The Secret (Boston's Best 1)

Chapter Sixty

Matt

When Maddie told me that she had to go to back to Ireland for her court day, I told her that I was going with her, she told me that was silly and I shouldn't, I told her I was still going to go, we argued about it for a few minutes until I pulled out my phone and booked both of us tickets.

She's come around to the idea now, but I think she was just nervous about me seeing her in her environment in where she lived most of her life and about the media.

I haven't brought it up with her because I don't want her to be uncomfortable and Riley mentioned that Maddie doesn't know the extent of it all anyway.

The media in Ireland has been quite vicious with trying to tear apart Maddie's character. And that's only because she refuses to give them a statement, explaining the story from her side. So all they have to go off is whatever Seán Johnson or the Johnson family tell them; which is that 'Maddie's a two-faced lying bitch wanting her five minutes of fame and using the Johnson name to get there.'

I haven't met a single one of the Johnson's yet, but I know after the bits I've read about them that they are all disgusting people, and I won't be watching any movie or television show that comes from their studio anymore.

I look over at Maddie and see her staring out of the window of the plane –we've been stuck on the tarmac at Dublin Airport for twenty minutes waiting for the traffic on the runway to clear up.

"Mads?" I ask her and she looks at me, "You okay?"

She nods, "Yeah," Then she shakes her head, "No, I'm just nervous. This is a lot."

I take her hand in mine, "I know it is, babe, but you coming back here and facing all of these people? It's the bravest thing I've seen someone I know do. You are the bravest person I know, Maddie."

She smiles at me, "That's not true at all, but thank you for saying it."

"Hello. Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?" One of the female flight attendants' voices comes through the speakers. "We are about to make our descent down the runway. Your captain and all flight staff thank you for choosing to fly Aer Lingus today and safe travels. It is currently eighteen degrees celsius and twenty minutes past five in the evening. Apologies from us all if our delay getting off the runway impacted anything you had planned. Oíche mhaith agus taisteal slán...Dia dhuit. A dhaoine uaisle, an bhféadfhainn bhur n-aird a dhíriú, le bhur dtoil?"

She continues her speech in Irish and Maddie and I stand up and get off the plane last because who really wants to just be standing up for ten minutes waiting for everyone else to get off?

When we get our carry-on bags we make our way through the arrivals terminal and grab our checked suitcases from the conveyor belt. When you think about it, the whole concept of the baggage claim is a bit weird. Because you and everyone else around you just have to trust that you take the right bag and that no one steals yours. Weird.

We're the last people from our flight leaving the airport now because Maddie really needed to pee because she refuses to use the restroom on a plane.

The second that we start getting closer to the exit of the airport I can immediately tell that somethings wrong. Because outside of the doors I can see a herd of people shouting and with cameras out.

But like the idiots that we are, Maddie and I still walk out there thinking nothing of it, because maybe a celebrity or someone is coming? Because why would anyone be waiting for us?

We're wrong by the way. They're like vultures waiting to attack the second the doors slide open.

"Madeleine are you lying to hurt Seán Johnson and the reputation of Johnson Studios because they turned you down for a role on one of their up-and-coming movies!"