Chapter 369
Alexander
Madison stared at me, her mouth a tight line. She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. For a long moment, she simply observed me, the way she used to study complicated contracts before finding their fatal
flaws..
“You drove all the way from New York,” she finally said, her voice cool and measured, “wasting your precious CEO time, just to ask why I left the job five years ago?” She shook her head. “Go home, Mr. Knight. Go back to your wife. I’m sure Katherine is wondering where you are.”
I flinched at her assumption. “Wife? I’m not married.”
“Fiancée, wife, whatever.” She waved dismissively. “The point is, I’m just an ex–employee. You’ve wasted your time coming here.”
“I’m not married,” I repeated, leaning forward. “Katherine and I never went through with it.”
“Still engaged after five years? How modern of you.” Her tone was dry as desert sand. “Regardless, it doesn’t change anything. I don’t want to talk about why I left.”
“Why not?”
“To be precise, I don’t even want to talk to you.” She checked her watch pointedly. “You can leave now.”
“Why don’t you want to talk to me? What did I do that was so terrible you had to disappear without a word?“1
Madison said nothing. She simply stood up, smoothing invisible wrinkles from her dress. “I’ve got work to do. Unlike you, I don’t have an army of employees to run my business. My break’s over.”
I caught her wrist as she turned to go. Her skin was warm under my fingers, and I felt her pulse jump at the
contact.
“I’ll come back,” I said, my voice low. “Tomorrow. And the next day. Until you tell me why you left and why you’ve been silent all these years.
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She yanked her hand away like my touch burned. “You’ve been silent too,” she snapped. “Five years without a single phone call. Without a text. You didn’t even care if I was alive or dead.” She stopped abruptly, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. “But why would you? I was just an employee. Just an arrangement.”
The word “arrangement” hung in the air between us, loaded with all our shared history.
“That’s not fair,” I said.
“Life rarely is, Mr. Knight.” She turned away. “Enjoy your drive back to New York.”
I watched her walk back into the café, her shoulders squared, head high.
The mystery man glanced up from his laptop as Madison re–entered, his face lighting up when he saw her. I felt something dark and possessive twist in my gut.
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“Fuck this,” I muttered, following her inside.
The café had emptied somewhat during our conversation, with only a few lingering customers nursing their coffees. Madison was behind the counter again, tying her apron with quick, efficient movements.
“You’re still here,” she observed without looking up.
“I’m not done talking to you.”
“Well, I’m done talking to you.” She brushed past me to clear a table.
“That makes one of us,” I replied, keeping my voice low but firm. I followed her, staying close enough that she couldn’t ignore me but not so close that I’d alarm her customers. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Same time.”
Madison spun around, almost colliding with my chest. “Don’t bother,” she hissed, balancing a tray of empty mugs. “I won’t be here.”
“Taking a day off just to avoid me? Seems extreme.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Unlike you, I can’t afford to waste time on pointless conversations.”
“Five minutes of your time is pointless?” I challenged.
“When it’s with you? Yes.” She moved to step around me.
I shifted, blocking her path. “Tomorrow. Two o’clock.”
“Mr. Knight,” she said, my formal title somehow sounding like a curse word, “there’s no need to come back. Ever. We have nothing to discuss.”
“I disagree.”
“Shocking,” she muttered. “The great Alexander Knight thinks he knows better than everyone else.”
I couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at my lips. “Your sarcasm hasn’t changed.”
“Neither has your arrogance.” She glanced meaningfully at the door. “Goodbye, Mr. Knight.”
The man from earlier was watching us now, his posture tense as if ready to intervene.
“Is he your boyfriend?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Again, none of your business.”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s not an answer at all,” she replied. “Now, please leave. I have customers waiting.”
I looked around pointedly at the nearly empty café. “They seem fine.”
“Please. Just go.
11
The genuine plea in her eyes caught me off guard. This wasn’t the fiery defiance I’d expected. This was
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something else. Something that made me want to both pull her into my arms and run back to New York immediately.
“Fine,” I said after a moment. “But this isn’t over, Madison.”
Without waiting for her response, I turned and walked out, the cheerful bell mocking me as I left.
The drive back to New York gave me far too much time to think. My mind raced with questions, theories, and half -formed regrets as I navigated through Connecticut’s winding roads.
Why had she left so suddenly? Was it really just the engagement news, as she seemed to imply? Or was there something deeper, something I’d missed entirely?
Had I hurt her somehow? Had I crossed a line I wasn’t aware of? Madison had always seemed to enjoy our time together.
But maybe I’d misread the situation entirely. Maybe what I saw as pleasure was simply compliance. The thought made me grip the steering wheel tighter.
No. I couldn’t have been that wrong. There had been a genuine connection between us.
I couldn’t have imagined all that. Could I?
Traffic slowed as I approached the city, forcing me to brake abruptly. Much like my thoughts, which kept circling back to one maddening question: why had Madison Harper walked away without a word?
And why did it still matter to me, five years later?
I should be past this. I had moved on, or at least, I’d convinced myself I had. So why was my chest tight with something uncomfortably close to yearning?
“Get a grip,” I muttered as I drove into the parking garage beneath my building.
I needed to forget Madison Harper, her café, and her new life without me. I needed to focus on Knight Industries, my perpetually postponed engagement with Katherine.
But even as I rode the elevator to my penthouse, I knew I’d be back at Harper’s Haven tomorrow at two o’clock.
Some mysteries demanded resolution, no matter how many years had passed.
And Madison Harper had always been my most intriguing mystery.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
