Simon’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
“Because our trust funds came with an additional stipulation—if we didn’t marry by the age of thirty-eight, the fund would be divided between our siblings. Travis and his wife, Hope, want his share of mine. To them, Vienna is in the way of that. They tried making her doubt my feelings for her by telling her about the trust fund. She already knew about it, so that didn’t get them anywhere. Travis’s attempts to poison her mind about me failed.” Dane’s gaze cut to Melinda. “Which is no doubt why he went to you.”
Simon looked at her. “Travis spoke to you?”
Melinda nodded, but her eyes were on Dane. “He made it sound like you only married Vienna so you could access the trust fund,” she said, not sounding convinced that it wasn’t the case. “I wouldn’t have believed him. But when he mentioned you’d lose access to it if you didn’t marry by the time you turned thirty-eight—which is less than a year away …”
Simon’s gaze sharpened and then narrowed in suspicion. Shit.
Dane pursed his lips. “My guess? Travis hoped that if he could poison all your minds against me, then you’d get between me and Vienna in a way that he wasn’t able to do. I’d say he’s counting on you to encourage her to leave me. You may in fact intend to, despite what I’ve told you tonight. If so, he did his job well.”
“Dane didn’t pressure me to marry him in Vegas,” I told my family. “He asked. I said yes.”
“You can see why it looks suspicious,” said Wyatt, a little belligerent.
“Depending on what angle you look at it from, yes, it does,” Dane conceded. “But I don’t need my uncle’s money. I’ve never wanted to need or rely on it. If I had, I’d have done as Travis did and married at the age of eighteen just to get my hands on it.”
“Why is he so desperate to have a share of yours?” Simon asked, his eyes still narrowed. “He can’t have squandered all of his own.”
“Probably not all of it,” said Dane. “He received it in three separate, age-dependency payments over the years. He received the final one at the age of thirty. I doubt he’s spent all of it, but I do think he’s banked on having his share of mine.”
“He’s thought of it as a fourth payout, so he hasn’t been careful with his own,” guessed Simon.
“What about Kent?” asked Wyatt.
“He always swore he’d give me his share of my fund,” said Dane.
Wyatt tilted his head. “But you don’t trust that he will.”
“The only person I trust is Vienna,” Dane told him, sounding so utterly sincere I wanted to believe it was true. “She’s never betrayed me. Never let me down. Never asked or expected anything of me. She won’t even let me buy her a new car,” he grumbled.
“You did it anyway,” I pointed out. The brand-new vehicle had appeared in the garage a day ago.
Dane’s mouth twitched. “You’ll use it eventually. I’ve seen the way you look at it.”
Melinda sighed. “I want to believe that you’re all about Vienna; that your marrying her so soon isn’t whatsoever connected to the stipulations of your trust fund. But the timing just seems too coincidental.”
Dane shrugged. “I can’t make you believe me. If what I’ve shared with you here hasn’t rid your mind of doubt, there’s nothing more I can do.”
“I do appreciate that you told us all this—I know it couldn’t have been whatsoever easy,” she went on. “It’s just … I have to feel sure of you, because Vienna’s heart is on the line.”
I straightened. “I’m sure of him.”
“I know that,” she said. “But sometimes we can be so emotionally wrapped up in a situation that we don’t see it logically. I want to be positive that you’ve made the right choice,” she said, like I was naïve and didn’t know my own mind.
Okay, that got my back up. “Really? Heather splits married couples up on a regular basis. Couples like you and Wyatt, only rich. She uses one man after another just because she can. That’s not the ‘right choice.’ You’ve ignored it. You’ve pretended it away. You’ve never once lectured her over it or been rude to her partners, most of whom were still married at the time she introduced you to them. But you’ll question my ability to make a rational decision, and you’ll expect Dane to explain himself to you? Sorry, but that seems just a little bit shitty.”
Melinda grimaced. “Vienna—”
Dane cupped my jaw. “Don’t, baby girl. Don’t let this cause an argument. Travis would just love it if this created so much drama that you felt you had to choose between me and your family. Don’t give him that power.”
“We’d never ask her to choose us over you,” Melinda told him.
“We just worry for Vienna,” said Wyatt.
“I understand that,” said Dane, sliding his hand from my jaw to my nape. “I’m glad that you care for her as much as you do. I invited you here tonight and shared these things with you because I don’t want Travis to come between her and the three of you. I don’t want her to lose the people she loves. As I said, I can’t make you believe me. But I’d ask that you don’t make this difficult for Vienna. Don’t make her suffer for whatever doubts you may have. She’s never done anything other than believe in me. She doesn’t deserve to be punished for that.”
“We don’t want to punish her for it or cause problems for her.” Melinda looked down at her hands. “We made mistakes with Heather. There are things that you may believe we should take her to task over. But if we do that, she might keep Junior from us.” She met my eyes. “We couldn’t handle that.”
“I know,” I said. “But if you’re going to sit back and let her live her life as she pleases, you can surely do the same for me. That’s all I’m asking.”
Simon sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I know what it’s like to be let down by family, Dane. I know what that does to a person. So I know it couldn’t have been at all easy for you to let Vienna in, to let yourself love her.” He paused. “You married her solely because you love her? Really?”
Dane nodded once. “She’s the only woman I ever have loved.”
“I believe that,” said Simon. “More, I believe in Vienna. If she says that this isn’t about your trust fund, I’ll accept that. And I definitely won’t give your asshole of a brother the satisfaction of creating a divide between me and my daughter. But, having said that, if it ever turns out that my faith in you is misplaced, we’ll be having an entirely different conversation, and it won’t end pleasantly.” His gaze slid to me and softened. “Love you, sweetheart.”
I smiled. He was the best. “Love you, too.”
“I have to warn you to be careful,” Dane told him. “Travis or Hope may get the bright idea to approach you and feed you some tales. Please don’t be quick to believe what they tell you.”
Wyatt leaned forward. “If Vienna had asked you to wait and marry her at a later date, would you have agreed to that?”