Piper was on a rampage when Quinn got home. Changing from screaming at her mom to screaming at the housekeeper.
After three years, Quinn still didn't know the maid's name. She was an older woman who hid a lot to make sure she never had to deal with Piper, and she left every day at exactly five o'clock.
The cook was even older and named Debbie. She was a skilled cook, but Quinn hardly ever took the time to eat her food. That one stayed in the kitchen and left as soon as dinner was served.
Apparently, Piper's favorite pink diamond earrings were missing. She was blaming her mom for that, and she was blaming the housekeeper for not finding them.
Quinn grabbed an apple and sat on the table so she could watch the show.
Usually, Em couldn't be bothered to fight with her daughter, but today she was screaming nearly as loud. She'd just stated that she could borrow whatever she wanted to borrow. Then she went on to remind Piper who the parent was.
Which she's mentioned a few times in the five minutes Quinn's been home.
"Could have fooled me. I'm eighteen. I don't need a mother, anyway. What I need is for you to keep your hands off my crap."
"Why don't you keep your hands off my crap!"
She couldn't help it. She clapped. "Point one for stepmom."
"Shut up, Quinn." Got shouted from both of them.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Her father asked as he arrived.
She clapped again. "You literally couldn't have arrived at a better time. They were just deciding whether they can share or not."
"Shut up, Quinn!" This time, it was only Piper screaming at her because Em narrowed her eyes and turned away from all of them. A few moments later, they heard a door slam from upstairs.
"That will be all, Ruth." Her father never raised his voice. He never had to. Instinctively, people knew not to mess with him.
Ruth. Maybe she'd get around to remembering that.
"Father, you have to do something about__."
Quinn gagged, and she made sure the other two knew it.
Piper's look promised retribution. "That woman stole my pink diamond earrings. They were my absolute favorite. You know how much they meant to me."
Did he really? It was doubtful he could recall anything other than their names for all the time he spent with them. Though she supposed he was spending more time with Piper than she'd realized.
Piper's voice went from screeching to too sweet with a twinge of sad. "I was going to wear them to your big party coming up. They match my dress perfectly. Ryker is coming and I want to look nice for him and his father."
Oh, she had him. Ryker's father was on the city council.
"I looked everywhere. Even Ruth looked. For all I know, mom could have lost them on her last trip, and we'll never find them."
"Just go buy you some more."
"Father, why should I have to spend my allowance on something she lost? That's not fair."
Quinn saw it in his eyes. He was on to Piper, too. He just couldn't be bothered to care.
"I'll call and add more to your card. Take Quinn with you. I'll add more to both of your cards. Just stop the damn fighting."
"Thank you, father." Piper smiled sweetly. "Quinn, be ready in thirty."
She was watching her stepsisters sashay up the stairs when she realized her dad was looking at her now and not Piper.
"I'll give you a couple thousand, buy you something nice."
That was more than he's said to her in a month, but instead of letting him walk away like she usually did, she let her words still his movements. "Have you noticed she just started calling you father? Kind of sickening, isn't it?"
She waited to speak again until he started to walk away again. "Mom would be so disappointed in you."
Her dad was handsome. Clean cut with grey just at his temples. He was way better looking than Scott and Noah's dad.
He straightened his back, but his expression never changed. He had the best poker face. Guess that's why he was such an excellent lawyer.
You could never know what he was thinking by looking at him. And he damn sure was never going to talk to anybody about his feelings.
Except maybe her mom.
"I believe she'd be disappointed in both of us."
The truth of that took a moment to settle around her shoulders. "I guess I wouldn't be a very good daughter if I didn't let you know that she took pictures. I wonder what those could do to the good name you take such pride in."
"I'll handle her."
She gave a fake chuckle. "Good luck with that."
At his office door, he turned back towards her. "You better than anyone should know that when you lose the one right thing in your life, wrong comes easily. I guess because nothing is ever going to feel right ever again, anyway."
"There's wrong and then there's sleeping with your stepdaughter who's barely above the legal age. I might be a lost cause, I might have done some pretty horrible things in my life, but even I wouldn't stoop to doing that. Poor mom. She was such a good, beautiful person, and all she has to show for her life is you and me."
She hopped off the table and left her apple laying there. "Handling her is going to take a lot of zeros for a very long time." Standing in front of her dad, she straightened his tie. "For a very, very long time. So, I think it's only fair that I get my fair share of those zeros. I'll take mine in a lump sum in the bank account that mom set up for my college fund. I'm sure without her here it's looking a little bare."
"I've put money in it every month, just like she told me to."
"Triple it and make sure I can use it now. Triple it, then triple it, and I'll handle Piper for you, too. I might be more equipped to do it. Her young flesh won't be tempting me to do anything else stupid."
He stared at her for a long time, so she stared right back at him.
"You look like her, especially with your hair curly like this, but there's nothing of her in you."
"That's true." She smiled. "I'm more like my father."
The cutthroat lawyer came out in him. "You can get rid of those pictures?"
"I have a better chance than you'll have. I know her pass codes. Her emails. I also know who else she set a copy to. Lucky for you, it will never occur to her she has to hide anything. She doesn't see anyone as a threat."
Her smile grew. "Continue my allowance until I graduate college and I'll even do a little housecleaning for you."
"Do you really believe college is in store for you? I don't think someone who isn't sober for more than a few hours in the morning can manage something like that."
"Oh, I don't know. I usually manage good grades, even drunk."
"Fine."
"Tell me, pops, why did you get married again, anyway? Pretty stupid move for someone like you. Some guys are just better off with no obligations holding him down."
He moved into his office. "Do you remember how I met your mother?"
"She was a server in a diner you happened into for a piece of pie. Some guy was getting handsy with her and she made sure he'd never make that mistake again."
"She didn't have two dimes to rub together." He sat at his desk and opened a drawer that had her mom's picture in it. "I married her two months later, and it was the best thing I ever did. When I met Em, she was serving drinks at a pub. She smacked a guy who grabbed her."
"Please tell me you didn't marry her because of that."
"I just wanted what I lost."
"Em is no mom."
"No, she isn't. No one is." He stated, his eyes still on the picture of her mom.
"I'm more than a little pissed you took all of her pictures away from me and you kept one."
"I couldn't bear to look at them." He held it out to her. "I didn't set out to do wrong by you. I didn't have her to tell me what the right thing to do was anymore."
She took it but couldn't look at it yet. She held it to her chest. "I'll take care of it. Don't touch her again."
"I can do that."
"Or be alone with her."
He sighed. "How do you suppose I do that?"
"That's your problem, horndog. I suggest staying gone a lot."