Madison's Life Lessons

by Gracen Miller

  “Amos asleep?” he asked as she walked toward her closet.

  “Finally.”

  A few minutes later she emerged in a white silk gown. Beautiful woman. His. Bound to him for life and she detested his touch.

  He went to her and clasped her face between his hands. “I wish to make love to you tonight.” Her blue eyes grew cloudy. “Don’t, kitten, please don’t. I’m sorry for the way I took you on our honeymoon. I wish I could do it all over again.” He’d damn sure tried to make things better in the four years since their wedding.

  Madison swallowed. “I want to be what you need me to be, but….”

  “Let me try, Madison. Just allow me to try.” But you’ll have to open up to me as well.

  She’d once enjoyed his kisses. If he could just get her to recapture her youth, he could succeed. He knew he could and then he wouldn’t have to follow the advice of the Azura stones.

  A hesitant nod, but he could tell she was afraid. He kissed her slow and with patience, taking his time to arouse her. Only when she began to return his kisses, did he deepen them.

  “Help me remove my clothes.” Not something he’d ever asked of her before. And her hands shook as she lifted them to unbutton his shirt. He caught her wrists after she tugged the material free of his slacks. “You know I don’t bite. This is me, kitten. The same man you loved before we married.”

  “I still love you, Micah.”

  “Then show me.”

  She did, or she tried. And she’d seemed to be enjoying his caresses and kisses. He went down on her—not something ever tolerated by her before—and she’d nearly came, but she shoved his head aside before the fireworks could claim her. Easing over her, he’d thrust easily into her, marveling that it’d been one of the few times lubrication hadn’t been necessary. Again, he felt her rising release and her lips parted, her eyes widening—in surprise?—as she neared a very real climax. The first ever with him.

  Then something altered. A frown flitted across her brow and she’d bitten her bottom lip, as a sad sounding shudder emerged from her lungs. And then he felt a mental shift because he felt her disconnect from him in an emotional sense. Fear turned her eyes shiny, brimming with tears and she whispered, “You’ll hate me.”

  What the hell? Hate her for what? Nothing she ever did could bring about his hate.

  Just that fast her arousal died away and her orgasm never surfaced. Frustrated, Micah finished, burying his face in the curve between her neck and shoulder as he released. It didn’t seem right to groan his release too loudly, when she hadn’t enjoyed it.

  He had his answer. He knew what he must do. Tears burned his eyes and he’d never shed a tear for anyone. No one had ever been that important to him, not even his bastard of a Father.

  Micah rolled off her onto his back. “Tonight marks a new beginning, Madison.”

  She sniffled but didn’t look at him. He fiddled with her hair, wishing he possessed another alternative. Goddamn, he wanted a different choice than the one he was presented with.

  “It’ll eventually work out, kitten.” Her gaze walloped him, doubt stark in her eyes. “Do you trust me?” She nodded. “Then trust me when I tell you we will work it out.” But she’d need to evolve first. That had been clear in the Azura stones. “You’re my future, no other will suffice.”

  “I don’t want to lose you.” Madison snuggled against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Even though her tears were warm against his flesh, he relished the way she turned to him for comfort. Her rock. Her foundation for seven years. Maybe that’d been his mistake, solving all of her problems for her. “You will help me be what you need?” She asked in a small voice and her uncertainty broke his heart.

  “You’re already what I need.” He hugged her tight against him. “I love you and nothing will ever alter that. Remember that, okay?” Regardless of the nasty things I will be forced to do. She nodded, but he needed to see her eyes, to know she truly meant it. He placed a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head back until their gazes touched. “Regardless what happens, promise me you’ll never forget I love you more than anything. You are my world, kitten. I’ll always protect you, now and forever, even if it seems that I’m not. Promise me you believe me and that you won’t forget, Madison.”

  Her voice sounded rusty as it emerged, “I promise.”

