Just for This Moment (Wishful 4)

was surprised to hear from you. After all the hoopla of the wedding, I expected you and Myles to go to ground for a while and hide.”

So did I. Piper bit back the pain of what might have been. Now wasn’t the time to think about how different reality was from what she’d expected for their marriage.

She stepped inside, her heels echoing in the high ceilinged foyer. “You and I have some business to discuss.”

“Oh? Well, you’d best come on back to the parlor.”

Parlor. Because Suzanne Stewart’s house—mansion, really—was big enough to have a formal parlor.

I am not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Suzanne gestured for her to take a seat.

Piper moved to a tufted settee and sat, smoothing her skirt. She’d dressed carefully for this meeting, as much to make a good impression as to armor up against a formidable opponent. For all she’d praised Piper’s moxie and gone to the trouble of putting on the wedding, Piper was under no illusions that Suzanne was anything less than the staunch matriarch of the Stewart clan. The last thing she wanted was to come across as upset and terrified as she actually was.

“Shall I ring for coffee?”

Piper’s traitorous stomach gave a lurch at the thought. Only her years of acting experience prevented her from outright wincing. “No, thank you.” She didn’t expect to be staying long enough for beverages anyway.

Suzanne folded her hands. “Well then, out with it. You’ve clearly got something on your mind.”

Piper reached into her purse and pulled out the manila envelope that had ridden like an executioner in her passenger seat all the way from Wishful. At her request, Tucker had—reluctantly—drawn the contents up in a hurry. He couldn’t understand how necessary this step was in order for her to move forward.

She handed it over to Suzanne. “I came to bring you this.”

The older woman frowned, but she didn’t waste time asking obvious questions about what was in her hands, instead reaching over to a side table for a pair of reading glasses.

Piper was grateful for the brief reprieve from explaining herself. She hadn’t quite figured out what to say that would be the least revealing about her current situation and the least damning to Myles. This was about setting the record straight, not hurting him.

Suzanne said nothing, reading through the short document twice before lowering it and fixing sharp blue eyes on Piper. “A post-nuptial agreement. Why?”

Summoning as much high class hauteur as possible, Piper squared her shoulders. “Given the accusations directed at me on your discovery of our engagement, I didn’t want there to be any question that I truly have no designs on Myles’ money or the family fortunes.”

Dismay flickered over the older woman’s face. “There is no apology I can make that will suffice to repair the damage from that ill-conceived action. But I am sorry.”

Piper shook her head. That hardly mattered now. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as she faced telling as much of the truth as she dared. “The fact is, you were right to be suspicious. Just not for the reasons you thought.”

One patrician brow winged up. And she waited.

“Our marriage was about money. But not for me. For Myles.”

Something chilled in her expression. “How so?”

“Myles needed a large sum of cash to pay off his primary investor in the paper or he risked losing control entirely. He could have found other investors, but there was an exceptionally short timeline, so his only real option was the trust. Which, as you know, he couldn’t access until he married.”

Suzanne sucked in a breath. “My grandson used you?” The fury in her voice was quiet but deadly.

“I was a willing accomplice. When he told me about his problems with the paper, I’m the one who came up with the whole plan to help him save it. I was the obvious choice. We had a history because of the theater and no one would have any reason to doubt the veracity of our relationship.”

“You were acting?”

That made Piper stumble. Here she couldn’t lie. “I wasn’t, no. Without all of this, we’d have been dating like normal people. We’re friends. Good friends. We tried being more.” Because her voice wanted to shake, she paused, curling her hands to fists in her lap. “The fact is, Myles got what he needed, what he wanted, out of the arrangement. It was just business. The paper is safe, or will be after he meets with his investor tomorrow. And now I’m letting him go because I’m not what he needs or wants in the long term.” She nodded toward the post-nup agreement. “I had that drawn up to make certain that there’s never been any question of my wanting anything from him for having held up my end of the bargain.”

Suzanne sat back. “I hardly know what to say.”

“You needn’t say anything. I just wanted to be sure everything was clear before things move forward.”

The glasses got tossed, skittering across the table and onto the floor. “Goddamn that boy for a fool.”