Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

VICTORIA

In the midst of deepest heartache, I received a random text from my brother, Houston - the oldest of the boys, that I should show up to family dinner and get to know his woman. I rolled my eyes because in my estimation, that was a relationship that was doomed to fail. Truthfully, all marriages and relationships were doomed to be massive shitstorms for anyone who dared to enter into a fleetingly blessed union.

I probably sounded bitter.

No, I did sound bitter. There was no denying that fact. It had been two weeks since I kicked Devin out of my house and he hadn’t tried to contact me again. This time, I knew there was nothing hinky keeping him from reaching out. He simply didn’t want to. Last I heard, from Jordan, he still lived with his wife. I supposed he wanted to give it the old college try with her after all. Being an afterthought to the person who broke my heart so completely was part of the bitter party that kept me from being happy for my brother.

That was the plan until someone knocked on my door. When I opened the door, I didn’t expect to see Jordan standing there.

“What do you want?”

“To apologize. I didn’t mean to cause more trouble for you, I swear. When Dallas mentioned that Devin planned to take his wife out for dinner, I thought you needed to see how they behaved together. You needed to see that.”

“And the blind dates?”

“That was because he needed to see that you could move on without him too. I’m sorry. All I seem to be doing with your family lately is apologizing for every bad decision I make while trying to guard one of your hearts.”

“One of our hearts?” I asked.

“Yeah, you with Devin who refuses to fight the right way for you and Austin and that bitch Becs.”

“What’s going on with Austin?”

“You don’t know?”

“I saw her when my mom forced me on a shopping trip the other day, but we didn’t speak.” I giggled. “Well, I did call her a home wrecker.”

“You did?” Jordan bloomed underneath my admission, as if she had waited for the day one of us would stand up for her.

“I did. It isn’t right that my brother thought you were good enough until she forced her way back into his life. I mean, she should have some self respect, since he left her for you how many times?”

Jordan blushed and looked away. “He still keeps going back to her, though.” Her admission twisted my beat up heart a little more. I couldn’t believe my little brother could be so careless with his best friend’s heart.

“You mentioned before that my family were all kind of upset with you. Did you ever get that straightened out?”

Jordan’s only answer was a quick nod of her head. She refused to meet my eyes, so I decided to give her the chance to make amends with backup. “I’m supposed to go to Mom’s house for dinner tonight, so I can get to know Cleo.”

“Clea,” she corrected.

“Weird name, but whatever.” I took Jordan’s hand in mine. “Why don’t you come along?”

“Who else will be there?”

“Mom didn’t say anyone else. Katy probably and Dad since he lives there and loves food.” We both giggled at that because there was no way my father would ever willingly miss a meal.

“Yeah, okay. That should be fine.”

“Of course it is. You’re family and always have been, even if Austin lost sight of that when he started thinking with his dick.”

“You’re not even going to ask what I did to make your family angry with me?”

I shook my head. “We all deserve a little grace, especially when we are trying to navigate a broken heart. I understand that all too well. There’s the depression chocolate cake that I dove into head first without hands or utensils, and then there are the unwanted thoughts I’ve had to work really hard not to follow through with. Trust me when I said, there have been some desperate plans that my poor, pitiful brain cooked up to get Devin back.”

“So, why didn’t you follow through with any of them?”

“What would be the point? If he wanted me, it should be because he truly wanted to be there with me, not because I tricked him into it with a fake pregnancy or something.”

Jordan blushed profusely, and somehow I just knew that was why my family was angry with her, but considering I had thought about the same thing, I understood her desperation. Maybe with her more than myself. Jordan had been in love with my brother for the majority of her life. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t returned those feelings. He loved her, but not in the way she wanted him to.

Just as we got into my car to head out to my family’s house for dinner, a notification dinged and I opened it without thinking. Stupid me.

Thinking about the day I tied the knot with the love of my life!

The photo was of a finger wearing a wedding band and that finger was attached to the hand that rested on an obvious baby bump. The she-beast-from-hell had even tagged Devin in her little announcement. I growled and threw my phone. Jordan picked it up and took a look before her watery eyes met my own. “I’m sorry, Vic. You shouldn’t have to see that.”

“Yeah, well, I think you know all about having to watch the man you love fuck off with some woman who doesn’t deserve him.”

“We’re a sad lot, huh?”

“The saddest,” I teased despite having to swipe away the few tears that escaped my traitorous tear ducts.

Dinner had apparently started without us. I wasn’t offended. It had been ages ago that I managed to make a family dinner, and even though I promised to be there, it was the norm if I wasn’t.

“Our oldest grandchild is going to be a boy who can look after any who come after him.”

My mother’s announcement was a shock to me, especially since I had been her oldest child. It was nice to know how she truly felt about her oldest being a female.

“Like a girl being the oldest would have been a bad thing?” I asked. Instead of coming to stand beside me as I challenged my mom, Jordan remained hidden behind me as all eyes turned in my direction.

Instead of offering an answer to my question, my mother gasped and looked behind me with narrowed eyes. “Victoria Marie, what have you done?”

“What?” My tone was immediately defensive because I didn’t understand why she seemed angry with me for showing up to a dinner I was invited to.

“Vic, you should have told me,” Jordan said in such a meek voice that I had to do a double take to make sure it was really her speaking.

