When We're Thirty Casey Dembowski (the chimp paradox .TXT) 📖

own. The blood froze in her veins at the sight of Madison in the entryway, a set of keys dangling from her left hand. She still had keys.

“What are you doing here?” Hannah asked, even though the answer was written all over Madison’s ridiculously calm face.

“I came to see how William was doing,” she said plainly.

“He’s fine, no thanks to you.” Hannah stood up and faced Madison head-on. She had gotten the full story about Will and Jon’s fight the night before. The depths that Madison stooped to were beyond Hannah’s understanding.

Madison didn’t react, except to shrug out of her coat. “I’m surprised you came back.”

“He’s my husband,” Hannah said incredulously. “I was never permanently gone.”

Madison pulled a face. “I think maybe you were.”

“Get out,” Hannah said, anger coursing through her.

“You can’t kick me out of my apartment.” Madison stepped further inside and dropped her coat on a nearby chair. The door was still open behind her, but it was clear she wasn’t planning on honoring Hannah’s demand.

“It’s Will’s apartment.” Hannah walked around the couch, effectively blocking Madison from gaining more ground.

Madison held up her hands placatingly. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”

“You attempted to destroy my marriage. So yes, it has to be like this.”

“I’m done apologizing,” Madison said. “I called you dozens of times. I begged and cried and tried to explain.”

God, Hannah didn’t want to fight. Yet oh, how she wanted to. She’d avoided Madison, but here she was—front and center—asking for it. Except all the words had fled from Hannah’s mind. All the pretend conversations and mean things she’d planned to say faded away. “Have you tried apologizing to your fiancé? Or to Will? Don’t you think you’ve messed their lives up enough? To go back and do more damage—”

“Why does it matter?” Madison’s voice rose, and the words came out almost as a screech. “He picked you. He married you.”

“This isn’t just about Will! You betrayed me! We were friends. I let you into my life, and you tried to steal my husband.”

“I loved him first,” she said, her voice quiet.

It was that simple to Madison. Hannah was expendable—Will, apparently, was not. Hannah shook her head. “That doesn’t mean you have permission to mess up his life.”

“Me?” Madison’s face turned cruel. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you think I didn’t know about you? Hannah from college—the one who got away.” Madison made a disgusted face. “The pinnacle that every other woman was held to. You messed up Will’s life long before I came around. And then you marry him when he’s at his lowest. Maybe if you’d taken more than two seconds before hopping into his bed, you might have known who I was from the beginning, and maybe you would’ve thought twice about making a complicated situation worse.”

“It shouldn’t have been complicated!” Hannah said. “You made your choice the moment you kissed Jon. Leave Will alone. Go be a Thorne or don’t, but stop trying to act like any of this is hard for you. You destroyed a family, Madison.”

“Jon kissed me,” she said plainly.

“And you kissed him back. You lied to both of them—cheated on both of them. You pretended to be my friend.” Hannah shook with frustration. How did Madison not feel the magnitude of what she’d done—to the Thornes and to Hannah? “Do you even remember how to tell the truth?”

Madison’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “How’s this for truth? You’re in love with a boy who doesn’t exist anymore. And when you realize the man you married isn’t your precious college crush, you’ll leave him.”

Hannah shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I love Will, and he loves me, here and now. And even if that weren’t true, he will never love you again.”

“I want to see him,” Madison said, her voice a low growl.

“Madison?” Will stood in the doorway, a reusable shopping bag in each hand. He looked from Madison to Hannah and back again, his face paling. “What are you doing here?”

She had the audacity to look hurt as she picked up her coat. “I wanted to make sure Jon didn’t mangle your face.” She reached out as if to touch Will’s bruise.

Will backed away from her. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Madison frowned as her gaze, blazing with anger, passed between the two of them. She started to respond, but Will cut her off.

“I’ll need that key back,” he said, holding out his hand.

Hannah waited for the backlash, but Madison simply unhooked the key from the ring and shoved it into Will’s hand. She brushed past him and turned to look at them when she reached the threshold. The look she fixed on Hannah was one of such hatred that Hannah wondered how Madison had ever appeared to be her friend.

“Madison,” Hannah said, her anger reaching the tipping point. “I’ll get the RSVP in the mail for your records, but we won’t be able to make the wedding.”

Will shut the door before Madison could reply. From inside the apartment, they could hear her stomping down the stairs.

Rage ran through Hannah’s veins down to her toes and up to her fingers. She wanted to throw something. She wanted to chase after Madison and shake some sense into her. The affable woman she’d known this whole time was gone. Hannah counted to ten in her head before loosening her grip on her cell phone—the outline of it was scored into her palm.

“I’m sorry,” Will said, pulling Hannah into an embrace. “I didn’t realize she still had a key.”

“I’m fine, Will. Really.”

“You’re crying.”

Hannah stepped away from his embrace, swiping at her tears. “I’m going to take a walk.”

Chapter 47Hannah

Thirty minutes and one impromptu jog through downtown later, Hannah found herself in front of Will’s building again. Her head was clearer, and she’d shaken off the specter of Will and Madison’s past. She had to tell Will about his father’s investment. He’d already freed himself from Wellington Thorne and its shackles to his family. Maybe the news wouldn’t hit