Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

VICTORIA

"What's going on with you?"

I looked up to see that my little sister Katy was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I'd come home, to my parent's house because I didn’t want Devin to go looking for me at my place. If my heart wasn't so broken, I'd laugh that thought off. He hadn't even bothered to chase after me for the length of his driveway. He'd run straight into the arms of his new wife instead. The chances of him going out of his way to search for me anywhere were nil.

"The man I've loved for two years is playing happy families with his new wife and the baby they have on the way," I admitted sulkily before I remembered to hold my tongue.

"Devin is a dipshit."

I spun around so quickly that I damn near gave myself whiplash. "What do you mean, 'Devin'?"

Katy rolled her eyes at me. "Everyone else in this house might have their heads buried in the sand about anything not in their general orbit, but as the youngest Mercer, no one ever really notices me on the fringes watching everyone else.

Houston is a miserable sap who needs to fire that horrible woman who tried to trap him with a baby that wasn't his," Katy stated about our oldest brother. "Austin is an idiot for stringing Jordan along. He thinks when they hook up that it is free of strings and isn't interfering with their friendship at all. She thinks she'll eventually make him love her in a romantic way. They're both wrong."

If I ever doubted that Katy knew more than any member of our family, I was quickly being schooled in how wrong I'd been. My sweet little sister started in on our youngest brother, Dallas then. "He is hiding the biggest secret of all, but I won't give that one away because I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they find out." She gave me a censuring look. "You really shouldn't underestimate him. He pretends to be a fuck up while he's probably the best adjusted of all of us."

"Yeah? What's your secret then, little sister?"

"My secret is that I'm the boring ghost of the family. No one really pays attention to me. So, I keep everyone else's secrets."

"Not very well," I scoffed in response. "You just divulged everyone's secrets to me."

My sister laughed then. "No, those were blatant things anyone who pays attention would notice." Katy winked at me. "That doesn't get you off the hook. Why were you hiding your relationship with Devin for so long, anyway? And why would you put that black widow of a woman in the mix and think that something awful wouldn't happen?"

"She is dating someone."

Katy rolled her eyes. "She's dating a married man." There was no emotion in the words she threw at me. At least, there had been none until my sister rolled her eyes even harder and huffed out the most indignant sigh I'd ever heard aimed at me. "You seriously thought a home wrecker could be trusted with your boyfriend for nearly two years?" She shook her head at me. "I might be the youngest, but with the exception of Dallas, I'm beginning to think I'm the smartest."

"I loved him," I admitted. "It didn't matter what she was. I trusted Devin."

"Well, I guess I can understand. Honestly, the whole love thing seems a bit too messy for me. I use all my older siblings as my case study."

"What about Mom and Dad?"

Her shoulders popped up and down quickly. "They're a fluke. I don't think love like that exists anymore."

"Katy," I whispered, wondering just how and when my baby sister had become so jaded.

"What? Don't tell me you don't feel the same right now. You just had your heart trampled. Your boyfriend married someone else, and I'm guessing he didn't talk to you about it first, or you could have set him straight."

"Set him straight about what?"

"I don't think it's his baby."

"How could you possibly know that? He admitted that they…" I couldn't bring myself to say it. Meanwhile, my sister stood in front of me and rolled her eyes once more.

"I think Justice orchestrated whatever he thinks happened so that she could convince him to do exactly what he did. Men are stupid. They will believe literally everything a woman shoves in their face."

"You think she lied about them sleeping together?"

"What did he tell you about it?"

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "If you think my head, or my heart, was able to hear his excuses when I found out that not only was he married to his fake girlfriend, but they were expecting a baby together, then you're not as smart as you think."

"I guess that's fair," Katy pouted. "I'm sorry your heart hurts."

My little sister came and wrapped her arms around my shoulders while I cried into her mid-section as she stood in front of where I was sitting on my childhood bed. If I was ready to be honest with myself, it was just what I needed, though it hadn't been expected from my youngest sibling. She was still in high school. Katy was right about something else though. She was the most overlooked Mercer sibling.

"Can I ask you something?" I nodded my head against Katy's stomach in answer. Before she said anything else, she took a seat beside me. "If you found out that she lied, like I think she did, would you…" Her sweet voice trailed off. "I mean, you love him, so would you forgive him?"

"I don't know. Part of me feels like it's all my own fault because my need to keep us a secret is the reason she was able to weasel her way in as a 'fake girlfriend' to begin with." I used finger quotes when I said fake girlfriend because I honestly didn't know anymore how fake she had been for Devin. "I thought what we had was real, even though we kept it hidden." I wasn’t ready to voice the fact that it didn’t matter anyway because Devin had married the witch.

"Why did you keep it secret? You're not that much older than him."

I sighed. "I babysat him once, when he and Dallas were like 12 years old. You don't think that's weird?"

My sister wrinkled her cute little button nose at me. "If you had tried to date him then, I would say it was not just weird but criminal. You were both adults when you started dating, though."

"Still, I don't think anyone else in our family would be so at ease about me being seven years older than Devin. I know Dallas wouldn't be, for sure. He would end up hating me and Devin both. His family would probably swallow some of their millions, right before they attempted to pay me off to get me out of his life."

"That's harsh," Katy huffed.

"Well, Miss All-Seeing, feel free to point out any of the lies you heard.”

Katy's shoulders slumped as she leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands. "I guess you were in a tough position. Still, it's been a long time. Why didn't you come clean when you realized you were in love with him? At that point, you had to know it would be easier to just take the hit, plus if you fell in love with him, he was obviously worth it, right?"

"As today's revelations have proved, you never truly know a person, even if you have been tricked by stupid hormones into believing love conquers all."

Katy threw her arm around me once more and pulled me into a side hug. "I'm sorry things didn't work out better. I hope they turn around for you, though. You were mostly happy with Devin, and I think if it wasn't for the secret keeping, you would have been totally happy and so would he."

"Well, it's a little late to speculate about that now, kid."

"It's never too late."

"Katy?" My mom's voice called out from somewhere downstairs. We both looked at the little alarm clock on the bedside table and groaned.

"It's dinner time. Do you want me to pretend you aren't here? You know if Mom realizes, she'll make you come down."

I slowly stood and pulled my sister up and into another hug. "I'll get cleaned up and come down. Thanks for being awesome, little sis."

Katy smiled brightly before she headed out of my room while I took off for the bathroom to wash the tears and heartbreak from my face.