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every day from the moment I told him about the pregnancy. It only got worse when I refused to marry Jasper.
    We weren’t talking about Cole Hawthorne anymore.
    “Piper, I’ve been lenient with you. I’ve helped you. I supported you. I let you go to college—”
    “You let me?”
    “I paid for it, didn’t I? I spoiled you. I indulged you when you said you wanted to read your books and study literature, even though you and I both know that degree was designed for one thing.”
    “Don’t say it.”
    “Finding you a husband .”
    “Sound more archaic, Dad.”
    “What? Is it so wrong to want to see my little girl taken care of?”
    I grabbed a washcloth and tended to my own little girl, smiling and happy. “I went to school to learn .”
    “And I encouraged you. Believe me, I’ve done more for you than most men would after finding out their daughters are…”
    I waited for him to say it.
    Ruined .
    Even Dad knew when to stop himself.
    “You should have married that boy.”
    “I wasn’t in love with him,” I said. “I told you. He was a mistake.”
    Rose buzzed her lips. I washed a bit of water over her, and she mimicked my pouty frown.
    “So you’ve ruined your life for a mistake?” he asked.
    “Stop.”
    “You threw away all that potential when you had the child.”
    “Don’t you dare,” I said. “Leave Rosie out of this.”
    “That baby deserves a stable home. It was your place to provide it. I let you have college and that ridiculous major, but I hoped one day you’d get your head out of the clouds and nose out of a book. You could have learned a trade, or found—”
    “A husband.”
    Dad didn’t even apologize. “Yes.”
    I huffed. “I wanted more than that life. More than being someone’s wife . More than a business degree and my weekdays stuck in a cubicle.”
    “Well, now you have it. And this is the best it’ll get for you unless you can get Cole Hawthorne to listen to reason. You can’t lose this opportunity.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if Cole doesn’t agree to the trade, you won’t have a job with this agency anymore.”
    I sunk onto my heels. Rose handed me a fistful of bubbles.
    “You’d fire me because of Cole Hawthorne?”
    Dad didn’t apologize. “It’s for your own good. You said you wanted to do it by yourself, so I have to treat you like any other employee.”
    “Dad—”
    “Get Cole to agree within the week, or don’t bother coming into work Monday.”
    “But I can’t—”
    Dad hung up.
    Rose clapped, splashing bubbles and water. She grinned at me.
    How was I supposed to make Cole Hawthorne agree to this trade?
    This was just like Dad. He invented nefarious ways to negotiate, especially when none of the options were in his favor. He’d fire me—only because he believed it’d force me to accept Jasper’s proposal. Dad didn’t like him, but I knew he had spoken with Jasper multiple times since Rose was born. They conspired to wear me down because, according to Dad, I’d give in eventually…once I saw how hard it was to raise a baby alone.
    But nothing in this world would have me marry the oafish asshole who sweet-talked me into bed. It was a stupid, regrettable moment of trust that he immediately destroyed by regaling his fraternity brothers of his conquest . The laughing stopped when I told him about the baby.
    But I deserved better.
    Rose deserved better.
    I rested my head on the edge of the tub. Rose leaned over, giggled, and scrunched her lips for a kiss. A kiss was easy. A good life? That was much harder.
    But I’d do it for her. Anything. And if that meant forcing a tantruming, frightening, unbelievably sexy linebacker into a trade he didn’t want… fine .
    I’d get the waiver, take my cut of the contract from Dad, and then I’d find a way to make the life I wanted.
    I wasn’t afraid of Cole Hawthorne. He should have been afraid of me.

Cole
    I dropped the remote before I pitched it through the last operational TV in my house.
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