Chapter Ten
That night Piperpropped her chin on her hand as she stared at the screen of her laptop on the dining room table. Her half finished assignment was due in a couple of days and she still hadn’t completed her research. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy stretching her brain. It was the insidious feeling that had been growing stronger over the last year that she was studying for these exams for all the wrong reasons.
She sighed and stretched her arms over her head. She was doing it to shut her parents up. That was the reason she’d enrolled. Nothing had changed. So why couldn’t she shake this sense of apprehension?
Her mobile rang and excitement shot through her.He’s calling me a day early.She knew how tragic that sounded but so what. She grabbed her phone and her happy thoughts dive bombed. “Hi, Mum.”
“Darling, it’s been ages since we had a chat.” Her mother sighed dramatically, clearing discounting the daily text messages and emails she sent to both her and Peyton. “Howareyou?”
“I’m fine. So you had a great time in the Caribbean?” Her parents always took a cruise at the beginning of the year, because her mother hated the winter. They’d only arrived back in London yesterday.
“Oh, it was utterly splendid, darling. It’s such a shame you girls couldn’t have joined us.”
That’s because some of us have to work.No point telling her mother that, since neither she nor Peyton had acareerworth worrying about. And as for the cost of the exotic holidays her parents enjoyed, well naturally if she and her sister did agree to join them, they wouldn’t be expected to foot the bills. Because, of course, not havinglucrative careersthey couldn’t afford it.
She made a noncommittal noise and only half listened as her mother waxed lyrical about the fabulous cruise and breathtaking islands, apparently forgetting about all the photos she’d sent them over the last few weeks. Finally her mum ran out of steam and asked the inevitable question.
“So, still studying hard?”
She flicked a few pages in one of her textbooks. The usual knot in the pit of her stomach she always got when her parents mentioned her studying seemed to expand.
“Yes.”
“Not much longer, darling. It’ll all be worth it once you’ve got those qualifications under your belt.”
Piper let out a long breath and slapped the book closed.Let it go.What did it matter if her parents continued to imagine she was set on the path of owning her own vet practice? There was plenty of time to put them right. She didn’t need to have a confrontation with them until after her results came through. And that was ages away yet.
Coward.
A shiver inched over her arms. She’d put off telling Colton that she wanted to finish their relationship until it all erupted in a horrible slanging match. Now she was doing the same with Mason, but for the opposite reason.
And she’d been hiding from the truth with her parents, too. She knew what she wanted. It was past time they accepted that.
“I’m not taking these exams so I can go onto university.”
There was a deathly silence. Piper transferred her phone to her other ear and caught the curious glance of her sister from across the room.
“I don’t understand.” Her mother’s voice suggested otherwise, but whatever. “You need to go to university for your degree.”
It would be so easy to agree, and let her mother think that’s what she wanted for her future. The same way she’d let Colton believe, for months, that she wanted to get engaged on her eighteen birthday and follow some grand plan that had been laid out for her life without taking into account whatshewanted.
“I’m not going to university. I don’t want to be a vet.”
Her sister made a great performance of collapsing onto the sofa, clutching her chest. Piper ignored her and steeled her nerves for her mother’s response.
“But you’ve always wanted to be a vet. Ever since you were a little girl.”
“I’ve always wanted to work with animals. There’s a difference, Mum.”
“I know you don’t like to talk about it. But you must put what happened to Colton behind you. He wouldn’t want you to sacrifice all your dreams and not reach your potential.”
What thehelldid Colton have to do with this? Deep inside, anger stirred. Not just because her mother wouldn’t listen to her. But because she was trying to make Piper’s decision into something it wasn’t.
“Colton never gave a shit about what I wanted.” The words were out there before she could stop them.I don’t care.She was sick of hearing her parents talk about Colton as though he was so bloody perfect.
“Piper.” Her mother’s shocked tone vibrated in her ear.
“Okay, I have to go.” Piper slung her phone on the table and glared at her sister.
