“Madison and I were together for years. Years. You knew how I felt about her. You helped me pick out her engagement ring. And all the while, you were fucking her behind my back. And you’re not even sorry about it. Not once have you expressed one regret about throwing our entire relationship away. Did you ever stop to think what your affair would do to me? To us? To this family?”
Will glanced at his father, finding him stone-faced and immovable. He didn’t seem to care that his sons were in pain. He’d never cared for a second. Will turned back to his brother, whose anger had faded to a pain he was all too familiar with.
“I didn’t kiss your fiancée,” he said wanly. “She came to my room uninvited on our old anniversary and told me she still loved me. She ruined my marriage.”
Will’s voice rose on the last sentence, and as he reached for his brother to shake some sense into him, Jonathan stepped between them. “Now is not the time for this, William.”
Will shook his head. There would never be a time for it. Not in the Thorne family. They weathered the storm—they didn’t chase it. But this storm would never pass.
With a final withering look at his family, Will walked out of the office, stopping on the threshold for the briefest of moments. “Consider this my resignation.”
Chapter 43Hannah
Hannah watched her intern, Camila, skip down the street to her car from the window of her apartment. She’d never met anyone as happy as Camila, especially not someone who also loved emo and punk rock. But Camilla was like that every time Hannah had seen her in the few days since being officially hired. That morning, she had shown up with Starbucks in hand, having already memorized Hannah’s order. They had worked through lunch, trying to cover the top three finishers from the Battle of the Bands they’d attended the night before. Camila had taken the runner-up, her favorite of the three and a band she’d seen more than once around the city. Hannah had decided to let her off early to get her weekend started after all her hard work.
Once Camila reached her car, Hannah returned to her desk and opened a blank document. She checked the clock. It was nearing two in the afternoon. Hannah didn’t know the nap schedule at Riley’s house, but this seemed like the usual time. Still, she shot Riley a text just in case. God help anyone who called and woke the girls. Riley hadn’t left a message when she’d called during Camila’s interview. Camila was good—raw but talented. She’d be a great asset to Deafening Silence Boston if she wanted to stay on.
Hannah rolled out her yoga mat and fell into Forward Fold, shaking the tension from her arms. Two Sun Salutations later, Hannah’s phone rang. Riley’s voice came through, abnormally high pitched. “Are you sitting down?”
Hannah stepped back into standing from her Downward-Facing Dog and then sat cross-legged. “I am now.”
“We have a cover article for you.” The pause between Riley’s sentences was weighted, and Hannah sat there for what felt like forever before Riley continued. “Leonard Nulty has granted us an exclusive for the Boston launch.”
Hannah gripped her phone. “What?”
“Surprise!”
Holy. Shit.
“Are you there?” Riley asked, laughing.
“When?” Hannah croaked. She could barely breathe. This was everything. Already, the panic was setting in. Leonard was notoriously awful to interview. He gave dry answers without room for follow-up questions. His music was personal enough, so in interviews, he kept to the basics. But an exclusive? He’d never—to her knowledge—granted anyone an exclusive.
“Later next week. I’ll email you the details.”
“Okay,” she said, barely able to get the word out. She had an exclusive with Leonard Nulty. Holy shit.
“Hannah?”
“Yes?”
“Breathe.” Riley hung up.
Hannah pulled her laptop down onto the floor with her and stared at the empty Word document. She was supposed to be writing an article about... Hannah’s mind went blank. Who cared about whichever no-name band she’d just interviewed? She had an exclusive with Leonard Nulty. She had to call Will. The thought came to her unbridled before she could stop it. She’d heard her mother’s advice loud and clear, but she still hadn’t found the strength to call him. She would. Soon. But when she did, it had to be about him, and right now, it wouldn’t be.
Hannah FaceTimed Kate from her laptop instead. She stretched a leg out in front of her and folded over herself. Both her legs straightened under the pressure.
Kate picked up on the third ring. She sat at her desk and held a steaming cup. She was bundled in a cowl-neck sweater that Hannah knew was paired with those brown riding boots they’d found on super clearance right after Christmas.
“Hey, Bostonite.”
“I’m a New Yorker, remember?”
Kate laughed. “One who lives in Boston.”
Hannah smiled. She missed their Kate-and-Hannah banter. She missed Kate and Hannah. Between wedding planning and the Thornes, Hannah had spent most of her free time with Madison, and when she’d seen Kate, it had almost always been as part of the trio they’d been becoming. Anger boiled under the surface, and she shook the thought of Madison from her head.
Kate’s eyes shifted from Hannah’s face to her legs, and she nodded approvingly. “It’s nice to see you with both legs on the ground.”
“I’m interviewing Leonard Nulty next week.” The words flew from her mouth in an excited yelp.
“Holy shit.”
Hannah laughed. “That’s what I said.”
“I’m so proud of you.” She paused, and Hannah could already anticipate her next question. “Are you going to tell Will?”
Hannah nodded. “Yes, I just... I don’t know what to do about him yet.”
“Answering his calls would be a start.”
Hannah met her best friend’s eyes through the screen. “Do you think he still has feelings for Madison?”
Kate sighed. “If you’re asking me if I think something is going on between Will and Madison, then no, I don’t. He loves you and only you. That said, of course he still has feelings about her. Wouldn’t you?”
The words weighed on her heart with their truth. Madison, Will, Jon, and even Hannah would always be bound to each other once Madison became a Thorne. Hannah had separated her anger with Madison from her issues with Will as her mother had suggested, but even so, they were tangled together irrevocably.
Kate met her eyes through the camera, her expression gentle and sympathetic. “You trusted him enough to marry him. You need to trust him now.”
Levelheaded and sound advice—exactly what she’d expected and needed from Kate. Hannah opened her mouth to respond but found Kate staring down at her phone, her expression twisted with concern.
“What’s wrong?” Hannah asked, her heart rate ticking up a beat.
“I just got a text from Madison.”
The words slammed into Hannah, denting the armor she’d built. “You’re still talking to Madison?”
Kate gave her an incredulous look as if to say that wasn’t the point before her expression softened. Hannah could almost feel the hand that would’ve been on her shoulder if they were face-to-face. “Hannah,” Kate said, “according to Madison, Will’s in the hospital.”
Hannah was on her feet in an instant, looking for her phone. If Will was in the hospital, someone would’ve told her—someone other than Madison.
“She’s lying to get my attention,” Hannah said, grabbing her phone from her desk. Kate responded, but Hannah couldn’t hear anything over the buzzing of her phone. Her vision narrowed, fixing on the contact flashing across her screen—Daniel.
Chapter 44Hannah
