Page 138 of He's The Reason Why

Lizzie was right. They should find somewhere private to hashthis out, but he could see by the look on her face that Piper wasn’t going anywhere.

“I wasn’t your first choice forConned, either,” Piper said in a quiet, distant voice. “I’m never anybody’s first choice, am I? I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

“You don’t have to be the first choice, dammit, you have to be thelast.These things get recast all the time. You’re the best choice. That’s what matters.”

She looked down at her phone. “Which part am I supposed to believe?”

“Blake, we should go.” Marshall put a hand on his arm. “Come on. This isn’t the time or place.”

He shook Marshall off. He wasn’t going anywhere without Piper.

Piper shoved her phone back into her bag. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, but her voice was steady. “I’m not anyone’s sloppy seconds.”

Lizzie put her arm around Piper’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Piper allowed her sister to lead her away, but after a couple of steps, she turned back. “You know, your title is perfect.Connedis perfect. That’s how this feels.”

Piper, Lizzie, and Mattie turned and walked away. The crowd parted to let them through. Everyone stared and pointed and recorded as they went.

He tried to follow, but security guards in slick black suits moved in to form an impenetrable wall that blocked his path.

“Step away, sir.” One of them, tall and thin with spiked hair held his hands up like a stop sign.

“Yeah, don’t make this worse,” another one said.

“Get out of my way.” Blake tried to step around them, but he was immediately blocked by Piper’s bodyguard, Romi.

She was dressed like a socialite, but her eyes said she could cuthim into bite-size pieces without blinking. “You need to back off.”

“I can’t let her leave like this, Romi. She has to know the truth.” He’d never wanted anything so badly in his life than to run after her and tell her that he never thought of her as second to anyone or anything.

Della appeared in front of him looking like an avenging angel in stilettos.

“Della…”

She hauled her fist back and punched him square in the face.

Her fist connected with his nose, and pain exploded across his face and through his skull like a flash of lightning. His brain turned off for a few seconds, and he went down.

Stabbing, throbbing spasms of agony lanced through his ass and nose. Tears spilled out of his eyes, and his breath caught, and for an eternity he couldn’t see anything but blurred colors.

He shook his head, trying to clear the fog.

Della’s face swam into focus a few inches from his own. “My sister is nobody’s second choice. Got me?”

“She isn’t.” He couldn’t breathe, and his face felt wet. “She’s my first and only choice. Always. Can you say the same?”

He wiped at his nose, and the back of his hand came away red.

Della stared at him like he’d spoken a foreign language and she was trying to translate in her head.

Someone pushed tissues at him. Helpful hands pulled him to his feet and held him until he steadied himself.

“I might have been selfish,” Della said. “I might have been a blind idiot, but at least I never said shitty things about her on video.”

She spun on her heels and stalked off. The crowd let her go, though he heard her name, and his, on everyone’s lips.

“Mr. Ryan, do you need medical assistance?” one of the servers asked.

---