I didn’t have time to go to the store last night. Or rather, I’d been too afraid to. I was still trying to convince myself that I’d just eaten something that hadn’t settled well on my stomach.

I had to go through with it. I knew that, but maybe it was just a flu. I’d already thrown up two other times, again aggravated by some awful smell coming from the break room.

Felisha brought in crackers and more ginger ale, so the second and third time, a sleeve of saltines were waiting for me.

She’d also given me a questioning look, and I’d just given her a weak smile in her return. When she only shook her head, I knew exactly what she was thinking.

Now, hours later, stressed out and drained, I sat on the couch, curled up against Kaleb as I rubbed the inside of my wedding ring with my thumb.

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked.

I was about ready to blurt it all out when a fist pounded on the door. I scowled, wondering who it was. But I already had a bad, bad feeling. There were only so many people it could be.

“Piety,” my father said through the door. He knocked again, harder. “Open up. I know you’re there. Carlos told me you were here. We need to talk. With you and...Kaleb.”

The distaste in his voice had me shaking. Furious, I stormed over to the door and threw it open.

He opened his mouth to yell, and I reached up, poking him in the chest. “Yes, Dad. We do need to talk. Who in the hell do you think you are?” I demanded. “You paid him money to leave and never say a word to me? What kind of man does that to his own daughter?”

He glared at me, but said nothing.”

I threw up my hands. “And you lied.”

That got him going. “I didn’t lie,” he insisted through gritted teeth. “I haven’t said a word to you since the reunion.”

“Fine, you had Stuart lie.” I rolled my eyes. “It amounts to the same thing. He’s your mouthpiece and does all the dirty work for you anyway.”

“Piety, can we take this inside?” my mother asked, stepping up and placing herself halfway between my father and me.

I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. That was my mother. Always worried about what people might think.

“Fine,” I said. Turning on my heel, I stormed back into the loft, leaving the door open behind me so they could trail inside. I went back to the couch but didn’t sit down. I knew better. I was too familiar with my father’s intimidation tactics, and I knew how this would go.

I looked at Kaleb and held out my hand. He took it and placed himself at my side. He had risen the moment he heard my father’s voice, and he lifted his chin, meeting my father’s gaze squarely.

“How can you stand there and look me in the eyes?” Dad demanded.

“It’s not hard. I don’t have any respect for you, so why should I have a hard time looking at you?” Kaleb said.

“When you take a man’s money, you give him your word, and you want to talk about respect?”

Kaleb scowled. “I didn’t do you wrong. I did Piety wrong. I gave her my word long before you and I made any sort of agreement. Besides, I didn’t make the agreement with you. I made the agreement with your… mouthpiece.” Kaleb tilted his head. “If it makes you feel better, I can apologize to him.”

“Stop it,” I said, cutting between Kaleb in my father. “Dad, I can’t believe you did that.”

“You’re angry with me?” he asked. “This no good con artist took our money, the money we paid to protect you, but you’re mad at me?”

“I don’t need your protection, and Kaleb isn’t a con artist.”

Dad scoffed. “He took the money easily enough.”

“I took it for my sister,” Kaleb said flatly.

My dad turned his head, staring at Kaleb as if looking at bacteria under a microscope. “Your sister?” he asked, the doubt thick in his voice.

“Yes.”

“Let me guess, she’s suffering from some sort of terrible disease, and you need the money because she sitting in the hospital?” Scorned ripped from his words and he shook his head. “Do you even know anything about this man, Piety?”

I was about ready to scream from frustration, but Kaleb threw a bucket of cold water on the entire thing.

“As a matter of fact, my sister is a prostitute and a drug addict. I took the money to pay off her dealer. I was hoping to get her into rehab, but that didn’t go over very well. She took what little money I had left and ran off with it.”

Mom spoke up, her face white as her fingers danced at the base of her throat. “Let me get this right. You’re a stripper, and your sister is a prostitute? And you wonder why we didn’t want you around our daughter?”

“Mom,” I said. Horrified, I reached out and touched Kaleb’s arm.

“You’re wrong,” he said. “I know exactly why you didn’t want me around Piety. I’m not good enough for her. But then again, neither are you.”

Dad’s mouth fell open in shock. Mother’s face went red. Kaleb didn’t back down.

“You see, she’s got a heart that’s bigger than anyone I’ve ever met. You two are too concerned about appearances and how things might look. She worries about people and how things will affect them. I don’t know how the two of you managed to combine your DNA and create this magical creature.”

He turned from them and looked directly at me. “Frankly, she’s amazing. You’re right, I’m not good enough for her. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to work my ass off trying to be.”

“You are unbelievable,” my mother whispered.

“Don’t, Mom.”

She ignored me. “You have no idea who we are. How dare you judge us.”

“That’s rich.” Kaleb snorted. “You don’t know anything about me either except for the fact that I stripped for money to try to help out my baby sister.”

“A baby sister who is a drug addicted prostitute,” my father said with a harsh laugh.

“A baby sister who lost her mother and father when she was eleven. Do you have any idea what that’s like?” I asked, unable to stay out of the conversation any longer. “Kaleb’s been raising her since she was a kid. He wasn’t able to go to college because he’s too busy working his butt off to take care of her.”

Uncertainty flickered across their faces, but my parents didn’t know how to back down. “Just go,” I said when my dad started to open his mouth. “We’re not doing this. We’re not.”

“Piety…” Mom began, “we just–”

“No,” I shouted. “I care about him. You have no right to interfere. This is my life, and I’m going to live it. I’m not living it just to be some sort of paragon that you can put up on a pedestal and show off when it’s election time. It’s my life.”

I turned away until I heard the door shut. Kaleb came up behind me, his hands squeezing my shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. This has been a long time coming.”

“Still, I haven’t helped.”

I smiled up at him. “Actually, you have. This all needed to come out before it completely ate away my soul.” I sighed, the stress I’d been feeling earlier was now magnified tenfold. “You know what? We should just pack and go to Vegas. We need to figure out how to help your sister. I can get the next few days off from work.”