Prince Player(188)

But apparently that’s not the case with the Tillmans. Apparently, if you make a mistake, and then you go against their wishes, they just kick you out.

“What am I going to do?” she asks me.

I gently let her go and sit her down at the counter

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” I say finally. “I have a lawyer and I can get him involved if you want.”

“No,” she says quickly. “God, no. I don’t want to get into that.”

“Sadie,” I say softly. “They want to take everything from you.”

“I know,” she says, a little angry. “And not just the money. They want to take my identity away. They want to erase me.”

I nod and cross my arms. “Which is why maybe we should fight them.”

“To what end?” she asks me, her eyes wide. “What can we possibly achieve by going up against my family?”

“I don’t know,” I admit slowly. “I really don’t know.”

“And I know they’re bleeding you dry, too,” I say. “Maybe if I do this, they’ll leave you alone.”

“We can’t be sure of that. And if you do walk away, you’ll be giving it all up. Forever. There’s no going back.”

“I know.” She stares at the counter. “Peter still hasn’t called me, you know. Of everyone, I thought he’d call.”

“Why not try calling him?” I ask a little hesitantly.

“And say what? ‘Oh hello Peter, it’s me, your disgraced sister Sadie. How’s it going?’ I don’t think so.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad to me.” I give her a little grin.

She just shakes her head. “I can’t do it. They’ve basically thrown me out already, haven’t they? Now they just want to make it official.”

“Sadie.” I walk around the counter and sit down next to her. “I support whatever decision you make. But don’t you just… don’t you want to make the fuckers bleed, just a little bit?”

She shakes her head. “No. They’re still my family.”

“Fuck,” I say, sighing. “After all this, you still want to hold back? Let me hire a lawyer. Let me go after them, drag them through the fucking mud. Who knows? Maybe they’re afraid of a fight, and we’ll win.”

“I don’t want to win,” she says. “I don’t want to fight them. I just want to be done with them. I want to get away from them. They want to suck me back in, but I can’t do it.”

I nod slowly. I guess I understand that. If it were me, I’d fight them just out of spite, just to make them squirm. I’m not entirely convinced that I’m not going to do just that. I think I could make Tillman’s fucking life miserable in court. I may be hurting right now, but I’m still fucking rich, and I can still wield considerable funds against him. And I know he won’t like that shit.

But Sadie doesn’t want it. I wish it were different, but she’s special. She’s a better person than I’ll ever be, that’s for sure.

“So what now?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess we go to this meeting.”

“They want to hold it at your father’s apartment,” I say, pointedly not calling it her home.

She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter where.”

“Okay then.” I pause, then take her hand and look deep into her eyes. “Listen to me, Sadie. I need you to know something.”

She looks at me, and I can see the sadness deep inside of her. She’s losing everything for this, for our baby and for me. Everything she’s known and loved is being torn away by her spiteful and angry parents. What’s she left with?

Hopefully, freedom. And happiness.

“What?” she asks softly.

“I know you feel like you’re losing your family. But I’m your family now. Me, you, and our baby. We’ll be a family.”

She smiles slightly. “Really?”

“Really,” I say. “I’ll take care of both of you. Always. We won’t be Tillmans, but we’ll be our own thing. We can be happy.”

“Yeah,” she says.

“You can do whatever you want. Go to school, paint, start a charity, I don’t care. I’ll support whatever you want.” I kiss her softly on the lips. “You can be free with me.”

“Yeah,” she says again, and this time she seems more sure of herself. “I was never going to be free back home. I was going to be Milo’s wife.” She laughs a little ruefully.

“You dodged a bullet.” I can’t help but grin.

“Come here,” she says, pulling me in for another kiss.