What he meant was so Eli Howard didn’t bother her trust fund.
“You’re worried he’s in it for my money?” she asked.
“You have to be careful with your money, Marlee.” Her dad shoved his hands on his hips, exasperated.
“I trust Eli,” Marlee said. “Totally trust him. He’s not going to take my money.”
“C’mon, you understand how people work.” Scotty wiped at his mouth. “He married youbecauseyou have a lot of money. We froze your accounts to protect your assets.” Scotty stood as though he was going to step toward her, reason with her.
She officially clipped those heartstrings. “You don’t have any say over my accounts.”
Her grandmother had assigned her parents as trustees, not Scotty.
“Scotty isn’t involved in the finances,” her father said. “Your mother and I made the decision.”
They didn’t know Eli. Didn’t know who he really was. Eli had never cared that she had money. “Eli married me because we got drunk. Now we’re dealing with it. We’ve already started the divorce papers.”
“Once the divorce goes through, we’ll turn everything back on,” her mother said.
“If Scotty is at our house, then I won’t be. And if Scotty is here, then I won’t be. And if Scotty’s at the office, then I won’t be.” Marlee glanced from her parents to Scotty. “I’ll find somewhere else.”
It’s not like she pulled a paycheck from the family business. She’d never needed one. Now, it seemed, she needed one.
“Your mother and I know you’re upset.” Her dad bowed his head, speaking to the counter. “We know you’re hurt. Good decisions don’t happen when a person is hurting, so we will be there for you through this. When the divorce is final, we’ll open your accounts again. Until then, we don’t want this Eli to have access to all your funds or cause further hurt. So you’ll stay here with us, and we’ll support you through this.”
Marlee stared at him like he’d suddenly grown a mole in the center of his forehead. “You’re serious.”
“We’re very serious.” Her mom laid a hand against her dad’s back. “We want to be sure you’re okay.”
“I move in here and you give me some kind of allowance or something?” Marlee’s heart beat faster. Her frustration with the judge in Vegas had nothing on her frustration with her parents. “And that’s supposed to protect me from Eli? The one person who has consistently been there for me since Scotty scraped me off?”
“Leelee—”
“It’s best this way. And it’s just for now,” her mom said softly.
“No.” Marlee picked up Lothario, turned toward the hallway, and made her way to the front door. Her chest heaved. Her eyes got hot. Unshed tears stung her eyelids.
None of them followed her. They didn’t think they’d need to. She was a trust-fund baby and they’d cut the cord. A spoiled little rich girl with no money wouldn’t survive in the world without them. Her only hope was to crawl back down that hall and beg for money.
She wouldn’t do that.
She had a degree. She had friends. She had…Eli.
With Lothario still snuggled in her purse, she climbed into her SUV and did the one thing she never thought she’d do.
She called her husband.
Chapter Ten
Eli needed a serious rewind. Rewind and reboot. Go back, start over, change the outcome.
He scrubbed his palm over his face.
“Your family is being a bag of dicks, Mar. You’re welcome to stay with me,” he said into the phone.
“Thank you, Eli. Really,” she replied, the muffled sound of her mouth close to the phone.
“See you in a few.” He ended the call, already headed to the coin-operated washer at the end of the building to toss in his spare set of sheets. Marlee would take his bed. He’d pull out the sofa for himself. Scotty could suck it.
