Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

DEVIN

What in the absolute fuck just happened?

My mind felt like it exploded right alongside my heart. How in the hell was it possible that Jordan and Victoria came to this restaurant for dinner? I glanced over at the table as Vic grabbed her purse and headed for the door. The smug look on Jordan’s face told me she was responsible for everything. From Vic being here to the double date that had been arranged for the two of them. I probably had Dallas to thank for the bitch having the info. He asked what I was up to this evening and I told him about ‘date night’ at Frederick’s.

Stupid fucking shit. Worse, was that as I looked around, it was obvious that Justice’s parents were not here, so our little show was for nothing. Not for nothing, as it served to destroy another frayed string that held my relationship with Vic in place. I watched as she walked out of the restaurant with her date not far behind.

“Stop staring at her, people are starting to notice.”

“You set this up, didn’t you?”

“How would I know where your stupid little schoolboy crush was going to be tonight?” She laughed lightly. “Seems to me, she came to verify a few things for herself and you played the part of my doting husband so well, she believed you.” Justice smacked my shoulder playfully and then moved to leave the dance floor. She made sure to keep her hand on her belly the whole time, emphasizing the growing baby bulge beneath her too-tight dress.

What she didn’t realize was that by showing off her bump, she made it that much more obvious that the baby couldn’t be mine. She also didn’t realize that it finally occurred to me just how important her burning the only copy of the prenup was. It finally sunk in, but there were a few loose strings I needed to tie together before I unleashed holy hell on the bitch.

Before that could happen, I needed to get the fuck out of Frederick’s and go find my woman. There was no way in hell I was going to leave her with the impression that there was more between Justice and me than loathing at this point. In the beginning, we’d been friends out of circumstance. That didn’t even exist any longer, despite what Vic thought she saw between us.

By the time I informed Justice that she could pay the bill and find her own way home, I knew I was running short on time to get to Vic before she shut down and shut me out completely. There was also the real problem that I was angry with her for being on a date with another man. We promised one another we were done playing games. I barely bothered to park properly on the road in front of Vic’s house before I jogged up to the door and banged my fist against it.

The minute she cracked the door open, I barged in without giving her the chance to shut it in my face. “I’m sorry. Her parents were supposed to be there in the restaurant. We were supposed to put on this show-”

“Oh, you put on quite the show for the whole town, but it wasn’t the one you mentioned in the text you sent me.” Vic’s tone remained calm, if slightly sarcastic, as she spoke. That was not a good sign.

“We were supposed to start out as a normal couple and then have a fight.”

“Yeah? So you were cool with eating off the same fucking fork that bitch had in her mouth not two seconds before?”

“No, I wasn’t, but…”

“Or how about when you looked so lovingly at her while you wiped away the remnants of her meal from her lips? Was that supposed to start a fucking fight, Devin?”

“Vic, please, if you’d let me explain…”

“You know what? No!”

“What?”

“Just what I said. I’m tired of your explanations, Dev. There comes a point when they stop meaning shit, except to highlight that you don’t care how bad you make things look before we supposedly go public. Did you stop, for one fucking second, to think that a show like that - whether it ended in a fight or not - would make people believe the two of you were in love and I was the problem in the middle?”

I didn’t know what to say. Every argument I had fell to the wayside as Vic made her point. Justice had been a step ahead of me all along, except with my most recent realization, but that was something I would discuss with Vic after I managed to convince her to calm down and hear me out. She had no clue about the burned prenup, the video cameras in my house, or the deal I thought I’d made with Justice the night before to end everything.

“I felt like throwing up when I sat there and watched you do those things with her. You’re an amazing actor, Dev because I believed it. My stomach almost emptied on the dance floor when you let her rub all over you, but you didn’t even notice how sick I looked. You didn’t even notice that Mark and I barely touched one another while your date-” She cut herself off with a harsh laugh. “No, your wife, slid her body all along yours and pulled you in to hug her and hold her baby bump in front of me. I wanted to die while you just stood there and made me watch.”

“It wasn’t like that, Vic. I was in fucking shock that you were out with another man.”

“Well, the difference between us was that you planned to go play happy families in public with Justice. Mark was foisted on me by Jordan without me knowing until he and his buddy showed up at the restaurant.” I watched as Vic shook her head. “You told me that your dinner with her was supposed to be a staged fight and all anyone in that restaurant saw was the two of you all loved up on one another and happily sharing a meal.”

“That’s not all they saw. Everyone in that place watched as I put Justice in her place for setting that whole thing up. Her parents were supposed to be there and they never showed, but miraculously, your friend took you to the restaurant where I’d be and set up a whole scene to get me riled up. The rest of the diners in that restaurant watched as I yelled at her and then left to come to you. Christ, I didn’t even pay for her meal.” What I didn’t mention was that I told Justice she could pay for it out of the money she stole from me the night before.

“I don’t want to hear it anymore, Devin. I’m tired of feeling like the second choice, and barely that.”

“I swear to you, Vic, you are the only choice.”

“Yeah, it really felt like that when you caressed her lips in font of me.”

“What about when that asshole had you laughing on the dance floor? You didn’t think that gutted me?”

“I wouldn’t know because you were too busy dirty dancing with your pregnant wife.”

“It’s not my fucking baby and she isn’t my wife!” I yelled at her because my temper decided it wouldn’t be held at bay anymore, even if it was directed at the wrong person.

Vic pointed at my hand and laughed. “Funny, you even managed to snag another ring to prove to everyone just how untrue that statement is. You went out of your way to wear a wedding band tonight, and I know you had to get one especially to prove something because I have the other one you threw in my house last time you tried to tell me your marriage meant nothing. It mean so little to you that you had to get a replacement immediately, huh?”

I went to snatch the ring off my finger too. “She handed this to me before we left the house.”

“The house you live in, with your pregnant wife,” Vic replied in a cold, detached tone I’d never heard her use before. “Right. Well, you should go home to your wife because she’s your problem. You know who isn’t? ME.”

“Vic, I love you!”

“Get the fuck out of my house, Devin!” The harsh way she yelled those words at me made me stumble to a stop before I could reach for my woman. She threw her hands up in the air, almost in surrender, except they were used to hold me at arm’s length in the most literal manner. “I mean it. Get out of my house. We are done.”

“We’re not done,” I pleaded, but she simply pointed at the door.

“Go before I call someone to remove you.”

I wasn’t sure if she meant her brothers or the law, but I turned and walked to the door. “We’re not done, Vic. There are things you don’t know…”

“There’s plenty I don’t know,” she sassed back. “Us being finished is crystal fucking clear though.”