“Now hold it,” Gram interrupted. “That’s not all on Warrick. Yes, he was wrong and yes, it was his manipulation that prompted such a desperate act. But however much you felt backed into a corner, you still made the choice to marry for money, and Piper assured me that she was the instigator of the whole thing.”
Myles froze.
“Oh yes, Piper told me everything.”
“When?” he demanded.
“Yesterday. When she came to bring me this.” Gram removed an envelope from her purse and slid it across the table.
Myles picked it up, dread a festering knot in his gut. Unfolding the papers, he read them over, the knot drawing tighter with every word. A post-nuptial agreement, relinquishing any and all rights to the assets he brought to the marriage via trust, family ties, or otherwise.
“I will take responsibility for her feeling the need to do this in the first place, but I place the blame for the rest squarely on you.”
“The rest?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Myles demanded. “Dad’s the one who backed me into a goddamned corner in the first place!”
Gram ignored his rage and reached up to cup his cheek. “If you were that desperate, why didn’t you come to me?”
Myles only stared at her, thrown by the uncharacteristically maternal gesture. Come to her? Why on earth would he have come to her?
“Even if I couldn’t give you access to the trust, you could’ve made a case for a personal loan from me, against the trust.”
Had he ever seen her like this, with the mask of family matriarch askew enough to suggest a softer side? Maybe when he’d been a child. But not in years. Bemused at the change, he almost smiled. “That’s…that never occurred to me.” He assumed his grandmother would take the same dismissive attitude toward his dreams as his father always had.
“That’s because you’re a fool.” She gave his chin a none-too-gentle tweak.
And we’re back.
Myles rubbed a hand over his stubbly chin. “Would you have done it?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s in the past. Because even though you married to gain access to the trust, from the moment you said your I dos, the paper and all the financial strain that goes with it were no longer the important thing. Piper is the important thing. And she has no idea.”
“How? How can she not know she’s the most important thing in my life?”
“What did you expect, Myles? You spent all that effort and charm on her up through the wedding. What on earth did you do when you got back to make her think you don’t love her?”
Because I haven’t told her. Because I’m a fucking dumbass.
“That poor girl sat in the parlor barely holding it together, putting on a brave face and acting like it was just a business arrangement that was finished.”
He jerked to a stop. “What did you say?”
“She was upset—”
“No, the other thing. Business arrangement. What were the exact words she used?”
“She said that it was just business.”
The blood drained out of his head. “Oh God. Patty said Piper was in the office yesterday morning, but I never saw her. She must have overheard me talking about Vanessa with Simone and thought I was talking about her.”
“Who’s Vanessa?”
“The new assistant editor I just hired so that I can stop working every waking hour of the day and spend time with my wife. The assistant editor I hadn’t told her about because it was meant to be a surprise.”
“So you said not a word about any of that, and you came home and reverted to your workaholic ways in order to pull it off,” Gram surmised. “Leaving your new wife with nothing else to think but that you really were in it only for the paper.”