Page 81 of Ghosted By Texas

Austin’s mom had good intentions. I knew that. She didn’t do what she’d done to hurt anyone. That didn’t mean that her actions hadn’t felt like another blow to my self-esteem. Jordan’s issues always came before my comfort. Except tonight, my husband had put me first, above her, above his family. He had placed me at the top of his priorities to keep safe. His promise remained intact, and I felt a bit more trust fall into place between us as a result.

All of us sat down to dinner at the Mercer’s family house two weeks later. It was the first time I’d been in the same space as Shirley since the wedding, though Jacob had come to see us the following day. He apologized for his wife’s misguided efforts to make Jordan see that Austin was not meant for her.

Once everyone was settled around the table, Shirley stood. “I owe everyone here an apology,” she stated succinctly. “I took a special day for all of you,” she looked at Clea and Houston, then Austin and myself, “and I ruined it by trying to force Jordan to see that Austin was never meant for her. I felt responsible because I’m the one that put the idea in Lydia’s head, and she pushed it on Jordan in an unhealthy way for years. I felt completely responsible for everything that girl has done to try to get my son’s attention, including destroying your relationship by lying to him,” she added while looking right at me. “I thought I was fixing things not making them worse, and I apologize because I didn’t see the bigger picture or how precarious things still were for you and Austin.”

“I’m happy to see that the two of you are still together and working through everything. That’s all, I just… I don’t expect any of you to forgive me. I just wanted to explain and apologize.”

“I understand, Mrs. Mercer,” I started to say.

“Oh, sweetheart, stop that and either call me Shirley as I deserve right now, or Mom when you can stand to look at me again. There are three Mrs. Mercers sitting at this table right now, it’ll be pretty darn confusing if you keep that up.”

I laughed at her unintentional humor because she was right. Clea and I had both legally taken the Mercer name as our own. “Okay, I just wanted to say that I understand and while you don’t need it, you have my forgiveness. Jordan grew up like another daughter to you. When we weren’t in the thick of things, I remembered that.”

Shirley swiped at the tears that started to fall as I spoke. “You are too good for all of us,” she commented before taking her seat again. Mr. Mercer, Jacob, rubbed his wife’s back before leaning in and placing a sweet kiss on her cheek.

“Proud of you,” I heard him mumble to her.

“Why is my mother crying?” Victoria asked as she blew into the house. She had been the only Mercer not present for her brothers’ joint wedding. There was very little surprise there.

“It’s of no matter to you,” Shirley explained to her daughter.

“Okay, whatever.” Victoria moved around the table to the chair she was supposed to sit in, that usually remained empty. Then she looked at me. “I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

“Fuck, Vic!” Austin groaned. “What now?”

“Jordan is moving away, as in out of town. It isn’t fair that I couldn’t even invite her over for one last family dinner, so she could say goodbye before she leaves tomorrow, all because she’s here.”

The woman just couldn’t let things go, and I didn’t understand why, especially now that she’d heard the truth about what had really gone down between Austin, Jordan, and me.

“All you had to do was text your brother that she was coming to dinner tonight, and we wouldn’t have shown up,” I explained.

“So, you’re just going to hold my brother hostage and not allow him to say goodbye to his life-long friend?”

I shook my head and looked at Austin. He could handle his cranky, belligerent sister. I was done with her bullshit and the attitude she threw my way.

“As I told everyone at my wedding, you know the one you failed to even show up to?” He questioned her. “I already said my goodbyes to Jordan. She burned all her bridges with me.”

“Because of her,” Vic pointed at me as she lobbed her accusation my way.

“No,” Houston stood and approached his sister. “Austin let Jordan go because she could never be honest and she was always sabotaging his life. Shit, Vic, she tried to bring down our fucking bar, too.”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Yeah, she did. Ask her about the sexual harassment claim she lobbed against your brother. It wasn’t just the drama with the fake baby, or any of the other lies to get Becs away from him over the years. She lied to the authorities about him sexually harassing her and threatening to fire her if she didn’t ‘perform’ for him.”

“What?” I asked as I turned to Austin to see his reaction. It was the first I was hearing about this.

“It happened during the time when we weren’t really speaking, but after I learned she faked her pregnancy. We let her go from her job and she tried to make a claim for unemployment, despite getting a severance package. She tried to claim that was hush money.”

“Oh, dear Lord,” Shirley called out from her end of the table. “Why didn’t you boys tell us? That makes what I did even worse.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I assured her and reached over and patted her hand. Mr. Mercer beamed at me. Victoria threw me a hateful look, but it was mellowed a bit compared to the norm.

“Why would she do that?” Vic asked.

“Why did she do any of the bullshit she did?” Austin asked. “The girl was fucking disturbed, and it took unraveling her lies to finally see it because none of us wanted to notice before.”

“Hopefully, she gets some fucking therapy wherever she ends up,” Dallas chimed in as he continued to take advantage of everyone else being caught up in the drama, so that he could fill his plate.

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