel like I'm running towards something."

"Like what?" she asked.

His features darkened in thought. He really was like a sleep-deprived zombie. "Running to who I'd be without all the corruption and secrets and lies. Have you ever thought about that? What it would be like if we weren't born into the families we were?"

Maddy pondered it. She wouldn't have to worry about media or people getting too close to her. She wouldn't have to impress everybody or be around people like Lola Davenport. And in a way, she understood him. She understood his need to be away, to contemplate what things would have been like if his family hadn't intervened. If she hadn't kept it a secret from him out of fear.

"I feel like that's make believe," she said. "You can't go back in time and change things."

"I know," he said. "And that's why I need some time to grasp it. This whole situation."

The elephant in the room. Her daughter. Their daughter.

"Can you tell me something, Maddy?"

His eyes were so hopeful, a turbulent sea trapped in a tiny jar. "Sure."

"What was she like?"

His words were enough to tear open her heart, to open the floodgates and release the hoard of precious memories she kept locked away. The handful of seconds she'd had to hold her little baby in her arms, her skin chubby and soft and fragile. She'd never seen anything so beautiful, and she knew she never would again.

"Her eyes were blue," she choked. The girl she would have named May, with jet black hair and pale eyes, who refused to leave her side, even if it was just in her memory. "Like yours."

His heart was breaking, she could see it from his expression, the way his brows tugged together and his lip quivered. She wished she could somehow transplant the picture into his mind, so he too could know how beautiful she was. How they'd never be worthy enough to have her in their lives.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I've said a lot of meaningless apologies these past few weeks. But I mean it, Maddy. I'm sorry for treating you so badly, for making you so scared of me that you wouldn't tell me you were pregnant. I'm sorry for my family, for them valuing my success over what was right. I'm sorry we couldn't make those decisions together, and that I wasn't a reasonable enough person for you to trust me."

His apology rattled through her bones, mending pieces of her she didn't realize had been broken. It didn't fix everything, it didn't justify anything, but it was right. It was words she didn't know she'd been desperate to hear. It didn't matter that she'd be free of him, there would have always been a part of her waiting, wishing he'd given her this conclusion.

"Thank you," she said. Now her eyes were welling with tears, and she blinked them away fast. "I know it probably took a lot for you to say that."

Francis had never been one to let go of his ego. But now, he was breaking before her.

Maybe he'd heal and resume his life in time. Maybe he'd be able to go on. But maybe, just maybe, it would stick with him. It could make him a better person.

"Anyway, I should go," he said, finally breaking her gaze. "I don't want to bother you any more than I already have."

It was so unnaturally civil between them. They both rose to their feet simultaneously, her gesturing for him to go first.

At the doorway, a sense of awkwardness fell over them as they stood opposite each other. This could be the last time she saw him for a long time. Maybe the last time she'd see him ever.

She thought about how far she'd come over the last month, from being constantly bed-ridden with grief to being able to accept an apology from the man who'd wreaked so much havoc on her life. But she wasn't furious or angry anymore. She'd settled into an unfamiliar calm.

This was what she needed. Some form of acknowledgment from him, the wildfire between them settling to ashes. Her hate for him simmering into peace.

"Stay safe, okay?" she said, surprising herself with the words.

"I'll be okay," he replied, giving her a small smile. "I'll be back one day."

She nodded. "I know."

Francis nodded to her as he retreated down the steps and into an unfamiliar car. She watched as he pulled out of the driveway, the rage she associated with him translating into sympathy. She wasn't sure he'd ever find love, or know what it was like to cherish someone. But at least he knew now. He knew the truth.

"You okay?" Maria asked from behind her. She hadn't realized that she'd been frozen in the threshold, his car long gone.

"Don't tell me you eavesdropped on that whole conversation," Maddy said, her voice filled with growing accusation.

"No," she said quickly. "But I do think you should have taken the money."

Maddy darted after her sister as she jumped down the hallway, catching her in the kitchen, where her desire to strangle Maria was replaced with panic at the smell of burning brownies.

Francis had gifted her more than he could have with money. He'd gifted her with the chance to move on, the chance to breathe for the first time in months.

And now, baking up another batch of brownies to satisfy her sister's vicious craving, she let herself smile. She wasn't trapped under a blanket of money and lies anymore. She'd done it, she'd broken out of it, even if she'd never move on from the piece of her missing.

She'd found her own sense of freedom.

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