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“That’s ridiculous when I can save them,” my brother yells, turning red in the face.
“Because no one asked you to. I know Xavian never would.”
“Nope,” he confirms.
Parker snarls his way. “You would have married that slut, and she would have taken every dime you had and messed you up for good.”
“She did anyway,” Xavian points out. “And you helped her.”
My brother rears back. “That’s not true. I tried to save you. I tried to be a friend.”
Xavian shakes his head. “Is that what you call fucking my fiancée?”
“You don’t understand!”
“I probably never will.”
“I thought of you like a brother,” Parker rails as if that should explain everything.
Xavian freezes, then looks my way. “If that’s how you treat a sibling, then I understand Corinne coming to me.”
“You’re not marrying her.”
Is my brother serious? “That’s my decision. Not yours.”
He turns softer eyes on me. “Ninny, you don’t—”
“Understand? I do. You keep calling me Ninny like I’m still four. You refused to give me my inheritance to grow the business I built from the ground up because you want me to take the ‘right’ path. Your path. Why can’t you just accept that I’m choosing my own path—my job, my husband, my life?”
His expression turns pleading. “Before Mom and Dad left on that fateful trip, Dad told me I was in charge and to take care of you. I promised him I would. I swore I wouldn’t let him down. I’ve always tried to keep that promise.”
Vaguely, I remember that conversation as he ruffled my brother’s hair and smiled. Dad always called Parker his little man. He tried to show us kids how to be good to each other and to do right. I know our parents’ deaths hit Parker really hard.
I soften. “I know. But you can let go now. I’m okay.” I look at Xavian and take his hand. “I’m going to be great.”
Parker takes in my affectionate gesture and glares. “What will it take for you to walk away from him? You want your inheritance now? I’ll sign the papers tomorrow if you promise never to see Xavian again.”
I suck in a shocked breath. His offer comes out of left field. But when I see Riley blanch, I realize it shouldn’t. Parker’s thrown around money before to make me fall in line. I’d bet everything on that.
“You motherfucker. You’re going to bribe her?” Xavian growls, then gestures to Riley. “Like you bribed that asshole?”
My brother’s sanctimonious stare and my ex-boyfriend’s wince tells me he’s right and they’re both guilty as hell. Suddenly, I understand everything. After all, if my brother would screw up a friendship and forge a very public career to prove his point with a pal, what would he do to “save” his sister?
I whirl on Riley. “Did he pay you to come back here and romance me?”
My ex swallows and shifts his gaze to my brother. “I-I…wanted to come back. I never wanted to end things with you in the first place. I’ve always cared about you.”
But he doesn’t deny my accusation. In fact, he makes the situation even clearer. “Hold on. You not only took my brother’s money to romance me away from Xavian…but he paid you not to propose last year?”
His face is full of apology. “How did you find out I planned to propose?”
“It doesn’t matter how I found out,” I insist. “You cared enough to buy me a ring but not enough to say no to my brother’s bribe.”
His face falls. “I started out with good intentions. I called Parker to see if we could start over, be amicable. I asked him for your hand. He knew I was broke and drowning in student debt. I couldn’t live on what I was making in New York, but I didn’t want to go back home and admit to my parents that I’d been a failure, so—”
“You bartered me for money. I guess you figured I was replaceable.” I laugh bitterly. “All those months of thinking I was the problem. And all those wasted tears… But you never really cared.”
“I did. I was in love with you! Leaving you killed me. But your brother promised I’d be debt free and that you’d be happy… I still think about you all the time. I haven’t slept with anyone since we split.”
“No shock there,” Xavian drawls.
He’s absolutely incorrigible. I elbow his ribs. “Behave.”
Xavian sighs like I’m asking for the moon.
“I think that’s enough,” Parker says. “He’s confessed to everything, and you’ve humiliated him—”
“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” I snarl at my brother, wagging my finger at him. “Right now, I don’t want to hear it.”
He looks stunned. “You’ve never talked to me like that.”
“And that was my mistake. I won’t be repeating it.”
“This is his influence.” Parker points accusingly at Xavian.
“No, this is your doing. You’ve reaped what you’ve sown.” I turn back to Riley. “You wouldn’t be here if Parker hadn’t paid you to come after me, would you?”
