An heiress for his empire

It was then she noticed the other man in the room.

Gray-haired and distinguished-looking in a suit of good quality, if not an Italian designer label, Dr. Wilson was sitting in one of the armchairs that sat opposite a matching leather sofa on the other side of her father’s office.

He rose now and walked to Maddie, putting his hand out for Maddie to shake. “Madison. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Thank you. I hope I can say the same.” Though she did not have a good feeling about this.

Why did her father have a psychiatrist in his office for their meeting?

“Let’s all sit down and get comfortable,” Dr. Wilson said, indicating he considered himself a key player in the meeting to come.

The fact that her father followed the doctor’s lead without comment indicated he agreed.

Maddie wasn’t feeling quite so acquiescent. She remained standing as her father took a position at one end of the sofa and the doctor returned to his leather armchair. “What is this about?”

“Sit down, Madison, so we can discuss this like civilized people.”

“Tell me what we are discussing first,” she demanded in a chilly tone she hadn’t used in weeks.

Her father frowned. “You are being rude.”

“And you are being cagey.” When it came to her father?

Cagey was way worse than rude.

“Do you see what I mean?” Jeremy asked the doctor. “Unreasonably intractable.”

“You’ve asked Dr. Wilson here to evaluate me?” Maddie demanded, emotion cracking through the facade of cool before she reined it in.

Surprisingly, her dad winced, but he nodded. “It has come to my attention that you’ve been seeing a therapist.”

“I did for a few weeks, yes. Half of America has at one time or another.” And her choice to do so was a good thing, not a weakness.

“That is actually a bit of an exaggeration,” Dr. Wilson said, like he was making note of Maddie’s tendency to overstate things. “The number is closer to twenty percent.”

“Who told you I was seeing someone?” she asked Jeremy, ignoring the doctor.

Vik wouldn’t have told him. He might not love Maddie, but he was her white knight. Vik would never sacrifice her to the king.

“Does Vik know about this meeting?” she demanded.

Her father gave her his game face. “What do you think?”

“That you don’t want to answer my question.” She pulled out her phone.

“Who are you calling?” Dr. Wilson asked, his tone overly patient.

“My husband.”

“You see? Shades of codependency and paranoia,” her father said.

Maddie wanted to throw her phone at his head, but didn’t want to know what the psychiatrist would make of that. Vik’s phone sent her to voice mail.

He must have been in a meeting.

She left a message. “It’s me. Jeremy called me in for a meeting with a psychiatrist. I need to talk to you. Call me.”

Dr. Wilson was watching her with an indecipherable expression. Her dad’s eyes were narrowed, but she wasn’t sure if it was with worry or annoyance.

“So, you know I saw a therapist and you’ve brought Dr. Wilson here to observe me. Why?”

“No one said I was here to observe you,” the doctor said.

“No one said you weren’t.”

Neither the doctor nor her father answered that.

Finally, Jeremy said, “I’ve told Dr. Wilson my concerns about your increasingly erratic behavior over the years.”

“And while I applaud your positive action in seeking help,” Dr. Wilson said, as if speaking to a child, or an adult whose reasoning ability was compromised, “I must concur with your father that your actions since your mother’s death indicate a spiraling condition.”

“I do not have a condition.” What she did have was a brain and it was starting to work. “You aren’t going to prove me mentally incompetent to sign the paperwork giving Romi half of my shares in AIH. It’s not going to work.”

Her father’s expression said he disagreed.

Even more ominously, the doctor shook his head. “Signing such a document as the one your father described to me in and of itself is hardly a rational action.”

“You think not?”

“You think it is?”

“I know it is and I also know what I do with my money and assets is not your business, Dr. Wilson, or for that matter, Jeremy Archer’s.”

“You call your father by his first name. That indicates a level of dissociation to those closest to you.”

Who was this guy? Popping off with psychobabble on the basis of nothing but her father’s obviously biased assertions and a few seconds conversation was not in any way professional.