“Someone at Ivanov’s?”
“No,” she said, reaching for her mug. “I think it was before she met him.”
“Before?” There was so much I didn’t know. “I don’t recall anyone we knew with that name. Whoever she was, your mom must have cared about her to give you her name.”
“That’s what she said.”
Madeline
“Excuse me?” I asked, staring up at Marion’s blue eyes.
Instead of responding about my marital status, he tilted his head and narrowed his gaze. “Ruby’s location is unverified, and yet you’re sitting up most of the night lamenting a recent transaction.”
“I’m worried about my daughter. I’m baffled by the plan you and Andros think you’ve secured.” My palms slapped my thighs below the robe. “I’m in shock.” With each sentence my volume rose. “I’m trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, and it’s not computing.”
Stepping around the chair, Marion reached for my arm. “Madeline, you must lower your voice. My staff, our staff,” he corrected, “will question your stability.”
I pulled my arm away as I blinked my eyes in the morning sunshine. “My stability?”
I wasn’t the unstable one in this conversation.
His hand came to the small of my back. “Let’s go inside and discuss this in a more private setting. Eloise is already aware of your issues. We want to keep it from the entire staff if possible.”
I spun toward him. “What issues is Eloise aware of? That you bought me?”
“No.” His words were hushed. “Calm down. Our breakfast is waiting inside. I’ll have them close the doors to the dining room, and we’ll be able to talk.”
“Marion, this may come as a shock to you, but I have no intention of discussing anything with you. I will forward you my new number once I have it. You may contact me when you learn more about Ruby. I’m not completely destitute. Unbeknownst to Andros, I’ve managed to accumulate enough to allow me to live self-sufficiently. The money is secure. I will begin my own searches for my daughter. I’m done depending on anyone and for the last time since I was first deceived, I’m done being a commodity.”
“You must eat.” He looked up at the sky. “The sun has been up for a bit. It’s after eight and past my breakfast. Let’s discuss this over food and then I have business to attend. You’ll have plenty of time to become familiar with the ranch before our plans for this evening.”
He was leaving?
I liked that idea.
“I’ll discuss it if you explain your comment about me already marrying you. You see, I went to the room last night, leaving you and Andros in the library. Since then, I’ve been out here.” I motioned around the pool deck. “Despite your claims of my issues, I would remember a wedding.”
“I will explain everything you need to know,” he said, leading me toward the glass doors.
The thought that he would leave the ranch had me excited. It was my chance for escape. My fingers fluttered to my neck. The necklace was still up in the bedroom. There’d been no part of last night’s conversation—or this morning’s—that I wanted transmitted to Patrick or the other Sparrows.
In his customary and insincere manners, Marion reached for the chair near his at the head of the table and pulled it back for me. Without a word and a bit of a sneer, I sat.
I didn’t believe that our conversation within this room would be private because the moment his ass hit the cushion, a swinging door pushed inward and a parade led by Eloise joined us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Elliott, your breakfast is served,” Eloise announced with a smile.
I couldn’t decide how I felt about Eloise, if her attentiveness reminded me of Mrs. Potts, the devoted teapot in Beauty and the Beast, or perhaps, the maleficent housekeeper in a psychological thriller turned dark romance I’d read a few years back. What had begun yesterday as appreciation for her helpfulness was slowly morphing into a looming sense of something much darker.
As Eloise poured coffee into mugs, two other women—the women I’d seen in the kitchen yesterday morning—flittered in and out of the dining room bringing trays of food, much too much for two people.
“Are we eating alone?” I asked, feeling my stomach again revolt.
Marion nodded. “Yes, Mr. Ivanov had pressing matters. He regretfully had to depart early this morning.”
With my hands on my lap, I waited as the two other women again disappeared, and Elliott informed Eloise that we were to remain undisturbed.
Finally, he turned my way. “Where were you when you received my call?”
My head shook as I tried to remember his call. I hadn’t heard it first. Patrick’s men had. “I was in Chicago. You were there when Andros left me.”
“I was. I offered you assistance. I expected a call. I would have sent a plane or waited for you to join me.”
My eyes narrowed as I motioned between us. “This arrangement was planned?”
“Little lady, you have already come to that conclusion. You said so last night. Andros Ivanov sent you to me at the tournament. We both knew you weren’t going to win. I thought it would be me.” He shrugged. “Either way, yes, it was predetermined that you would leave with me.”
I would have won.
I would have beat Marion with my hand.
I would have beat everyone except Patrick.
“I’m sorry that in my hysteria I disrupted your plans.”
“I’m trying to point out that I had grand plans to ease you into the arrangement.”
“The arrangement that you and Andros had already agreed upon?” I asked.
“It wasn’t finalized until the night before last, but essentially, yes.”
Marion sliced egg casserole from a large dish. As he placed a serving upon my plate, he asked again, “Where did you say you were?”
“Chicago.”
“Staying…?”
“I was at Club Regal. There was a lot of commotion, and I wasn’t able to leave right away.”
He nodded. “This egg casserole is one of my favorites. Mrs. Martin is an excellent cook.”
Wrapping my fingers around the mug of coffee brought warmth to where I’d not realized it had departed. The liquid within vibrated as my trembling hands displayed the bubbling anger within me. I had so many questions while simultaneously I dreaded the answers, more answers that reduced me to a product in their equation. “Why have you and now Eloise referred to me as Mrs. Elliott?”
“Another apology,” Marion said as he scooped fruit onto my plate and then his own. “I had grand romantic plans.” His gaze came to mine. “It isn’t often that a man gets to propose. I wasn’t as well off when I married Trisha. For you, I had a strategy.” He lifted his hand. “First, it was to be me that saved you from your abandonment. Then, after you were settled, imagine a hot balloon ride over the ranch, showing you your future home.”
“You didn’t propose. You informed me that you’d paid $10 million to Andros to purchase what wasn’t his to sell.”
Marion scoffed as he sat his fork to the side of his plate. “Listen closely. I had splendid plans. I wanted to give you the illusion of choice. It was my intention. The change in course doesn’t negate the final result. When Andros and I agreed to a mutually acceptable price, you became mine.” He unashamedly looked me up and down. “It’s too bad I’m not a younger man. But as my wife, you should know, you’ve been the star of my fantasies for years. I’ve found release as I imagined you standing in that room, more times than I care to admit. Now you’re mine, and while I’m happy to financially indulge your desires and needs—there is nothing I won’t give you if you ask—it should be made clear that I too still have desires and needs. We will come to an understanding.”