Page 25 of The Royally Broke Billionaire
“It’s strange because I’m a natural pessimist,” he admitted. “I normally expect the worst of people, and that’s what they show me; but you’re different. I can’t bring myself to believe anything but the best about you, and that’s what you reveal.”
His words were like a soothing balm to Piper’s hurt feelings. She did always try to be a good person. Having someone notice and acknowledge it was marvelous, especially after having her character attacked this morning.
She couldn’t quite make out the figure in the distance sitting on the huge piece of driftwood, but she wasn’t a bit surprised when they drew closer and she saw that it was Finn.
It was tempting to turn around and backtrack, in order to not have to face the scrutiny and suspicion in his brown gaze, but turning tail and retreating implied guilt. Having Cole by her side bolstered her confidence, so she straightened her spine, held her head high, and walked over to face her most open accuser.
When they reached him, Finn kept his head down. He was staring at the light beige sand at his feet, even though he must have heard their approach and sensed their nearness.
Unwilling to be ignored, Piper cleared her throat. Finn still didn’t lift his eyes to acknowledge them, but he began quietly speaking. Between the breeze from the ocean carrying his words away and how quiet his murmurs were, Piper had to lean forward to hear what he was saying.
“I lashed out at you inappropriately, Piper, and for that I’m truly sorry.”
Not quite able to believe what she thought she was hearing, Piper stepped closer to the royal steward. His bitter anger at her seemed to have dissipated, but she wanted to hear every word of what he had to say, just to be sure.
Keeping his head bent, Finn continued. “Having His Highness believe that I am capable of such high treason is devastating. It’s no excuse, but I guess I was looking for any scapegoat to prove my innocence.”
The man looked truly forlorn. Piper’s gut instinct believed that he was telling the truth.
“I wanted to believe that he did it.” Finn finally looked up and pointed at the billionaire standing by her side. Lowering his gaze again, Finn added, “But it doesn’t make sense. He has nothing to gain. Besides, he likes having the spotlight too much to shine it on anyone else.”
Piper had to admit the royal steward had a point there. If Cole had leaked the story, he would want credit for it.
Proving that he believed in the royal steward’s innocence, too, Cole said, “So, none of us leaked the story. We need to figure out who did, and the best way to do that is for us to work together.”
Although the idea of working with these two polar opposites seemed daunting, Piper nodded her head in agreement. They were her best hope of getting back into the royals’ good graces. That was the path that was in Liam’s best interest, and she would do anything for her son––even work with two men that she had magnetic, love-hate relationships with.
She had been fairly certain that Finn would balk at joining forces with her and the billionaire, so she was surprised when he slowly nodded his head in agreement.
With that, Cole sat down on Finn’s driftwood seat––carefully leaving room for Piper. As she lowered herself to sit between them, Liam napped peacefully in his mother’s arms, blissfully unaware of the drama surrounding him.
Cole pulled out his phone and tapped as he spoke. “We need to treat this like a business deal and leave our personal feelings out of it. Now, who is on our list of suspects?”
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Piper was surprised at the length of the list of potential suspects that knew about Liam’s birthright. No one was exempt from the list they brainstormed––not even the queen’s brothers and their wives.
Once they had a complete list of palace insiders typed into Cole’s phone, Piper turned to her unlikely teammates. Uncertain what their next steps should be, she asked them, “Now what?”
Cole answered with the cool, calm confidence of a man used to systematically assessing important matters until he got the answers he needed. “Now, we start asking questions and poking around for evidence to eliminate suspects, until we’re only left with one.”
Finn nodded, before adding, “The three of us were on this beach when Piper made the quote about Liam that was released to the press. We need to find out who else might have been out here, unbeknownst to us.”
“Yes,” Cole agreed before offering to track down the owner of the drone to investigate if that person was the source of the leak.
Fully working as a team, Finn agreed. “Good idea. Piper and I will take Liam up to the palace to see what we can find out there. He’s our ticket inside.”
As uncomfortable as Piper was using her son as a door opener, she didn’t see another viable alternative. Liam belonged in the castle. She and Finn weren’t overly welcome there for the time being.
Realizing the only way to change the monarchs’ suspicions of her was to prove them wrong, and the only way to do that was to find the person responsible, Piper nodded her head in silent agreement with the plan.
With a spark of life in his chocolate eyes for the first time since being accused, Finn held a hand out towards Piper and said, “Let’s start sleuthing!”
Grinning, Piper agreed and set off on the path towards the castle with Finn. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do once she got there, but at least this was some type of forward motion to dig her out of trouble with the royals.
By silent agreement, Piper and Liam parted ways with Finn once they reached the palace’s natural spa. She went towards the pool to look for someone to chat with there, while the royal steward headed to the employee housing area of the palace.
The royals and Tess’s siblings were eating brunch outside on the verandah. All eight sets of eyes landed on her as she approached them, carefully carrying Liam along the concrete sidewalk beside the pool.
