Chapter 19

Chapter

Nineteen

“Vic, wait!”

“No!” I shouted back as I climbed into my car and took off. I wasn’t near fast enough though because Dallas jumped on his Harley and followed me across town to my place. I parked and ran inside, but he was faster and practically kicked in my door before I could get it shut.

“Stop, Dallas. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tough shit. You’ve been behaving like a royal bitch, but I didn’t see it before.”

“See what?”

“The reason,” Devin stated in a quiet voice. “He broke your heart, didn’t he?” He did, but I think my brother had drawn a lot of wrong conclusions and that was confirmed by what he said next. “Why would you agree to be his affair partner, Sis? You’re better than that.”

“I wasn’t the affair partner!” I shouted. I dated Devin for more than two years.”

“What the fuck?” Dallas asked and then shook his head back and forth in an almost violent manner as I watched him going over memories of the past couple years. “No. He has been dating Justice for a year and a half. Fuck, they got married, not too long ago. She’s having his baby.”

“No, she is not having his baby!” I denied emphatically. The longer I went without hearing from Devin, the more I wondered about that though. Maybe he hadn’t come back around because he found out it really was his kid. Considering Jordan had lied to me about every-fucking-thing, it was possible that Devin had as well. Maybe the two of them had been fucking around behind my back for the entire time they were fake dating.

“You need to sit down and explain this shit to me.” Dallas demanded. So, I did. I broke down and sobbed through every little detail starting with the way Devin chased me when he was still only 19 and I refused to date him because that was cringy. Then, when he was no longer in his teens, I finally agreed to a date. Everything that came after tumbled free from me until I got to today, where I destroyed my brother’s poor wife so I could keep everyone away from me.

“Jesus, Vic.” My brother grabbed me and pulled me into a hug so tight that it both took my breath and gave me a little hope back. “I’m so sorry you have been going through this. Why didn’t you just tell me that you were dating? I wouldn’t have cared.”

“You did care though. You almost caught us a couple times and we talked about telling you, but then you fussed with Devin about shit. You practically forbade him from dating me.”

“That’s because he wasn’t serious or ready to settle down and have a real relationship with you. I only wanted him to be serious about it if he chose to try to win you - because you aren’t a game to be won and then tossed aside when the challenge is over. You’re my big sister, but I can still look out for you. Obviously, he still wasn’t ready to do right by you or he never would have agreed to keep things secret. He sure as fuck would have never pretended to date another woman, let alone fuck her so she could try to baby trap him, or marry the conniving bitch if he was ready to settle down with you.”

“Thanks for the recap of the recap of my shitty fucking existence, Dallas.” I rolled my eyes and wiped my snotty nose on his shirt.

“Gross, Vic.” He glanced down and made a disgusted face before he shrugged it off and pulled me back in for another hug. “I wish you would have come to me sooner. WAY FUCKING SOONER. I can’t believe you tried to piss everyone off to keep them all away while you went through hell on your own.”

“I wasn’t totally alone. I had Jordan for part of it.”

“Yeah? How’d that work out for you?”

“I still can’t believe she lied to me about everything. She was family. I feel like no one can be trusted, myself included.”

“Sounds to me like you need some serious therapy.”

“Already started and she’s going to be so upset with me when she finds out what I did.” I sighed. “Honest to God, I went there to apologize to Becs tonight and…” I cried into my baby brother’s chest some more. “I don’t know what happened. Mom was… Well, she sounded like she didn’t want me there. I wasn’t invited to Houston and Austin’s weddings, Dallas. You have to believe me.”

“I do. I saw Mom’s face when Houston mentioned it. She never told you, even though she was the one who was supposed to notify everyone since it was last minute.”

I nodded. “She hates me. My own mother hates me. How can I expect Devin, or any other man, to love me when I’m not even lovable to my own mother?”

“Shut your mouth, Vic. You are. Mom fucked up. Hell she fucked up so bad she disinvited you and brought Jordan along to the wedding.”

“Yeah, that’s even more of an insult, considering Jordan’s lies are why I had the outburst to begin with. How is it possible for Mom to forgive her and not me?”

“She didn’t forgive her. Mom brought Jordan there to see Austin getting married so she would give up on him and go find her own peace.”

“That sounds a lot like forgiveness when you want the other person to be happy.”

“Maybe so, but I don’t think Mom hates you. Everyone is under a lot of stress and things we don’t know about, obviously.” He looked pointedly down at me. “I’m going to kill Dev, though.”

“No. You’re going to pretend like you know nothing.”

“Nah, fuck that. He fucked with my big sister and broke her in a way I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. That fucker lied to me, for years, and still had the nerve to call me his best friend.”

“He did it for me.”

Dallas shook his head. “No, he didn’t. He might have said so. He might even have lied to himself that it was for you, but he did it for himself too. His parents wanted him to settle down with a girl from his office a couple years ago. Well, his mom did. His dad thought he was too young to settle for anyone. Both of them have tried to dissuade him from the crush he had on you for years.”

I huffed and shrugged out of my brother’s hold then.

“I don’t think they did that because they don’t like you. They did it because it didn’t seem plausible and they wanted him to live his life instead of being sunk neck deep inside a crush that went on for way too long. I told him the same fucking thing many times, granted a few of them were while you two were dating secretly.” Dallas gave me a knowing look. “If I thought you were interested in him, I never would have tried to push him to date other people.”

“I know that.”

“All right. Good talk.” He said as he walked to the door. “No more secrets. They’re not good for our family.”

“Take your own advice then!” I shouted back as he closed the door after he walked out. I ran after him. When I got the door opened, I yelled to my brother as he put his helmet back on. “Where are you going?” I wanted to add, ‘so abruptly,’ but that was a given.

“I have a nose to break, big sis. Go back inside and lock up. If you need me, call, but not for the next hour or so.”

I didn’t even bother to beg him not to break Devin’s nose. My ex deserved a little pain for everything he put me through.