  ***

  The next morning, Micah descended the stairs as always, but his mood was cautious. When Madison finally slumbered last night, he’d exited the bed and consulted the Azura stones once more. He hoped they’d give him an alternative course.

  The prophecy was as dire the second time as the first. He perched on a crossroads. If Madison were cool toward him this morning, his mission was likely doomed. He’d been uncertain how he would handle the situation if that occurred. If she uttered words of encouragement, there was hope. A fifty-fifty chance his plan would succeed. To up those odds, he’d have to commit difficult actions toward her, but all would be necessary to push her in the direction she must go. Madison had to evolve or he would lose everything, not just his ultimate endgame, but her as well.

  As he entered the kitchen, his stomach churned with uncertainty. Madison cooked a typical southern breakfast—bacon, fried eggs, biscuits and grits. He adored her cooking and his belly grumbled at the scents wafting to him.

  Amos sat in a chair on his knees, giggling at the pup he’d received for his birthday wallowing on her back making grunting and groaning noises. The blue Great Dane—Amos named Dixie—would protect him, and that was all Micah cared about.

  “Morning, kitten,” he said as he walked up beside her to snag a piece of bacon. She hugged him and gave him a peck on the cheek. His eyebrows flashed upward at the flush on her face. “You’re practically glowing this morning.” Beautiful.

  Madison adjusted his tie and her shyness cramped his gut with nostalgia. After all this time she continued to worry about his reception.

  She peeked at him through her lashes. “I wish to try again tonight.”

  All is not lost! Hope surged inside him and he buried his hand in her hair, angling her head back to stare into her eyes. She didn’t flinch away as he’d expected.

  “You almost came last night,” he whispered low enough Amos wouldn’t hear. “A first.”

  An adorable blush infused her cheeks. “Yes.”

  “You weren’t disgusted?”

  “No.” A frown hit her forehead. “Is that what you thought all these years?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I thought.” He kissed her cheeks. “All that is of importance is our future.”

  He and Amos chatted as they ate breakfast, most of the conversation centered on the Great Dane, how she hogged the bed and begged for loving, but he didn’t mind because they were friends. Dixie whined for food and he realized halfway through the meal that his son snuck bits of biscuit to her.

  “Give her a whole one, Amos.” He nodded at the platter of biscuits. Amos’s blue eyes lit up and he scrambled halfway across the table in order to reach one. The delight of such simple things warmed his heart and they’d be missed.

  He looked at Madison as he pressed a napkin to his mouth. She smiled.

  My beautiful family. So precious and so far from where they need to be.

  Micah slid back his chair. “I have an early morning hearing. I need to run.”

  He scuffed his fingers in Amos’s hair and then drew Madison out of her chair into his arms for a lingering kiss.

  “Good luck in court,” she said. He grinned. Luck had nothing to do with his success. She straightened his tie. “I love you, Micah.”

  He tipped her chin back with a fingertip beneath her chin. “And I am so in love with you, kitten.”

  Micah snagged his briefcase out of the kitchen chair and left.

  Life Lesson Thirty-Five

  Eighteen hours after Micah walked out the door for work, he still hadn’t returned home. His secretary, Nicole, said she hadn’t seen him all day and that the he
aring he claimed to have never made it to his calendar. It must have been an emergency hearing, but either way, Nicole couldn’t find a single judge that said Micah had appeared in their courtroom that day. Not even for an emergency hearing.

  When Madison called Micah’s cell phone, it went straight to voice mail indicating it was off or he ignored her call.

  In a state of panic, she packed Amos into his toddler car seat and sped to the police station only to discover a missing person’s report couldn’t be issued until twenty-four hours passed.

  Madison paced the parking lot of the station as she put in a call to Micah’s college buddy, Senator Matt Bromleigh, at his home in Alabama. Twenty minutes later, he’d ignited early fires beneath reluctant feet and she’d never been so glad to know someone in a position of power as she was then.

