When We Fall (Take the Fall, #2)(62)

“But I thought I didn’t inherit until I was thirty,” she says, and I kiss her head. The tension in her shoulders grows. “Half on my birthday? But-but Mother and Father never—”

She shakes her head. “No, there was no prenup. Why would there be? I’ve been disowned.”

Prenup? Why would we need one of those? I know Piper comes from money, but prenups are for the ultrarich and famous.

“We’ll come in as soon as we can. Let me talk with my husband about his schedule.”

Piper turns to me as she ends the call. Her eyes are wide and her face is both pale and flushed. “My parents lied to me. They said that I was disowned, but—but in two months, I’ll be—we will be millionaires.”

Millionaires? I can’t speak at first. “I don’t want your money.”

“Too bad. It’s ours anyway.” She sinks down in the kitchen chair and drops her head into her hands. “I don’t understand how anyone could hate their child this much.”

“They don’t hate you.” But I sure as hell hate them in this moment.

She glances up at me, her cheeks streaked with tears. Only five minutes before, she was happy. Laughing. Teasing me as we drove home. Hell, she went on for twenty minutes about all the new monogramming she would have to get done.

“They knew I didn’t have enough money to live on but did nothing about it. They knew I needed money for school but let me flounder. Meanwhile, I could have set up a payment plan to pay for classes, because in November I get ten million dollars just for turning twenty-five.”

The weight of her words makes me sink down beside her. “Ten million dollars.” I rub the back of my neck. “Any way we can go back in time and do a prenup?”

“I don’t know. Jase, I don’t care about money. It’s great to have money to pay for stuff, but it’s my heart that’s been broken by the very people who should love me.” Piper shakes her head. “My dad still hasn’t said a word about Mark attacking me. My mother hasn’t said a word. They get to live their lives and I’m not even an afterthought anymore.”

That’s it. We’re settling this once and for all. I refuse to allow those *s to hurt her. “Are your parents home on Sundays?”

“Yes.” She sniffs and more tears fall.

I wipe them away. “I think it’s time I met my in-laws.”

—

I pull my Mustang up to the front door of the three-story mansion Piper grew up in. There are wings off each side, two stories each.

“I can go in and talk to them,” she says.

“Not happening. We’re together in this,” I counter.

“Which side did you live on?” I ask as I open her door and help her out. She insisted on changing before we came over. I totally approve of her bright blue form-fitting dress and matching heels. The ring I bought her looks mighty fine on her finger, too.

“East wing. My parents live in the west wing.”

“You didn’t even live on the same side of the house?” My voice is incredulous.

“No. I cried a lot as a baby and a toddler because of my medical issues, so they put Nanny and me on the other side,” she says as a matter of fact.

“I didn’t think it was possible to hate them even more, but I do.”

When the butler lets us into the house, her parents are waiting in the foyer. Neither of them looks very happy to see me. Us. Whatever. I don’t give a damn. I am here for the woman holding my hand.

“Hello, Mother. Father,” Piper says,

“Where in the hell have you been?” my father asks, his eyes blazing.

“Mother told me to marry the right man and you would leave us alone. So I did.”

Mrs. Ross’s gaze narrows in on Piper’s hand. Her face turns bright red. “I meant someone like Mark Williams, Piper, and you know it.”

I step in front of my wife. “Mark Williams? Are you f*cking kidding me? He attacked your daughter and you want her to—The two of you should be ashamed.” I pin my gaze on Piper’s dad. “Especially you. You’re supposed to protect your daughter, not hand her over like a sacrificial lamb to a scumbag like Mark.”

Her father’s face turns purple. “If anyone’s the scumbag, it’s you. You attacked him and somehow convinced my daughter to go—”

“How dare you,” Piper says, and the entire room gets quiet. “I filed a report. They took pictures of my face and my arms…he hit me. He shook me and he—If Jase hadn’t shown up, Mark would have done a hell of a lot more.”

“Piper,” her mother says, her face pale as she takes a step forward. “I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have—” She glances at her husband. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because he’s a liar and he’s making one out of your daughter. Besides, how do we know he wasn’t the one to hurt her?”

Piper stiffens, then her shoulders droop a little. I can’t blame her. Her parents would rather blame me and accuse her of lying than actually defend her. “For the last time, Jase had nothing to do with Mark Williams’s attack, but I’ve hired Lucy McBeal to represent him and she assures me that her PI will do everything he can to uncover what really happened in that video.