The Returning Ex (Completed)

Chapter 4 – Madison’s confession

Chapter 4 – Madison’s confession

Tristan Wilder

POV

I went back to my motel room, I was staying at a rundown motel called [Motel 6 Los Angeles]; because it was all I could afford, all my money was in a savings account and most of it was stuck in investments so I was broke until my next payday which wasn't until the end of the month and it was only the fifteenth. The Bureau will only r****d me the money on payday so that wouldn't help either. That is when I realised I do not have money to stay at this crappy motel for one more night I was supposed to be out by tonight. That meant I was forced to make the one phone call I have been dreading to make for ten years. I took my phone out and searched the phone number. I hesitantly pressed the call button.

The phone barely rang. She answered the call almost instantly.

“Madison Martelli Hello?” she answers

I take a deep breath “Hey Maddie…” I say

“Tristan?” she gasps surprise “Oh My Word Tristan thank God you’re alive” she says

“Yeah, it’s me” I say with a chuckle

“How are you doing? How is the army treating you? Are you doing okay? Are you still in DC?” she starts to ramble

“I’m in LA actually. I was wondering if I could stay at your place for a couple of days till the case I’m working on clears up and I can go back to DC?” I ask

“Oh my God I get to see you too? Of course you can stay with us, God I missed my little brother.” She says

“See you in a bit Maddie” I say

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I have been standing in front of Maddie and Nick’s house for the past half an hour. I could not bring myself to enter the house yet. Just standing outside brings back so many memories.

I have been leaning against my rental car, looking at my old house. The house was filled with all of my good and bad memories with Aria and our relationship. The main reason I never visited that and the fact that I refused to take vacation days because sitting around doing nothing was way too painful and felt like a knife stabbing me in the heart.

“Tristan how much longer are we staying out here?” I hear a deep voice next to me

I turn to see a guy standing next to me. It didn’t take me long to figure out who it was.

“Micah, how long have you been standing there?” I ask him

I hug him and he hugs me back.

“A few minutes, but you look like you’ve been here a while” he says to me, as he leans against my rental

“Yeah for some reason, I’m having a hard time going in.” I say honestly, as I lean against the car again.

“Why? Do you have any bad memories here? Or is it Aria?” he asks

I move away from the car and shuffle my feet. I do not answer his question. He takes the hint and does not push further.

“Come on. Let’s go inside” he says

I nod. I take a deep breathe. I straighten up and get my bag out of the car.

“Yeah. Let’s go” I say as we walk into the house.

“Tristan!” I hear a little girl call my name.

The next thing I know is I feel someone jump onto me. A small body

A 12 year old somebody. Alessandra. God it has been too long. Ally is all grown up the last time I saw her she could not even speak yet. But then again it has been 10 years since I have last saw her.

“Alessandra…” I say with a sigh

She wraps her legs around my waist.

“I finally get to meet you. Mom talks about you all the time,” she says

“Alessandra get off of your uncle right now!” I hear Nick scolding her

She jumped off me as soon as she heard her father’s voice.

I looked over at Nick. He looked exactly the same he did the last time I saw him. He was in his late thirties now so he should not be grey. I walked up to him and hugged him and he hugged me back.

“You look good man.” Nick says as we let go of each other.

“Thanks man. You too…” I say giving him a small smile.

“Tristan!!!” I hear my name in a high pitch squeal

“Jesus woman we still need our hearing” I hear Nick complain as he walks away.

I see he has not changed in 10 years. His still pokes fun at everything.

I turn to my sister and give her a smile.

“Hey Maddie” I say

She pulls me in for a hug. I wrap my arms around her.

She pulls away from me and inspects my body walking around me. She would not be able to see anything through my clothing so I did not mind her inspecting me.

Maddie all of a sudden pulls me upstairs and to my old room. The room looked exactly the same as I left it. That made me stop dead in my tracks, the walls were full of pictures of Aria and I. We were so happy back then and the reason we not married right now was all my fault. she had decorated my room for my 18th birthday, she got special wallpaper of pictures of the two of us. I do not know where she got it though but I know she ordered it somewhere. The bed was undone and clothes were on the bed. I was throwing out on the bed as I was trying to make a quick escape the clothes were scattered on the floor as well.

I hope she is happy without me, a boyfriend and her son. I remember I once made her promise not to have children with anyone other than me. However, I guess I did not think we would actually break up one day. I thought we would be together always and forever. All the plans we had back then for our future for some reason feels like some sort of pipe dream right now.

Maddie must have sensed me stuck at the door because she turned to look at me.

