Chapter 1 - THE LAUGH AFTER THE SPLASH
Bradley Mercer’s hands were already against Maddie’s back when she realized the joke was going to be her.
“Maybe freezing will teach you to respect my mother.”
He shoved.
Maddie’s champagne-colored heels skidded across the wet cedar deck of the rental house outside Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. For half a second she saw string lights, Barbara’s glittering gold dress, two of Bradley’s cousins grinning with their drinks raised.
Then the October-cold pool swallowed her.
The laughter came before Maddie reached the surface.
She broke through gasping, satin dress dragging against her legs. Ethan Mercer slapped his brother Cody on the shoulder. Barbara took a slow sip of wine.
Bradley stood above Maddie with the pleased expression of a man who had finally gotten the reaction he wanted.
Maddie grabbed the ladder.
Ethan put his palm against one rail.
“Come on, Mads. Take a joke.”
Bradley laughed harder.
Maddie stared at Ethan’s hand until he moved it.
She climbed out.
Water streamed from her hair and dress. Bradley immediately caught her upper arm.
“You paid for the weekend,” he said. “So entertain us.”
Something in Maddie went strangely quiet.
For eleven years, she had responded to Bradley’s embarrassment by protecting him from it.
When his landscaping company failed, she called it “bad timing.”
When his consulting work became irregular, she told his family he was building something new.
When Barbara needed help with property taxes, Maddie transferred money without putting her name on the birthday cards.
Tonight Maddie had paid $6,800 for this house because Bradley said his mother deserved one good family weekend after a difficult year.
Now his family was laughing at her on the deck she had rented.
Maddie twisted free and knocked his hand away.
Bradley stumbled into Barbara. Red wine streaked across her gold dress.
Nobody laughed at that.
Maddie took Bradley’s bourbon from his hand and set it down so hard the glass cracked against the patio table.
“You just humiliated the woman paying for all of you.”
Bradley’s smile tightened.
“There she is. Money Maddie.”
He moved between her and the patio door.
Maddie reached for her phone.
Bradley grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t start making a scene.”
She looked at his fingers around her skin.
“Then you should know what I’m canceling first.”
She pulled free.
One tap opened her banking app.
Another opened scheduled transfers.
Bradley’s drunken smile vanished.
He reached for the phone.
Barbara grabbed his arm.
Not Maddie’s.
His.
“Bradley, stop.”
Maddie looked directly at her mother-in-law.
“Barbara already knows why—”
Bradley knocked the phone downward.
But he was too late.
May you like
The $92,000 scheduled transfer no longer said pending.
It said canceled.
