Chapter89Bringing Flowers to My Wife
Pushing the door open, Matthew saw Madison asleep at her desk. He walked over slowly, noting the incomplete sketches strewn about the desk, all of them designs for clothing, just like the ones he'd seen her working on at the villa.
He gently lifted her and placed her in bed, then tucked her in snugly.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he watched her for a moment. Observing her rosy cheeks, he couldn't resist and tenderly pinched one.
"You silly woman," he murmured.
Feeling the disturbance, Madison swatted his teasing hand away and turned over to resume her slumber.
With an indulgent smile, he rose and quietly left the room.
He finally turned off the TV and left the room.
*
In the CEO's office at JK Group, Matthew sat behind his desk, eyes glued to the documents on his computer screen. Liam, with nothing better to do, strolled upstairs.
"Matthew, I heard Madison moved out?" Liam asked with a mischievous grin.
Matthew glanced up, unamused, and without a word, turned back to scrutinize the spreadsheets on his screen.
"Were you not on good terms the last time we all went out for dinner? Have you tried those tricks I taught you?"
Seeing Matthew's darkening expression and silent treatment, Liam let out an exclamation.
"No way, Matthew! This isn't like you, showing no initiative at all. Now that Madison's moved out, who knows if she'll meet another guy? Someone else could step in as Quentin and Hannah's stepdad. Isn't that like them calling someone else 'Dad'?"
"Get out."
Listening to Liam incessantly bring up Madison and the idea of other men, Matthew's thoughts inadvertently drifted to the encounter with Nicholas in her room the day before.
With a stern face, he glared at Liam and commanded him to leave.
Unfazed, Liam continued as if blind to Matthew's scowl, "Seriously, Matthew, you should ask Sister out for dinner and then get her flowers—a heartfelt confession always works."
"Get out," Matthew repeated coldly.
"The ultimate move is to princess carry her. If She disagrees, keep trying until she does—once, twice, thrice. Persistence is the key," Liam persisted.
That was the last straw. Matthew flung the folder from his hands.
"Get out."
Liam dodged the flying folder and quipped as he escaped, "Now you'll probably start figuring out which restaurant and where to buy flowers, huh Matthew?"
Once Liam left, Matthew set his work aside and sat pensively in his chair.
Brian knocked and entered to report on his tasks. After finishing, he stood waiting for his boss's instructions. Unexpectedly, Matthew asked him a question.
"Brian, do you ever buy your wife flowers?"
Caught off guard, Brian still answered honestly, "Yes, for anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, birthdays—that sort of thing. Plus, I get her bags, jewelry, and clothes. You know, something to celebrate the occasion. Women love that."
"Is that so?" Matthew fixed his gaze on Brian.
"Absolutely!" Brian responded, almost ready to swear on it.
"All right, you can go," Matthew dismissed him, bowing his head back to his work.
Brian thumbed through the document in his hands and muttered, “So, this plan...”
“Just leave it here. I’ll check it later.”
Brian, without a word, placed the paperwork on the desk and stepped out of the office, thinking to himself, ‘Boss seems to be in a pretty good mood lately.’
*
Matthew left work early and called Madison from his car. He said that Grandpa wanted to see the kids and invited them over to the family estate for the night. He arranged for a car to pick them up from there the next day and take them directly to daycare.
Madison was fine with the arrangement as long as Grandpa and the kids were happy. It was all good. Especially since she now had the evening free to catch up on her architectural drafts.
“Are you home?” Matthew broached the topic of Quentin and Hannah’s grandparents before getting down to business.
“No. What’s up?” Madison replied, puzzled. Her being home or not shouldn’t affect his plan to pick up Quentin and Hannah. The daycare staff knew him as the kids' father.
“Er—when will you be back?”
“I'm not sure yet. Is there something you need? You can tell me over the phone,” proposed Madison, planning to put in some extra hours at the studio now that the kids wouldn't be there.
“Nothing.” Matthew hung up.
Madison listened to the beeping tone and shook her head. That was so like Matthew, always unpredictable. Not giving it much thought, she set down her phone and got back to work.
Matthew left to pick up Quentin and Hannah from daycare earlier than usual. The siblings settled in the back seat of the car.
“Dad, why are you so early today? The other kids are still there,” Hannah inquired, peering over the back of the front seat at Matthew.
“Mom’s busy with work today, and Grandpa William wanted you two to spend a couple more days with him, so I came to take you to his place,” he explained.
Knowing their mom was tied up with work, both kids understood and quietly followed Dad to visit Grandpa William.
After dropping the little ones off at the estate, Matthew drove to a flower shop and bought a huge bouquet of roses, which filled the entire trunk of his car.
Then he parked his car downstairs in the Riverview Gardens complex, waiting for Madison to return home.
Madison had been burning the midnight oil at the studio until after 9 PM, skipping dinner altogether. She trudged downstairs to a grocery store, quickly picked up a sandwich and a bottle of milk, and settled in for a quick meal before heading toward the subway station.
As she approached her apartment building, lost in her thoughts, she failed to spot the luxurious black Rolls-Royce parked nearby or the figure leaning against it in the shadows cast by the dim streetlight.
Matthew sat in his car, waiting for her. When she finally arrived, he hurriedly grabbed a bouquet of red roses from the trunk and followed her into the building, but she didn't notice him. He pressed the elevator button and waited.
Upon reaching the seventh floor, as Madison was about to unlock her door, the sound of the elevator chiming caught her attention, and she instinctively turned around.
There stood Matthew, his visage even more striking, framed by his tailored black suit, with the stark white of his dress shirt peeking from the collar. He advanced toward her, clutching an impressive bunch of roses, his dark eyes fixated on her with an intensity that outshone the corridor lighting.
He moved closer and closer, causing Madison to retreat step by step in fear until her back was pressed against the door with nowhere left to flee.
"You... why are you here... so late... what do you want?" she stammered, the sight of Matthew with flowers on her doorstep accelerating her heartbeat uncontrollably, her hands tightly clenched behind her, bracing for whatever came next.
His reply was brief but resonant in her ears, "Waiting for you."