Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,213

face the skyline of Chicago through the window. Out of the millions of people who live and work in Chicago, how does my path keep crossing Roarke Baldwin’s.

My phone vibrates on my desk and I swivel back around to pick it up.

My dad.

I accept the call and put it on speaker.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hi, pumpkin. How are things at the foundation?”

“Good.”

“Did you contact that guy for the gala? He said he’d love to speak there.”

“I told you it’s about female empowerment so I’m having only successful women give the speeches.”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of reverse discrimination?”

The highway noise in the background tells me he’s talking on his Bluetooth while driving. Probably on his way to the golf course.

“No, I don’t.”

He chuckles to himself. “I’ve always loved your bullheadedness. Who trained you so well?”

“You did.”

“That’s right. I taught you how to act like a man.”

I roll my eyes. My dad loves me, but there’s no doubt he missed the opportunity to raise a son.

“I’d rather think of it as you taught me to be a strong female.”

He chuckles again like what I said is funny. I toed that line with my dad for years when I was younger—trying to get him to see that his ideas were sexist and his beliefs were from fifty years ago. Some battles just aren’t worth fighting and I don’t want to spend my adulthood in conflict with my dad.

“I told your mother that we had nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I pick the pen up off my desk and start flicking it side to side in my hand.

“I mean so what about Todd, right? We’re lucky to have that bastard out of our life.”

I drop the pen. Whoa, back the bus up. I thought we were talking about me being successful and able to stand on my own? That my mother who has never earned one dollar herself doubted my abilities?

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“Todd,” he says louder. Like I’m his golf buddy who turned down his hearing aid. “The announcement of his engagement.”

I spring up and out of my chair. “He’s engaged?”

“Oh, you didn’t know. I assumed you heard before we did. It was all the buzz at the club last night during dinner. Supposedly she’s a nurse at the hospital. Seems a little sleazy to me, sleeping with someone who works underneath you, but his parents were raving about her.”

The pit of my stomach shouldn’t feel as though I just ate a hearty helping of street meat. I shouldn’t give one shit about Todd or his upcoming nuptials.

“He took her to Tahiti or somewhere tropical and had the ring put in some shell and wrote something in the sand. You know me, I zoned out after a little while, but your mother, she was worried about how you’d handle the news.”

I’m sure she was wondering why I wasn’t worth that much planning on Todd’s part. I got proposed to at the club during a Friday night fish fry. Asshole. Now he takes his soon-to-be wife away on my dime for some elaborate proposal?

I clench my fists but don’t respond, unable to find the right words.

“Don’t let it bother you. He’s a jackass and an idiot for not knowing what he had. His parents are a bunch of dimwits. You know I’ve always thought that.”

I giggle at my dad. He might’ve been hard on me and yeah, he’s a bit of a chauvinist, but when it comes to me, he has my back every damn time.

“It doesn’t bother me,” I insist. “It just bothers me that he’s doing it with my money. What good is a prenup if you still have to give away half your shit?”

“Now Hannah, you couldn’t have predicted Grandpa’s death to happen a year into your marriage. Nor the fact he was old school and thought once married you stayed married. The old fool thought he was being nice by putting Todd in his will along with you.”

“Exactly that. Any true gentleman wouldn’t have taken the money, especially when he’s the reason the marriage fell apart. He’s a surgeon. It’s not like he’s barely scraping by.”

“You afforded him a lifestyle he never would’ve had even with being a surgeon. You gotta let that go, move on with your life. I’m sure there’s another guy out there who’s been waiting to snatch you up.”

“Snatch me up? Dad,” I sigh.

“Oh, Hannah, you need to stop worrying so much. So what if Todd got more than he ever should have? He hired