  Sent home to await a call from the police when they knew more, she spent the night pacing the living room floor. What if he were lying dead in a ditch from a car accident? Or if one of his former criminal clients murdered him? But why would they want to? He’d never lost a case.

  Collapsing on the sofa, she allowed her emotions freedom and cried into her hands. Her worst fear was that Micah lay dead somewhere. That he might have died alone, not knowing how much she wanted to make their marriage work. Maybe not realizing how much he meant to her. She’d failed him as a wife and she regretted letting him down more than ever. He’d vested himself in her with his whole heart, while she’d repeatedly withheld herself. He’d taken a chance on marrying her and told her every day he loved her, even when she failed to be receptive.

  Madison sobbed into her hands. Please let him be okay. Please…please…please…I’ll do everything different. I’ll give him all of me. I won’t pull back for fear of giving him too much, for fear of making him hate me, or for fear of proving my daddy right.

  But who would hear her prayer? She hadn’t talked to God since she was fifteen and couldn’t bring herself to believe in him anyway. That meant there was nothing out there to answer her entreaties. Micah was on his own in whatever situation he’d landed in.

  But why had he lied about the court appearance? And vanished after he walked out the door? Not a trace of him, no witnesses to his whereabouts and even his cell had been turned off. So much for tracking him with its signal. Sitting up, she swiped the tears aside. She’d never known him to lie to her, so why start now? Dread scuttled up her spine, reminding her of the disappointment she’d seen in his eyes as she denied him the bed partner he wanted.

  Every time she looked at her son, she saw Micah in his features. The very tangible fear that her husband wouldn’t be coming home tickled the edges of her reality, but she pushed the thoughts aside faster than she could hit the escape button on the computer. He had to return home. I need him. Amos needs him.

  Chewing her nails to the quick, she leaned on Matt Bromleigh over the next several days and chatted with officers more than once. Amos was too young to understand why there were so many guests in their home. Amos missed his daddy and she held him as he cried himself to sleep every night since Micah’s disappearance. As morning dawned on the fourth day, blues showed up at her home and requested she ride with them to the police station. Matt convinced them to let him drive her there after she took Amos to a neighbor’s house.

  “What’s the purpose of Madison coming to the station?” Matt Bromleigh demanded the moment they entered the interrogation room.

  “Please take a seat.” Detective Miles motioned to the chair.

  “We’re not here for a tea party, so I’ll stand.”

  The police officer shrugged and directed his comments to Madison. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Dominus, but we’ve been forced to turn this investigation over to the Feds—”

  “Why?” the Senator demanded.

  “After your parent’s untimely death—” he cleared his throat and shrugged, as he looked around nervously, but she understood what he implied. Her parents had died in a car accident six months after her marriage. There had been an investigation into their demise, with her as the prime suspect, as if she knew how to tamper with the brakes of a car to kill her parents. Her hefty inheritance had been sufficient motive and there were many in town that believed she were guilty. Still believed in her guilt. “—well, you can imagine how it looks now with your husband missing and all the things we’ve learned about him since his disappearance.”

  Ignoring the obvious implications they believed she was to blame, she could only focus on locating her husband. Nothing else mattered. “What things are you talking about?”

  “Are you charging her with something?” Matt stood beside her chair and eyed the detective.

  The officer glanced at the mirrored glass. “Not yet.”

  “Formally charge her. Until then, she has nothing to say.” Matt slammed a hand on the table, meeting the detective’s stare head-on. Madison didn’t need hard balling; she needed answers to her husband’s whereabouts. “We’re leaving, Madison.”

  The officer didn’t give up that easily. “Mrs. Dominus, are you aware Micah Dominus does not exist? Anywhere? He has no birth records—”

  “Let’s go.” Matt’s fingers curled around her upper arm and he yanked her from the chair.

  “—no social security number, school records…just nada. It’s like he’s a ghost.”

  “But Micah and Matt went to college together. Tell him, Matt.”

