Page 52 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
He shook his head, his lips going thin. “I don’t know. I don’t know half the things he was spending it on. All I know is that almost all of it was gone,” he rasped, pouring himself another glass. “I could have called the police for it, could have put him away from fraud, maybe I should have—but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to make it worse, not when he was already furious.”
“Hewas furious?”
“I told him I couldn’t approve the transaction because there wasn’t enough in the account, told him I knew what he’d been doing, and he didn’t apologize. Just tried to convince me to sell the house, to sell the liquid assets instead, to keep funding him. I told him no, and he lost his mind.”
I took a deep breath, and then another, trying to make sense of it all. Ryan hadn’t seemed wealthy when I dated him. He seemed somewhat well off, would take me to nice dinners, and had bought us that trip to the Amalfi coast, but that was as far asit ever went. He never drove a fancy car or had a nice house, he’d lived in an apartment. “That’s not—I hate him, but that’s not the Ryan I knew.”
“He sold what he’d accumulated,” he said simply. “About four years ago. I told him I wouldn’t give him money until he got rid of the things he didn’t need, and even then, what I’ve given him has come out of my accounts, not from the trust. I had to change all the passwords, had to talk to the bank and set up a PIN that they’d ask me for if I called to discuss anything so they wouldn’t accidentally think Ryan was me if he got through.”
He huffed a dry, irritated laugh.
“Used Zach’s birthday. Ryan never cared enough to know it.”
A breath punched out of me at that. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised, not after what he’d said when I was leaving the villa.The kid. Magpie.Ryan didn’t seem interested in Matt’s life at all. “So even after all of that, you still give him money,” I said, taking a sip of my wine. “You paid for his wedding.”
Matt’s jaw tightened. “Because I promised my parents before they died,” he muttered. “And because it was one of the things the trust was meant to cover.”
I nodded, more to myself than anything, the pieces clicking into place. “And Ryan knew that. He used it to his advantage.”
“Yes, he used it,” Matt said, irritation bleeding into his tone. “Guilt tripped me over it. Used it to get what he wanted. Used you, too, the last couple of years.‘I need to take my girlfriend out to dinner.’ Or, ‘I need to pay the bills, so she doesn’t think I’m broke.’It pissed me off. He was more than capable of getting a job, but he usedyouto make me feel bad about it?—”
“Don’t.” The word came out harsher than I’d anticipated. “Don’t do that. Don’t act like you cared about me back then. You didn’t even know me. We’d never met. And you were more than happy to use me, too.”
He flinched, but he said nothing.
The room—the massive kitchen, the massivehouse—felt too small, too hot. My skin flushed, and I didn’t know if it was my anger simmering beneath the surface or my shame or both, rubbing together like flint and iron. “He told me you ruined his life,” I swallowed. “That you turned your parents against him before they died, convinced them to cut him out of everything, and made yourself look like a victim.”
Matt laughed, then, bitter, and flat like a stale beer. “Of course he did,” he scoffed. “Because God forbid Ryan be responsible for his own mess. He ran his inheritance into the ground, Sienna. Almost all of it.”
I swallowed down another sip of wine, and then another, wishing it was stronger, wishing it burned. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this from the start? Why let me hang in limbo thinking there was a chance Ryan was better?”
Matt’s expression darkened as he stared straight at me. “Because you’d already decided I was worse. I wanted to prove you otherwise without completely throwing him under the bus. He’s still my fucking brother, even if I can’t stand him.”
My jaw clenched tight. He wasn’twrong— Ryan had painted such a clear picture for me of a cruel, cold older brother with a bank account for a heart. “You were doing a great job of making me believe you were better than him,” I said slowly, heart pounding in my chest. “And then you threw it all away. For what?For what?”
Matt looked down at his glass, completely silent.
“Jesus fucking Christ,Matthew,” I snapped, setting my glass down on the counter a little too hard, a little too antagonistic.
He stilled.
Completely and utterlystilled.
A haunting quiet creeped over us, thick andangry.
His jaw twitched first. His posture shifted, his gaze locked on the counter.
“You don’t get to call me that,” he rasped, his voice low, gravelly.
I blinked at him. “What?”
“That name.Matthew.You don’t get to use it. That’s not what you call me.” His tone was sharp enough to cut diamonds. “That’shisname for me. My parents’ name for me. I let it slide with Ryan because it’s always been like that, but not from you.”
Shit. “I didn’t mean—fuck, Matt, I didn’t even realize?—”
He shook his head, knocking back the entirety of his glass of wine. “It’s fine,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Just don’t.”
My stomach twisted. I hadn’t meant to becruel, and from the look of horror that was lingering beneath his irritated exterior, I’d done just that. “No, I’m—I’m sorry,” I insisted. “I wasn’t trying to throw it in your face. Genuinely. I didn’t even notice I’d said?—”
