“It took me a year to win you over and get you to believe I wasn’t going to turn my back on you. Ever.”
Tears sprang to Madison’s eyes because, with this damned disease, that’s exactly what she felt like Franny was doing to her. The rational part of Madison knew the memory lapses weren’t within Franny’s control, but the little girl in her felt abandoned all over again.
“I know, honey. I know,” Franny said, obviously reading her mind. “But I will always love you, even if I can’t say it or if I don’t recognize you.”
Madison managed a nod. Then, because she owed it to her, she told Franny the rest of the truth. “Eric took me to court over your power of attorney and health care proxy. I hired the best attorney I could, but the judge ruled in his favor. He’s going to sell the house so they can build condominiums. And he’s going to try to keep me from seeing you.”
Franny blew out a long breath. “He’s got a mean streak. You can’t let him stop you from seeing your man, Gracie. You know that, right?”
And just like that, it was over. Madison teared up all over again.
“I know.” She managed to pull herself together and decided to say everything she would have said to a lucid Franny. “I would do it all again to help you the way you helped me. I did everything I could for you.”
Franny clasped her hand and began to hum a tune Madison didn’t recognize. “Remember that song? We’d sing it when I was waiting for Daniel and you were waiting for your man. Are you waiting for him now?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go see where he is,” Madison said.
“That’s a good idea.”
Madison looked at Franny. “Thank you for everything. But most of all, thank you for being the only real mother I ever had,” she said, pulling the frail woman into a long hug.
“That’s my girl,” she thought she heard Franny whisper.
Or maybe she’d imagined it. It didn’t matter.
She was Franny’s girl, Madison thought. From the moment the couple had taken her in, they’d treated her like their own daughter. It didn’t matter what Eric thought or what the court said. She was Franny’s daughter of the heart. And that was the only thing that mattered.
Madison shook her head. “I don’t know if he’s my man.”
But she did. In her heart, where it counted, Alex was hers. Madison decided it was time to go home and deal with her real life. The one that existed in this moment.
And if that meant she had to live with whatever car
eer choices made him happy, wasn’t that a small price to pay? She didn’t have to like it, but she did have to live with it. Up till now, he’d done all the changing and giving. It was her turn.
* * *
Alex was getting good and worked up, pacing Madison’s apartment and glaring out the window. By the time her car pulled into her assigned parking spot, he was out of his mind worried, not knowing where she’d gone after getting the bad news, and she hadn’t returned his texts or his calls.
When she put the key in the lock and walked in, he was waiting in the living room, back to the window, arms folded over his chest. “Well, it’s about damned time.”
“Excuse me?” She blinked, her eyes puffy and red from crying. The sight hurt, but he was still furious she’d left him hanging without a word.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was?”
She shook her head. “I thought you were calling and texting from New York, not Florida. How would I know you were home? And if anyone was left hanging, it was me. Where the hell were you for the last twenty-four hours? You didn’t pick up the phone and text or call!” She tossed her keys and purse onto the table and folded her arms across her chest, mimicking his pose … and calling him on his hypocritical bullshit.
“Madison—”
“And while we’re at it, tell me why I had to see those photographs and still not hear a word from you.”
“I can explain everything,” he said, his heart racing as he remembered everything between them he’d put aside during his concern for her after the hearing.
“The words of a guilty man if I ever heard them,” she said, but she didn’t look angry.
He was confused by her mixed signals. She strode over to him and grasped him by the shoulders. She was slight but determined as she turned and backed him over to the sofa, pushing him into the couch cushions.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.