“Why?” I asked and then glanced around to see more faces in the crowd staring back at us that I had been led to believe would be at this dinner. I hadn’t expected Austin or his new woman at all. Still, I knew immediately that her presence was the problem. “You’ve always been welcome to family dinners. I don’t see any need to change that now.” I glared directly at Becs, the woman who worked so hard to steal my brother from his best friend, and added: “Not for anyone.” Because fuck love. It was a disingenuous beast at best and a disappointing heartbreak at worst. Becs, seated at my family’s dinner table, was the embodiment of Jordan’s heartbreak. It would be like if my family invited Devin and the she-beast-from-hell to dinner with me.

No one needed their chest cracked wide open. If they didn’t want Jordan to show up, then they should have told me that Austin and his new woman would be here. I would have never brought Jordan along with me had I known. Not to spare them, but to spare her heart.

“Vic, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this is just making things worse. Why would you put me in this position?”

Well, that made me feel like an ass even though I hadn’t known they would be here, she was quick to make herself the victim in the situation.

“I’m sorry. You’ll never know how sorry I am that I interfered with things between you.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Jordan just admitted that she was the one interfering in Austin and Bec’s relationship. What the ever loving fuck had I missed?

“Would you like to take a seat?” Mom asked, though I could tell by her tone that she hoped Jordan would decline and just a moment later, she got her wish.

“No. I didn’t realize Austin or…” She paused and once again, I felt as though I had missed something major. “I didn’t realize they’d be here, or I wouldn’t have come. There’s been enough trouble from me.”

Jordan stormed out after that leaving me there to feel like the ant being fried by a child with a magnifying glass. “What?”

“You knew that Becs would be here tonight.” My brother called out to me, accusation deep in each syllable.

“So!” If they wanted to make an enemy out of someone, let them make one out of me. I didn’t care that I wasn’t aware she would be there. Truthfully, it would make it easier for me to hide away from everyone, to keep my misery to myself. If everyone hated me, that meant no one would come around to see me fall apart.

“So?” My brother mocked my indignant tone.

So, you decided to be a complete bitch and invite Jordan without telling her we’d be here? You didn’t bother to warn me so that my pregnant girlfriend wouldn’t be upset?”

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend anymore, pregnant or otherwise,” I informed them all.

“You know what I mean,” he demanded. “Why would you hurt everyone this way, including Jordan?”

Okay, I was really lost and out of my element, but fuck it. In for a penny and all that. It was time to double down and make sure no one ever wanted to stop by on a whim to witness more than they should have my life. “It’s not like you care about Jordan anymore.”

“I will always care about Jordan. She’s been in my life since we were babies. I might not like her very much right now, and she won’t ever be close to me again the way we once were, and that’s partly my fault for getting too involved when I shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I want to see her purposely hurt by this family.”

Austin was fuming mad with me, but he wasn’t even close to done yet. It took everything in me to keep the tears at bay as he continued to tear into me.

“The worst part of what you did, is that you know Becs is pregnant with my baby and stress isn’t good for pregnancy. You decided to put her in undo stress anyway all because you’re miserable with whatever is going on in your own life and you decided to take it out on everyone else. You might be the oldest, Vic, but you need to grow the fuck up!”

I missed whatever was said between my brother and his pregnant girlfriend as I remembered Jordan telling me that Becs was trying to fake a pregnancy to come between them. I glanced at her stomach and immediately knew Jordan had lied to me. Considering what she had said before running away, I wasn’t the only one who she had been lying to.

I caught a glare thrown my way from Becs and decided to double-down again. “Why are you placating the bitch who helped you cheat on your lifelong girlfriend?”

“Jordan has never been my girlfriend and I have never cheated on anyone. Jordan had expectations that didn’t align with mine, and if anything, she was the one who constantly tried to sabotage my relationships with Becs. All three times I tried to date Becs before, Jordan did everything in her power to drive her away. The crazy thing is that Jordan didn’t try to do it this time. My own fucking sister did instead.”

Well, that was news to me and suddenly I felt very bad for Becs.

“She said…” I started to tell them that Jordan had told me a story from the completely opposite perspective with her being the victim, but then she popped back into the room.

“Sorry, I just realized I couldn’t leave because Vic brought me here. Victoria, the first time they dated, I was angry because he hadn’t said anything to me about our arrangement being over. It felt like he cheated on me, but that wasn’t really true, since we were never together that way. The other times, we weren’t together either. I just wanted us to be.”

“But you said…” Victoria tried to argue with her.

“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have misled you, I just needed someone to hear how I felt, not what was true.”

“Are you kidding me?” Victoria lashed out at her friend. “All this time, I thought my brother was doing you wrong and that woman was the one trying to ruin your relationship. Now, you’re telling me it was the other way around? I should have known, I guess, since you faked a Goddamn pregnancy to try to trick my brother.” That was the other thing I’d forgotten when I showed up with her. My mother had mentioned Jordan’s fake pregnancy to me on the phone, but I’d been in the middle of a full mental breakdown and had forgotten all about it until I was faced with my entire family’s anger bearing down on me. Damn, go big as an asshole or go home, I guess. Truthfully, I just wanted to go home and wallow, but I was a little miffed with myself for taking everything out on an innocent - I think - pregnant woman.

“Victoria,” My dad’s admonishing tone hit on the last bit of control I had over my messy emotions. “I think we’ve all had about enough drama. You brought Jordan here on a night when you knew she wasn’t invited, you need to take her home. When you get back, you can apologize for ruining dinner and your brother’s announcement.”

I turned on my heel and ran from the room with zero intent to come back to my family home. My life had officially fallen all the way apart.