Page 120 of The Elusive Billionaire

“That’s not what he thinks.” Her palms slap down on the island with a snap. “He’s delusional and scarily manipulative, Grey.”

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks, Sav. You could never have been his when you were always meant to be mine.”

Her chest expands on a sharp hiss of breath.

A chorus ofawsbreak out as Elle, Madi, and Clover join Savvy at the island.

“Ooh, can I get one of those too?” Madi asks with a hand resting on her belly.

With an aggravated sigh, I set about making them all sandwiches.

“What are you doing?” Clover asks as I set the ham in the frying pan.

“Madi can’t eat deli meat unless it’s cooked until it’s steaming, or she runs the risk of listeria,” I mutter.

When silence hangs in the room like a wet blanket, I turn to stare at the women. Even Cian is smirking in my direction.

“Why do you know that?” Savvy asks.

I shrug and get back to work. “I read a lot.” And it’s true. But I also planned to have a child of my own, so I needed to know what the hell I was doing.

Braxton enters the kitchen with Pops and Moose. “He’s going to be a problem.”

“I know.” Savvy sounds so dejected, I want to shake her.

“Monroe.” I place fried ham onto Madi’s sandwich and then hand it to her. “I need you to tell us everything he said, and then I need you to promise that you’ll accept our help.”

“But I?—”

“No buts,” I say roughly. “You’re not alone anymore, and nothing he can say or do will change that.” I meet the eye of everyone in the room, happy to find them all nodding in agreement. “So while you eat, tell us what he said, and then together, we’ll make a plan.”

She scowls at me but picks at the bread and finally spews the bullshit demands DeVane has made of her.

“Sav?” Madi asks cautiously. “Do you think you should at least try to talk to your brother? Get his side of…this, before you make any decisions?”

“No way,” I blurt. “All he’s done is hurt her for years. He doesn’t deserve her.”

“Respectfully, Mr. Slightly Unhinged, this is not your decision,” Madi huffs. “Savvy?”

Is she irritated…with me? What the hell? We’re on the same team here.

My gaze snaps to Savvy’s. The pain her idiot sibling causes is not far from the surface, and it drains what little color she hadleft in her cheeks. “I’ve tried to talk to him over the years, but he’s always said the same thing—until I take accountability for what I did, he wants nothing to do with me.”

“He sounds fecking brainwashed,” Cian mutters.

“Riley has always been…persuasive,” she says. “And Austin wanted so desperately to be accepted in that circle. I wouldn’t say he’s brainwashed, but possibly willfully coerced. After the accident, he only saw what he wanted to see. It made the most sense to him that I, the wild child, the problematic one, was to blame.”

“But what about Paige? You said she wasn’t like her family,” Clover says quietly.

“She wasn’t.” A sad smile sits hesitantly on her lips. “When we were younger, she was wearing designer clothes before we even knew what a designer was, while I wore Walmart daily deals and socks from the dollar store, and she couldn’t have cared less. But I have no idea what her life has been like since the accident because her parents wouldn’t let me have any contact with her. For all I know, she believes the same thing Austin does, or she’s just been in survival mode and agrees with whatever her parents say because it’s easier. I can’t blame her either way. Her life was irreparably damaged because of Riley’s actions.”

“So essentially, you’ve got two wealthy families wanting you to be the scapegoat for their children’s poor choices,” Moose says as if commenting on the weather. I forgot he and Pops were even here.

Savvy flinches, and my chest thumps painfully.

Her pain has a connection to my own.

“I made poor choices too, Moose. It isn’t entirely on them.”