“It’s exactly the same way you left it. I do come in once a week to clean but I put everything exactly the same way you left it. I left it like this hoping one day you would return. And now you’re back” she says

I nod making my way into the room looking around. Then finally walking over to the bed. I sit on the double bed in the middle of the room. I look at the picture on the bedside table. I pick it up and take a closer look at it. It is a picture of Aria and I we took that picture on Valentine’s Day. We were dating for about a week then. She looked so happy in the picture. She was smiling brightly and her blue eyes were shinning. I was not looking at the camera I had my back to the camera my face in her neck.

God I just realised how much I miss her. I wish that night never happened and she has probably has already moved on.

“Tristan…” Maddie says

I put the picture down and look at her. She takes a seat next to me on the bed.

“Tristan there is something I should tell you.” Madison says and that worries me.

“Yeah?” I say urging her to continue

“A month after you left Aria, she came by looking for you. She looked really upset and something about the how upset she looked stuck by me for 10 years.” Maddie says

I looked at my sister for a few seconds… if Aria came by a month after I left, but is not around the same time she was…

My phone rang bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Wilder” I say

“Man someone hacked into all of your FBI case files. We have not put her name on any of the case files for the k********g case yet, since you not even supposed to be in LA right now. However, the person who hacked the case files added your name as the lead investigator of the case. It is someone good that is for sure I could not track them and they also masked their IP address. The person is a ghost man. I checked and your flight back to DC has been cancelled as well and you have been blocked from all flights out of LA. I got to tell you man someone is making sure you stay in Los Angeles” Jimmy says

Why the hell would someone go through so much trouble to make me stay in LA? And why kidnap Aria’s kid to prevent me from leaving. He has nothing to do with me. k********g him would not ensure me staying unless they think I am his father. I am not right.

“Thank you Jimmy… Do me a favour find out why this case involves me and also find any links between the Jacobs family and mine maybe that could give us some clues into why they targeting me? Also dig into the boy’s father run his DNA against everyone. Even the people in the FBI I want answers by the end of the day Jimmy.” I say hanging up. And not waiting for Jimmy to respond

Jimmy had been working with me since I started working for the FBI, he was a tech genius and he came to LA with me for tech support on the mission. He was only 18 years old but he was a good hacker. I treated him as if he were my own son, in remember one time I was working under cover and I was made, I was shot and left for dead. He was 14 at the time he spoke to me the entire time to keep me alive until the ambulance came.

“What happened?” Maddie asks

“I’m sorry Maddie I really want to tell you but I cannot speak to you about an on-going investigation,” I say seriously even if I wanted to tell her about Aria I could not. I did not make the rules and I was not going to lose my job over being a loud mouth.

“Case? What case? I do not understand if you are in the army why are you working cases?” she asks confused.

“No, no I’m not in the army anymore… I think about seven years ago I left and I joined the FBI about six years ago.” I say

She nods slowly taking everything I just said in. “I see… if you weren’t in the army why didn’t you call?” she asks

I look straight ahead slipping my phone back into my pocket. I did not know how to respond. I do not know why I did not call. However, every time I tried to it felt as if my heart was breaking so after a year, I stopped trying and well one year turned into ten in a flash of an eye.

“I didn’t blame you because I thought you were deployed and didn’t have any cell signal but to know for almost seven years you’ve been state side and never once bothered to call me it hurts Tristan… I know she broke your heart but the fact that you not only left her you left your only sister as well. You never once bothered to contact your family” she says

Yes I knew I was somehow hurting her but for some reason I couldn’t call. I really am sorry for hurting my sister it was never my intension.

“I’m sorry Madison. I really am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just needed to get away from LA.” I explain

She nods. And we sit in silence for a few minutes when I remember her saying something about Aria visiting a month after I left.

“Did she say why she was visiting?” I ask curious as to why she was looking for me.

“Who?” Madison asks

“Aria, ten years ago?” I say

She shakes her head no “No, but I urh remember she was crying and was clearly upset. She was even more upset when I told her you joined the army. Look Tristan I’m sorry but I blamed her for you leaving and I wasn’t the nicest to her back when she came.” Madison says. I could see she was ashamed of the way she treated her.

I nod; there is not much I could say.

“Look Madison, I’m the one who messed up back then not you. You do not have anything to be ashamed of.” I say looking around the room. I felt a stab in my heart looking at all of the memories all the walls covered in moments Aria and I shared. A reminder of the mistakes I have made. “Actually I-I don’t think I can stay in this room. I’ll sleep on the couch instead,” I say getting up

I walk out of the room. I stop dead in my tracks when I see Ally standing in front of her room. I gave her a small smile, which she returned. I was about to say something when my phone rang.

“Wilder” I say

She walks into her room before waving goodbye to me, I wave back and I make my way down the stairs.

“Tristan…” I stop dead in my tracks almost falling down the stairs, when I hear a familiar sweet and almost angelic voice coming from the other side of the phone. She was the last person I expected to call me right now.

“Aria?” I ask in total shock