Chapter 11 The Photos

• Maddison's POV
• "Hi, you've got Linda Carter, I'm overseas working on a project and it's difficult to reach me. Leave a lengthy message and I'll return your call when I'm able to."
• The voice that spoke from the machine was smooth, like she was in the office, and totally unemotional, and that was the voice her mum Linda used for the world. It was the same voice, the same considerate words of apology, that had left a message on the morning of graduation. Maddison could still see herself standing there in her cap and gown with her phone against her ear listening to her mother say that a problem with a new finance project in Dubai needed her there right away and no questions were asked. There were reasons, of course, and the promise of a huge present, a brand-new laptop that arrived on a delivery service two days later, but the front row seat next to her father's had also been empty. It was here that Maddison had discovered the most important fact that her mother never dropped projects. For her, love was something to be put off on a to do list until later, a bug to be fixed with a timely cash payment. And her father's death, it was that moment of her mother's realization which had made Maddison so self-sufficient, yet left her with an empty void inside her, which Tyler, with his constant attention and over-the-top promises, so wonderfully filled.