Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

DEVIN

“Go to hell, you bastard!”

I chuckled as my wife left the house angry with me once again. It was the only joy I had in life anymore. Vic blocked me weeks ago, so I couldn’t call or text to check on her. Once in a while, I would drive by her place to see if she would notice, but she never did. Her house was always dark, though, so it was hard to tell.

I wanted to go to her. To be with her. To promise her that she is my everything and the only future that could possibly make me happy. I couldn’t though. Not yet.

Our time was coming and I had just sent off step one in getting Victoria Mercer back in my life. More than that, I wanted to be in her heart again the way she still was in mine. Unfortunately, I had some legal hoops to wade through first, and then we would be able to have the future we always hoped would be possible.

My parents were finally on board, but then again, I wasn’t sure they had a whole lot of faith that I could win my girl back. Truthfully, depending on the day, my own hope wavered, especially the longer I went without being able to talk to her. I knew there was no way we could try again so long as Justice was still in the picture, so that was priority number one. I had Justice served with a 60-day notice to vacate my property. She defiantly said she would fight it because we were married and even if I had video to prove that there was a prenup, I didn’t have any proof of what was in it. So, technically the house was marital property and we lived in a no-fault state.

If I thought it would get me free of her quicker, I would sign the fucking house over to her. Not that I wanted to. I owned the thing free and clear, thanks to money my grandfather left me when he died. Still, my lawyer told me to hold off as long as possible and play the long game because grifters didn’t deserve a piece of the pie. He wasn’t wrong about that. Besides, I didn’t want her to be rewarded for coming between Vic and me.

“Are you sure you don’t want to press charges against her for sexual assault? It was clear from your security footage that you were inebriated when things happened between you.”

I shook my head and cringed as my lawyer laid it out for me. “No.” It took me a while to find the moment in the video where I lost faith in my relationship with Vic and stepped out on her. I did that, even if I didn’t remember afterward. “I’ve seen rape cases where women were just as messed up and they couldn’t win. I won’t file charges under the same circumstances and hope for better. I’m not sure why I can’t remember the evening, but I was speaking clearly for the most part when it happened.”

“Yes, you called out another woman’s name repeatedly and it was slurred at that,” My lawyer offered and if we weren’t on the phone, I’d bet money his eyes rolled. “You didn’t even know who you were with that night, Devin.”

“I don’t want to press charges unless it is a last resort measure.”

“Fine. I’m keeping the video just in case. It will remain secured and still falls under attorney-client privilege even if you choose not to use it to your advantage.”

“Great.” Someone banged on my door and I swore under my breath as I got ready to hang up with my lawyer.

“One more thing, Devin. We’re double checking the surrounding counties, in case she took it upon herself to go file the certificate, but my investigator was not able to find any public record of your marriage.”

“That means no one ever filed it, right?”

“We’ll check in with the idiot who runs the quickie wedding spot you used, but it doesn’t look like it. Besides, the certificate you gave me looks to be the original one without the state seal on it.”

“That’s good news, so now the only complication I might run into is if she claimed squatters rights.”

“That’s it. Good job on not filing that certificate. You made things a lot easier on yourself.”

I scoffed. “I don’t know about that.” Someone banged on my front door again. “Gotta go, someone is here and they are relentlessly banging my door down.”

“Let me know if you need anything else and I’ll be in touch with any updates as they come in.”

I grunted my acknowledgement as I hung up and moved to the front door. No sooner did I open it than a fist flew into my face and knocked me straight on my ass.

“You fucking piece of shit! You broke my sister!”

“I’m trying to fix everything!” I cried out, though it sounded garbled since my nose had already started to swell and blood dripped down into my mouth. “Broke my fuckin’ nose.”

“You deserve worse,” Dallas huffed at me.

“I know,” I agreed. “How is she?”

“How the fuck do you think?”

“I haven’t seen her and she blocked my phone a couple weeks ago.” It sucked to admit that to my best friend, but especially because he was also her brother.

“Good for Vic. She knows her worth.” He sighed and shut the door then slid to the floor beside me. “Sort of,” he added at the last minute.

“What does that mean?” The bastard winced and shook his hand out as I watched through watery eyes.

“Come on,” Dallas huffed as he got back to his feet and held his left hand out to help me up. His right looked a bit swollen and I felt the tiniest amount of satisfaction that the sucker punch he’d thrown at my face hurt him too. “Let’s talk in the kitchen while I get some ice for this.” He held out his sore hand as he said that.

“What about this?” I pointed to my face.

“Live with it the same way my sister has been living with a broken heart all by herself.”

“What do you mean all by herself?”

“She has literally no one, asshole.” I stopped mid-stride as he said that.

“What about Jordan?”

I reluctantly had to follow behind Dallas as he continued to my kitchen on a mission. “Jordan is out of the picture and last I heard out of state by now too.”

“What the fuck happened?”

Dallas shrugged his shoulders and then slowly recounted everything that had been going on in Austin’s life and how that affected Vic too, since she used it - and what she believed to be the truth - to push her family away.

“At this point, I don’t know why she’s still keeping our relationship a secret.”

“Well, for two reasons, asshat. The first being you no longer have a relationship. As far as my sister is concerned, you chose your wife. The second being that she’s embarrassed to have been thrown away for the devil bitch. You’re still living with the woman, dipshit.”

That was when I sat my best friend down and told him the plan to rid myself of Justice once and for all. I hoped that it was also the plan to win Vic back, but time would tell.

“Man, I wish I was going to be here to see that shit play out.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m headed out for the holidays on my own private getaway. My family is too fucking much these days.”

“Did you ever tell them about what you really do for a living?”

He grinned at me. “Besides co-own the Tippler’s Lounge with my brothers?” He asked.

“Yeah. They had to wonder where you got the investment funds.”

Dallas shrugged. “Funny thing about being me, no one ever asked where I got the money. I didn’t offer up any details either.”

“Secrets have a way of festering before they come to light,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, well they’re going to fester while I soak up some sun on a tropical beach for a couple weeks.” He managed to get some ice into a ziplock bag and then dropped it down over his knuckle while we talked. I grabbed a bag of frozen peas to put on my face.

“Not going to forget that you lied to me for two years,” Dallas stated as he moved to head back to my front door.

“Yeah? Keep that grudge in mind when your family finds out you’re a fucking billionaire and didn’t tell them.”

“I hope your nose hurts!” Dallas offered as he left my house and went back out to his motorcycle.

“Can you drive that thing with a busted up hand?” I called out to him.

“Fuck you. Fix my sister, asshole!” He revved his engine loudly, so he couldn’t hear my nonexistent response. A moment later, he was gone and I returned to my house to execute the next step in my plan. I had to upload a very personal article to the local newspaper.