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He turned toward her as she ran down the stairs. "What?"
"That was so rude!"
His eyes narrowed. "Rude? I wasrude?"
"Yes." He was rude. She was mad. It was a perfect storm. "I told you that I was scared, and then you just turned around and walked away!"
He stared at her. "You told me that my mother was right about the shit I put her through being a cop. And you defended her treatment of my father. I've spent my whole life listening to that judgment, and I don't need to take it from you."
She blinked, startled by his response. "That's not what I said!"
"It's exactly what you said." He turned away and headed toward the couch, turning his back on her again.
"No, it's not, you big oaf! What I said, if you were listening, was that I almost died when my brothers got tangled up in some stupid deal with their drug dealer. They came to the house and took me hostage and I almost died! And I thought my brothers were going to die! And sitting there in my room, alone, wondering if you were going to die or if Dick was going to come after me, made me relive it all again! And you walked away like a complete jerk. You're my fiancé, and we just made love, and you don't get to do that to me."
He spun around to face her, shock on his face. "You literally didn't say that."
"In my head I did! And you just heard your little, whiny inner voice being blamed for being a cop! If you had taken one second to get over it, you should have heard all the subtext and at least asked me what was really going on! You should have realized it wasn't about the pancakes!"
He stared at her. "Pancakes?"
"Yes! One day my brother came into the house, and he lost his mind because we were having pancakes, and we hadn't told him. And then we later realized that he was in trouble with his drug dealer, and that's why he was so upset. But he couldn’t tell us, so he freaked out about the pancakes. It wasn't about the pancakes! It never is, and you should know that. You're a cop!"
He continued to stare at her. "Your family is a bunch of drug dealers?"
"They were, and loan sharking and all sorts of other low-level crime stuff. That's not the point! Oh my God! You're such a man!" She spun around and stormed up the stairs.
"Piper."
She whirled to face him. "What?"
One hand was on the railing, and he'd taken a step toward her. He looked intense. "Why did you walk out on your fiancé?"
"Because he was an abusive douchebag who was cheating onme, and I didn't realize it until the last minute. Because I was so desperate to feel safe that I just let him sweep me up. But he's a terrible man with a lot of power, and he's very good at making people believe he's a good man." She put her hands on her hips. "There. Happy? You know all my terrible secrets. Piper the wedding planner has so much violence and poverty andcrapin her past that she has no business running around in the elite circles trying to make dreams of happily ever after come true!"
She turned and sprinted up the stairs, so angry she could barely think. She stalked into her room, slammed the door shut, then dove onto the bed. She crawled under the covers and pulled them over her head.
The tears started to fall almost right away, but she ignored them.
Instead, she grabbed her phone and called her brother again.
He answered quickly this time. "Piper?"
"I just want you to know I left home because I couldn’t live around a bunch of criminals anymore. I was scared that one day I would be killed because of the stuff you and the others were into. I left because as much as I hated that life, I knew I was too scared to leave you behind and I'd never have a different life unless I just cut all of you off, because I love you, and love is a trap!"
He swore. "Piper, I swear I'm so sorry. We're sorry. But what I didn't tell you earlier is that your leaving was a trigger for me. I knew why you left, and I walked away from that life the day you left. I own my own business now. It's a legit business. I have nothing to do with any of that life. And it's because of you. You were right to leave."
She was silent for a moment, stunned by his response. "Really? You…have a business?"
"Really."
"What about the others?"
He hesitated. "It's trickier with them."
She nodded. "Did you tell them I called?"
Again, a hesitation. "No. I didn't know what they'd do."
