Page 2 of Resolving Rumors

"What do you expect?" I growled angrily. “We both made promises to her. Promises that we broke and then compounded by the decisions we made on top of that.”

"Well, my promise didn't mean shit, since she doesn't factor into my life."

"She factored into mine. Did that not mean anything? Do I not mean anything to you?"

Justice grinned at me. "Of course you do, husband."

"Don't call me that!" I snapped.

The marriage had been another in a series of complete panic-induced fuckups on my part. We didn't even know if the baby Justice carried was mine or Brody Hinton's. Brody being her 43-year-old married boyfriend. I shook my head free of that mind fuck. Justice had been panicked, too. She begged me to make it look legitimate or else her parents might find out, disown her, and she wouldn't be able to take care of a baby on her own.

How I convinced myself that it was my problem was beyond me. It really wasn't my problem. The chances that I'd impregnated Justice were slim-to-none.

We slept together once, and I didn't even remember the part where I was supposedly inside her – though she swears it happened. I believed her, considering she told me as she apologized for allowing things to go that far while we were both drunk off our asses.

"We are married now," Justice insisted.

It took me a minute to sort my thoughts before I was able to respond. "We need to go back inside and sit down for this conversation."

"Fine." Justice turned on her heel immediately and walked into the house while I meandered in slowly, wondering if the one thing I always dreamed of was now lost to me forever. I'd been in love with Victoria Mercer since the day I met her when I was 12-years-old. My chest cracked wide open thinking that today would be the last time I saw her. That wasn't even the worst case scenario. She was my best friend's big sister, that meant we'd probably see one another again. The problem was, who would she be with when I saw her next? Judging by how everything worked out today it wouldn't be me.

When I finally made my way back into the house, I sat next to Justice and turned so that we were sort of facing one another while still sitting side-by-side. I pulled her hand into mine – the one that now had a ring adorning it that tied her to me. I felt sickto my stomach at the sight and let her hand go to run my fingers through the short hair on my head in frustration. As luck would have it, the ring she placed on my finger snagged on my hair as a reminder of just how fucking off the original plan we had gone.

"You know that I'm in love with Victoria."

Justice shrugged her shoulders and pouted her lips as if it was news to her and it made her unhappy. "It doesn't really matter, considering she wouldn’t hear you out!”

I stared at Justice, as if seeing her for the first time. "Are you kidding right now? How would you react if you just found out your boyfriend of two years might have gotten another woman pregnant and married her too?”

"She's the one that agreed to this whole situation to begin with. She had to know it was possible that we would end up hooking up."

"She literally put down rules that we both agreed to, that stated otherwise. Not to mention she thought you were in love with Brody. I imagine that's the only reason she did agree, was that you already had a man you loved."

"Still, you would have to be stupid to throw a younger, better looking woman at your secret boyfriend and not expect things to happen between them." She giggled. "I mean," she tossed her hand back-and-forth between our two bodies, "look at us. We're both gorgeous people. Of course, we were going to fuck at some point. I'm honestly surprised it took you as long as it did."

"I don't even remember ever being naked with you, let alone fucking!" I reminded her. "You are not the woman I want."

Her brow arched higher as I stated that. "Well, I'm the one you knocked up and married."

"Stop. We both know the chances that kid is mine are almost nil.”

"We don't know anything yet," She insisted.

"I may have acted out of a knee-jerk reflex when I married you, but only a DNA test will convince me that the baby you’re carrying is mine.” Her lips puckered like she tasted something sour.

"That doesn't change the fact that we're still married and everyone will know that soon enough.”

"An annulment is easy enough to obtain, since we never consummated our vows."

“Or we could consummate our vows and give this a shot,” she insisted as her hand trailed up my chest and she attempted to wrap her fingers around my neck.

"Stop!" I shook her off and stood to move across the room. "We're not doing that. What about Brody?”

“He has a wife of his own, in case you’ve forgotten. I don't know what you want from me. You promised you would be there to help protect me from my situation. Just because your situation blew up in your face doesn't mean you aren't obligated to keep helping me. We are married. I am pregnant. My family still can't know that this baby might not be yours.”

"If we tell everyone that it is mine, then it means that I can never fix things with Victoria."

Justice pulled her hair around as if to shield herself behind it and then she shook her head like the thought was easy enough to shake off. “And what will you do if the baby is yours? You’ll lose her anyway. No matter what happens between us, there is no way that Victoria will help you raise a baby we made together. Our child will always be a reminder of how she didn’t mean that much to you.”

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