Page 147 of He's The Reason Why

“Yes I can. Mattie’s not the only one who notices stuff like that. Y’all think I don’t pay attention, but I do. I’m notthatself involved.” Della rolled her eyes. “Besides, I didn’t see the video. I saw it live. I was there. At your VIP show.”

Piper gaped at her sister in disbelief. “No you weren’t.”

“I’ve been to several, actually. I really liked the one you did Christmas before last. The carol sing-along was beautiful.”

Piper’s shock redoubled. Della looked so matter of fact about it that Piper knew she wasn’t lying, but it seemed unbelievable that Della had missed her enough to sneak into her concerts.

She had so many questions.

How many had Della been to? How long had this been going on? Why hadn’t her sister told her, and most of all, why had shecome to watch Piper sing at all? The band had broken up. Della had found success without them.

“Why?” It was the only question she managed to say out loud.

“I’ve always loved listening to you sing. Even when I was little, I used to hide behind the couch in the living room when you would practice. It made me happy. Why did you think I wanted to be a singer in the first place?”

Her heart caught. It was an unexpected validation from the last person she ever thought would give it to her. The part of her that had always felt second best untwisted with that one simple sentence.

Why did you think I wanted to be a singer in the first place?

Tears bubbled up in her eyes. Piper’s dream had inspired Della. Her sister had followedheronto that first stage, not the other way around. Yes, Della had stolen the microphone and twirled across the stage with it, but Piper realized now that her little sister had looked back to see what Piper was doing.

She always had.

Whatever the rest of the world thought and how they came to be, Della knew the truth—that Piper was the spark that ignited the Bellamy Sisters, and that eased a lot of the hurt.

Piper brushed tears off her face, but more kept coming. “I…don’t know what to say. I wish…I wish you’d told me, but I suppose I wasn’t ready to hear it.”

She put her arms around Della and squeezed six years worth of missed hugs and apologies into her. “Thank you for coming.”

“Thanks for coming back,” Della whispered. “He made a boneheaded mistake, but is it as bad as the one I made?”

A burble of laughter escaped Piper’s throat. “Not even remotely. Sorry, but yours was epic.”

“That’s me. I do everything over the top.” Della leaned back enough to look her in the eyes. “So maybe give him a chance tomake it up to you. Just a chance. If he doesn’t take it, then, well, he’s an idiot.”

“Maybe I will.” She thought about all the ways he could accomplish that, and her heart felt a little lighter.

Saturday was quiet. Too quiet. It was just her and Della and quality time in front of the TV.

She’d turned her phone off and left it that way. She just needed a little space and time to get her head on straight, but by the time she went to bed, she’d had more than enough space.

She could feel Blake out there, somewhere. Was he sleeping? Would he answer the phone if she called?

What would they say?

No need to call now. She’d see him in a few short hours.

Her flight was at six a.m., which left her with three hours to fret about what would happen next.

After tossing, turning, and dozing for maybe two hours, she gave up and went for coffee. Della was asleep in the guest bedroom, and the house was quiet. Just her, the coffee maker, and her thoughts.

She needed to get this awful feeling out of her chest before she drowned in it.

With mug in hand, she padded into her studio and sat in front of the camera she used for her streaming chats. She hadn’t posted since The Incident. Della’s defense of her honor was now a viral meme and the subject of gossip posts on every celebrity website.

Piper’s fans had instigated the online equivalent of a riot in response to the video. The tweets were nonstop and ranged from supportive of Piper to death threats against Blake to a rating of Della’s punching prowess.

Worse were the responses from Blake’s fans. He didn’t have enough online presence to make a huge splash like she did, but the ones who rose up against Della in his defense were brutal.They weren’t just unhappy that her sister had injured their favorite movie star…they were enraged. Their fury directed at Della was scary, and it made Piper uneasy.

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