Page 89 of Her Billionaire Boss
And that was reasonable.“Okay.That’s fair.I don’t have the right to question my adult sibling’s relationship.No matter how much I might want to.”
“I—” Scott started.
“You heard what I said,” was my only reply before I ended the call.
I shook off the interaction, still pretty pissed.He didn’t have to tell us everything, but he could have given us a heads up that this was coming.
Since it was safe for Matt to come back, I set out to find him.Compared to Elizabeth’s birthday weekend, the house was deserted.The corridors weren’t lit by anything other than an occasional floor-level nightlight, and frankly, I got spooked.I thought about calling out for Matt, but somehow convinced myself that would summon ghosts to my location, so I went on ahead silently, my heart pounding.
I peeked into a few rooms, but upstairs they were mostly empty guest rooms, which freaked me out.There was something weird about bedrooms that didn’t get used every night.I was convinced I’d see the ghost of an old lady grinning creepily from one of the beds, so I stopped checking.
I hoped Matt never inherited the place.
I knew the downstairs a little better than the upstairs, and, bonus, the lights were on.If Matt was anywhere, it was probably the library or—
Raised voices drew me to the half-open parlor door.
“Is that more important than your child’s happiness?”
Matt?I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but I’d never heard him sound so angry.
“It’s not about happiness.It’s about tradition.”Elizabeth.Holy shit, he was yelling at his mother?That didn’t seem like the kind of thing Matt could ever be reduced to.
But here we were.“Fuck tradition!”
“Do not use that vulgar language with me.I cannot stand it.”Elizabeth’s imperious tone would have sent me over the edge into violence, but Matt was used to snobs.
How quickly my opinion of her had fallen in one day.
“That ring is meant for a woman of breeding.Sophistication,” she went on, and my heart sank.
“And you don’t feel she’s sophisticated?That she has good breeding?”he scoffed.
“Not as far as I’m concerned,” Elizabeth went on.“She’s exhibited exactly what sort of character and class she has, and I find those qualities severely lacking.Your grandmother wore that ring!”
Ring?They were arguing over a ring.Fuck me, they were arguing over a family heirloom ring and someone being unworthy of it?My guts churned.Was Matt going to propose to me?With some family ring that his mother wouldn’t give him because I wasn’t the perfect little society doll?
She was right.I hadn’t displayed any class or sophistication when I’d taken her to task that morning.But was this how she’d always thought of me?Was Scott right?That there was no way to stop these people from being snobs?
Not even Matt?
I almost wanted to burst through the doors and give her a piece of my mind, but I couldn’t bring myself to cause yet another scene.Plus, I was great at defending other people, but severely bad at defending myself.What was I going to do?Fly into the parlor in a rage and my denim cut-offs, barefoot, shouting about how motherfucking classy I was?
“She deserves the ring as much as Grandmother Ashe did,” Matt shot back.“You don’t have to approve of her, but if you’re so concerned with tradition, you’ll hand the damn thing over.”
At some point, their fight would be finished, and someone would come storming out of that parlor.I couldn’t be stuck standing there when it happened.I backed up slowly, not allowing myself to run until I reached the staircase in the foyer.I’d been worried about a ghost getting me, before.Now, I was worried about that damn ever-present butler catching me.
I was halfway up the stairs when I heard Matt’s cane echoing off the marble floor, and I quickly pivoted as if I had been descending.I was a little out of breath when he came through the archway and into the foyer, and I covered it by pretending to be startled.
Just like he covered up the anger tensing his shoulders with a flash of a broad smile I knew he didn’t feel.
“There you are,” I said, my voice thin and high.
He frowned.“Everything all right?How did things go with Scott?”
I waited for Matt on the steps, explaining, “Everything’s fine.This place is creeping me out.And everything with Scott is...you know.”
“There’s a lot of that going around,” Matt said, and offered no further explanation.So, I hadn’t been meant to overhear that conversation.
