Chapter 6

Chapter

Six

DEVIN

I couldn’t believe Victoria. How dare she pretend she was about to tell me she wanted to come clean!

Devin: That’s pretty fucking convenient, considering you waited two years and it just so happens that you decided to come out in the open with our relationship when you had a date.

She didn’t answer. I glanced again at the text I had sent after five minutes and it was still only showing as delivered, not read.

Devin: I don’t believe you, Vic. I think you’re saying that as an afterthought to make me feel bad for what happened. I already feel like complete shit. There’s no need to dump salt on the wound.

I sent that message and waited too, even though I regretted it. My anger should have been directed at myself, and I knew that logically. The problem was that it kept finding its way to Victoria instead. I hadn’t lied about the building resentment of being in a secret relationship with her. It was fucked up whenever I had to go out on a fake date with Justice and some of my friends would be there loved up with their women. Even Dallas being able to freely pull any single chick into his embrace for the night rankled. I never had that experience with Victoria unless we damn near left the state to have a date night.

Justice would sometimes try to play up public displays of affection when people were watching us, but I always pushed her off or found a way to redirect our focus to someone else. There were times when I had to simply get up and go to the bathroom to catch my breath because she was coming on so hard.

My phone dinged and I snatched it back up expecting to see a message from Victoria fighting with me some more. I was disappointed to see that it was from Jordan. I went to school with her alongside Austin and Dallas, but we were never really good friends. I thought she was a bit too clingy with Austin, but he seemed to enjoy her attention whenever he wasn’t dating someone else.

Jordan: You completely broke Victoria. I spent hours with her today as she sobbed on my shoulder. She told me about how she went to tell you that she was ready to not be a secret anymore and found out you married that skank who has been jonesing to trap you or Dallas into something since high school. I told her all about that by the way. You should have clued her in to Justice’s obsession with you before you let Vic agree to her being your fake girlfriend. I feel like you knew this would happen.

Devin: I have no clue what you’re talking about.

Jordan: Oh, please! Everyone knew that Justice only gave up on Dallas because he looked like he was going nowhere and then she set her sights on you. She would have dug her claws in sooner had her family not sent her out of state for college for a couple years. Funny how she managed to show up all the time right when you needed a fake girlfriend to take the heat off your relationship with Victoria, huh? Ever wonder how she managed to wiggle herself into that position?

Devin: Are you fucking serious? She has someone who has to remain a secret too. It wasn’t like that at all.

Jordan: You’re an idiot if you think her daddy’s best friend is who she wanted to get her hooks into. Sure, he has money, but his wife will take half of everything in a divorce and she knows that. Plus, she doesn’t want to be a stepmom to his kids who are older than she is. Nope, idiot. You were her mark all along. Congrats on falling dick first into her plan and destroying Victoria in the process.

I stared at that text for the next thirty minutes before I realized Victoria still hadn’t messaged me back. I wasn’t doing this shit again. There was no way we were going to keep going on the attack with one another followed by the silent treatment for weeks on end. Something had to give and if it had to be me, then so be it.

Fuck that.

It should be me. Vic was right. I was the one that completely fucked the situation and all because I was jealous as fuck that she would be going out on one fucking date with another man while I’d been parading Justice around on dates all over town for more than a year.

That was something else Victoria had been right about. I didn’t realize what an emotional toll it probably took on her to see me take Justice out on dates. We went to dinner, usually in groups, and movies sometimes. There was the odd farmer’s market run and that art show that Vic really wanted to go to but she ended up there alone while Justice paraded me around the exhibits.

It was only in looking back that I realized Jordan might have had a point. Justice had never been interested in art before. She claimed Brody was supposed to be at the exhibition with his wife and she wanted to make him jealous. We never saw Brody that night, but I did have to watch as Vic left early. She claimed to have a headache when I checked on her via text, but now that I had more perspective and Austin’s bratty best friend whispering her secrets in my ear, things didn’t look so cut and dry.

“Never should have agreed to any of this,” I mumbled as I stuffed my foot into my boot.

“What did you agree to?”

I looked up to see Justice in the doorway. She had her head cocked just so, and once again, she wore barely anything on her body. “What are you doing here?”

“I stopped over to talk to you because my parents are being difficult.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, they know we’re married and they don’t want me coming back home now. They said I’m your problem now that you married me.” It was only then that I noticed the bags at her feet.

“Why are your bags outside my bedroom door?” Justice had been staying in my guest room most nights for the past couple weeks, but I had never agreed to her officially moving in. Even if I had, she should know better than to bring her stuff to my side of the house. The house I owned was a two bedroom, 2 bath but it was split down the middle. The living room and kitchen were at the center and then there was a master suite on either side. There was absolutely no reason for her to bring her bags to this side.

“Well, you and Victoria are over.” Justice rolled her eyes when she said that, like it was a given. Then she patted her slightly rounded tummy and grinned. “We’re having a baby and we’re married. What will people think when they come over and we’re living in two separate rooms? Besides, we need to turn the other room into a nursery.”

“What the fuck?” I yelled at her without thinking. Her big blue eyes blinked a couple times as her pink lips parted in shock. “We are married in name only, and that’s going to change very soon. That baby,” I pointed at her belly, “most likely isn’t mine, especially since you wouldn’t be showing already if it was.” Her eyes narrowed down into thin slits that would spit venom at me if possible. “And Vic and I are not over. We’re in the middle of a rough patch, but we are not over. We never will be.”

Justice scoffed out a half-hearted laugh. “You’re delusional. She will never take you back after you slept with me. Add in the fact that you married me too, and Victoria will never forgive you. You might as well give up on her because that ship sailed the minute you agreed to me being your fake girlfriend.”

I could see the victory sparkle in her eyes. She thought she won me right out from under my real girlfriend. Jordan’s text came back to mind. “Did you ever truly have a thing with Brody, or was that some elaborate lie to hook me into a fake relationship until you could make it real?”

“Brody and I fuck from time to time but it was never going to be anything more than that. He won’t leave that stupid cow he’s married to because she’ll take him for everything. Besides, I’ve always had my eye on you, and let’s face it, you’re younger and have more potential with less baggage at this point in your life.”

“Unfuckingbelievable.” Every syllable was growled out together as a singular word that emphasized my growing frustration. Jordan had been right. This was all some ruse to get me on the hook, and all it took to get me onboard was for Vic’s mom to set her up on a blind date - a date she apparently never even went on.

I stared into Justice’s Navy blue eyes and noticed the way they pulled a little tighter at the corners as she tried to hide a wince. “Is that baby even mine?” Her hesitation should have told me everything I needed to know, but it could also simply mean that she didn’t know.

“Anything is possible.”

“Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

She nodded and then turned her back on me. “There’s no way to know until after I give birth, so strap in and prepare yourself to be the best husband ever for the next few months.” She flounced back out of the room as if my whole world being shattered at my feet didn’t fucking matter.

All I could think was that she had truly done it on purpose. After hearing what Jordan had to say about everything, it made me wonder if I had been Justice’s target from the very beginning. What if she never gave a rat’s ass about Brody?

“We played right into her game,” I whispered to myself.