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Piper sat at the kitchen table surrounded by her family. Dylan believed her guilty of poisoning his mother. The pain was so fierce she hadn’t even been able to cry. She’d finally given her heart to a man, and the rat believed her capable of trying to kill his mother.
“Bastard!”
“What?” Luke looked her way.
“Nothing.”
The pain eased away, and in its place came white-hot rage, an all-consuming anger that had her wanting to track Dylan Howard down and hurt him any way she knew how, just as he’d hurt her.
“There you are!” Maggs came running inside. “What the hell’s going on? I just saw Fin at the ranger station and he told me you’d been taken in by Chief Blake for questioning because Mary Howard was poisoned and they think it was you.”
“What were you doing at the ranger station?” Piper asked.
“Milly ordered a piece of art for Bart for their anniversary and I was delivering it.” She hurried to Piper and hugged her. “Christ, girl!”
“I know.”
“I can’t believe that bitch would think you’d do something like that.”
It was humbling how her people believed her without a second’s hesitation. Not Dylan though; he thought her guilty.
Bastard.
“The evidence is weighted pretty heavily to suggest that maybe I did.”
“Bullshit!”
Her fiery friend stood now with hands on both hips.
“You’re the gentlest person I know. You’d never do something to cause someone pain.”
“Thank you, Maggs, for believing in me.”
“Where’s Grace?”
“In bed.”
“So what happens now?”
“Don’t know. I guess we wait to see if there’s enough evidence to charge me.”
“The evidence is there, it’s just not clear that it was you who put it in the donuts,” Joe said.
Piper watched him scratch his head. He hated this, hated that he couldn’t make it right for her. Joe was a fixer, especially when it came to those he loved.
“What happened to your knuckles?” She grabbed his hand and turned it over, examining it.
“Nothing.”
“Clearly it’s something.” Bailey came closer to inspect it too.
“He hit Dylan.”
“What? Why?” Piper looked at Luke.
“He doubted you.”
And it was that simple to them. No one should doubt her because she was clearly innocent.