  Silent, with his features pinched in anger, their family friend drug her toward the door. The detective went on as if she hadn’t spoken or that Matt attempted to make a hasty exit. “His so-called parents are from the 1700s and never had any children.”

  Madison jerked her arm out of Matt’s grip as he opened the door. “You’re lying,” she whispered, facing the detective.

  If Micah Dominus didn’t exist, who was her husband? Dear God, who could she have married if he wasn’t who he’d said he was? What had been his purpose for winning her over? Because looking back on their relationship, he’d courted her very clearly from the beginning. Even if he hadn’t pushed at first, he’d still been a much older man after a fifteen year old girl. An adolescent with so many problems, no man in his right mind would’ve taken her on. Yet, he had fought to be the champion of all her troubles.

  “We have video footage of your husband from the Atlanta, Georgia airport booking a flight to Rio. He was using an alias with a very real U.S. passport.”

  Matt tried to pull her through the door, but she resisted. Her heartbeat pounded faster than the tempo of the chant of “no, no, no” in her mind, making it hard to concentrate on what was being said. None of this made sense.

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.” Detective Miles held out a manila envelope. “Take it with you. Call me when you’ve had a chance to look it over.”

  Hands shaking, she took the envelope and stared at it, fearing the contents would alter not just her life, but her opinion of the one man she’d placed every ounce of her faith in.

  Micah isn’t…Micah? It couldn’t be true! The next words out of the cop’s mouth snatched her gaze up to meet his. “I imagine the Feds are going to have a lot of questions about the billions of dollars in your name in overseas accounts.”

  Matt dragged her out of the interrogation room with a hissed, “Don’t say another goddamn word until we’re in my vehicle.”

  Numb, she finally allowed him to guide her down the scuffed up linoleum hallway, beneath the flickering fluorescent lights. She felt like she was in a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. Or at the very least her life had turned into a really bad Lifetime movie drama.

  Billions of dollars in her name? In overseas accounts? That was crazy talk! Her parents hadn’t left her anywhere near that amount. A little over a million, but there was no way Micah could’ve turned that into billions.

  Bile slammed to the back of her throat, choking her, but she managed to swallow it down. Not only was Micah possibly someone else, she feared she didn’t know him at all.


  The Senator guided her to his Escalade, and her entire body trembled as she wrenched the passenger door open and fell into the leather.

  “My God….” As blackness hazed her vision, she dropped her face into her hands. “My God, I had a child with him. A child with a man who might not exist.” She looked at Matt and he tossed her an edgy glance as he shut his door.

  “Calm down.” The keys rattled as he jammed one into the ignition. “You know Micah is who he claims. And you know how much he loves you.”

  “Do I? Detective Miles seemed pretty convinced Micah isn’t Micah. Gave me a file—” she waggled it at him “—proving his case. Who does that unless they’ve got hard facts to back them up?”

  “We have no idea what’s in there. Until we do, we’re only speculating.”

  “If he’s not Micah Dominus, who could he be?” Matt’s gaze flinched away and she suddenly wondered if he’d been in on Micah’s subterfuge. “Did you have any idea he wasn’t who he claimed to be?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Answer me straight, Matt.”

  “No.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’ve only ever known him as Micah Dominus. You know we met in college and have been friends ever since. For God’s sake, I roomed with him, took classes with him and we were in a study group together.”

  So help me God, if he is lying to me….

  Madison ripped open the envelope and yanked the documents out. As she scanned the paperwork, her world turned upside down and anger sliced through her breastbone. For a long terrifying moment she couldn’t catch her breath. Cold hard evidence in the palm of her hand confirmed everything Detective Miles said.

  Her stomach cramped and she choked on a sob that burned her sinuses. Unbelievable. My entire life has been a lie. The man I love isn’t who he claims.

  What was he hiding?

  “Take me home.” Her voice came out scratchy as she crumpled the paperwork against her leg to stop her hand from shaking.