Chapter 6 - THE GILDED CAGE NO MORE
The next morning,
the city woke up to a different New York.
The news of the wedding cancellation was everywhere.
The Ashford-Hail alliance was dead.
The stock market reacted accordingly,
but I didn't care about the numbers.
I was sitting in the kitchen,
watching Posie play with a set of wooden blocks.
Mave was across from me,
drinking coffee and looking at the job applications she had tried to save.
"I can't stay here forever,
Garrett,"
she said.
"I need a life of my own."
"You have a life here,"
I said.
"No,"
she countered.
"I have a gilded cage."
"I want to work."
"I want to show Posie that her mother is strong."
I looked at the folder.
She had been applying for graphic design positions.
"I have a marketing firm,"
I started,
but she held up a hand.
"No family favors."
"I want to earn it."
I smiled,
realizing that this was why I had fallen in love with her in the first place.
She wasn't interested in the power or the money.
She was interested in the truth.
"Okay,"
I said.
"I'll help you fix your portfolio."
"But on one condition."
"What?"
"You let me be her father."
"You let me take her to the park."
"You let me buy her those ridiculously expensive shoes she saw in the window."
Mave laughed,
a sound that felt like the first day of spring.
"Okay,"
she said.
"But no bodyguards in the sandbox."
"I'll see what I can do,"
I joked.
But the moment of peace was interrupted by the sound of tires screeching in the driveway.
A fleet of black cars had surrounded the building.
And they weren't mine.
Wesley burst into the room.
"Boss,
May you like
the Ashfords are here."
"And they brought Dominic."
