Chapter 4

Fred's POV

“I dismiss,” I said at the same time, taking a deep breath. All I didn’t need that morning was to keep putting up with my family’s assumptions about my sexuality.

“How much do you want?”

“Who said I’m here for money?” She closed her face, crossing her legs while getting upset.

“Mom told me to see how you were since she doesn’t remember that you have a family.”

“Oh, unfortunately, I never forget,” I spoke coldly, and Madeleine leaned over to throw my paperweight against me. I took the object out of her hands with a laugh. Madeleine smiled and put one of the strands of her straight and long hair behind her ears, the strand as dark as the earrings she wore.

“What are you up to?” Madeleine shrugged, with false innocence. “Mom wants to meet your girlfriend.

”I arched an eyebrow. I already knew that game. No science would explain how family members cared more about our intimate lives than ourselves. It was no wonder that I tried to get away from everyone, just so I didn’t have to give that little taste that I was hiding something. I hated having to explain myself unnecessarily.

“For the thousandth time, I’m not dating, I don’t want to meet your friends, I’m not going to any charity ball, and I don’t want to stress more than I already am.”Madeleine snorted in her childish way, which she ended up discovering in a few years that she got everything she wanted when issuing. The eyes of that light blue shade, identical to mine—but without that genetic flaw that made me have heterochromia it didn’t have—semi-closed and her mouth bowed slightly down. The damn thing knew that everyone was always “I miss you, little brother.”

“I don’t fall for it.”

“Mom is freaking out because it’s been at least four months since you forgot about us.”

“I can’t forget if you are always visiting me,” I said naturally, but Madeleine acted as if I had just said the worst of offenses. I took a deep breath, swallowed that anger I was feeling for August, and watched my sister more frankly. “Maddie, I’m too busy.”

“But you always visited us on weekends,” she said, still sly, although she had diverted her eyes to an imaginary line that was loose in her thin pants. “Why haven’t you visited us on weekends for months? What are you hiding?”

“I’m not hiding anything. My life is public, thanks to the scandals in which you get involved with the girls your age.”

“I don’t know how your girlfriend can handle you, being boring and grumpy the way it is. She must be a saint.” Madeleine rolled her eyes as she said that, so she made that painful expression disappear from her face. There was the sister I knew.

Ten years younger than me, already graduated from business school, and always getting into trouble with the law when driving drunk or under the effect of that shit that her friends encouraged her to use. Madeleine still gave me work when she got involved with the worst types of men, so the burden of having a little dialogue with individuals always fell on my back. It never ended well for them. And my sister swore that the idiots only stopped bothering her because she knew how to be firm when ending unlasting relationships.

The fact that she and my mother were curious about who would be the mysterious person who occupied my days was not merely a coincidence. The weekend before, I had circulated through the unoccupied tabloids that the throne of my empire would be occupied by a mysterious and foreign young woman. Of course, Rebecca didn’t even bother with the gossip, considering that we both always knew the limits and terms of that relationship, and a betrayal was not on the agenda. But the whole world thought that the model that served as a mannequin for a future project of my logistics team would be the future Mrs. Hanson. Maybe the lunch we had contributed to that bullshit, but the woman demanded to take care of her contract only with me, and not even my legal team had thought she was doing that for an extra dose of fame.

I didn’t feel like breaking the contract after her name stamped the tabloids because it would raise more small talk, and I hated that my relationships got into that merit. As long as the world thought Friederich Hanson was getting involved with foreign models, the one that really made a difference in my days would remain safe and sound. But since Madeleine was there to probe if such a model could be the reason for my disappearance, I decided that I would let her give a string to the subject. I just gave a discreet smile, the kind I used to offer to women other than Rebecca, just for her.

“Let’s schedule a dinner,” I said vaguely, so that she would think I would take whoever was with me. Rebecca knew very well that our confidentiality agreement would not allow that family contact. “So you and mom are happy?”

“Super!” said Madeleine, jumping from the table and running to my side. She hugged me tightly, pushing me against her noisy necklaces and thin body. Just because she was really my favorite sister, I didn’t push her away, and I giggled at the sudden gesture. She walked away a step but kept touching my shoulder. “And that thing about missing her was true, you know? After Dad, we kind of don’t want to lose you either.

”I liked that subject less than my personal life, even more so when I noticed that Madeleine totally erased at the slightest mention of it and that the pain went up my chest, right in the middle of that still incurable scar. So I tried to poke her in the ribs, making her scream in surprise and laugh. I got up, opening some buttons on my shirt and relieving the pressure of that day that had barely begun. Madeleine cheered up at the same time.

“Do you want to have a decent breakfast?” I asked in a low voice.

“I want to,” she said, hooking her arm to mine. The difference between our heights was minimal that day, thanks to her very high jumps. “But you are forbidden to run away, no matter what subject I start talking about.”

“Agreed,” I said, although I opened a smile that made it very clear that the situation would still be under my control. “As long as you don’t leave me more stressed than I already am.”

Madeleine laughed and promptly followed me when I led us to the door. It hadn’t been more than five minutes before she started chattering about everything I least liked, but just because she had taken the trouble to wake up so early to catch me—even if at the behest of our mother—I didn’t have the courage to grumble again or do less than laugh at everything she said. After all, they both only had me, and as much as Rebecca was the only one doing me any good, I owed everything I was to those women in my family. As much as they thought my indifference was for simple pride and not to keep them safe.