Page 29 of Resolving Rumors

She huffed and kept a defiant smirk plastered to her face. “There is no you and Victoria. Considering we both know her old ass so well, there never will be again. So, you can try to threaten me all you want, but it won’t help you to get her back. That will never happen again.” She turned and flounced off to the guest room.

There was no way I could live with the woman, though. Unfortunately, that meant I would have to go through the legal process of getting rid of her - from my house as well as the public perception that we were married.

Chapter

Seventeen

VICTORIA

In the midstof deepest heartache, I received a random text from my brother, Houston - the oldest of the boys, that I should show up to family dinner and get to know his woman. I rolled my eyes because in my estimation, that was a relationship that was doomed to fail. Truthfully, all marriages and relationships were doomed to be massive shitstorms for anyone who dared to enter into a fleetingly blessed union.

I probably sounded bitter.

No, I did sound bitter. There was no denying that fact. It had been two weeks since I kicked Devin out of my house and he hadn’t tried to contact me again. This time, I knew there was nothing hinky keeping him from reaching out. He simply didn’t want to. Last I heard, from Jordan, he still lived with his wife. I supposed he wanted to give it the old college try with her after all. Being an afterthought to the person who broke my heart so completely was part of the bitter party that kept me from being happy for my brother.

That was the plan until someone knocked on my door. When I opened the door, I didn’t expect to see Jordan standing there.

“What do you want?”

“To apologize. I didn’t mean to cause more trouble for you, I swear. When Dallas mentioned that Devin planned to take his wife out for dinner, I thought you needed to see how they behaved together. You needed to see that.”

“And the blind dates?”

“That was because he needed to see that you could move on without him too. I’m sorry. All I seem to be doing with your family lately is apologizing for every bad decision I make while trying to guard one of your hearts.”

“One of our hearts?” I asked.

“Yeah, you with Devin who refuses to fight the right way for you and Austin and that bitch Becs.”

“What’s going on with Austin?”

“You don’t know?”

“I saw her when my mom forced me on a shopping trip the other day, but we didn’t speak.” I giggled. “Well, I did call her a home wrecker.”

“You did?” Jordan bloomed underneath my admission, as if she had waited for the day one of us would stand up for her.

“I did. It isn’t right that my brother thought you were good enough until she forced her way back into his life. I mean, she should have some self respect, since he left her for you how many times?”

Jordan blushed and looked away. “He still keeps going back to her, though.” Her admission twisted my beat up heart a little more. I couldn’t believe my little brother could be so careless with his best friend’s heart.

“You mentioned before that my family were all kind of upset with you. Did you ever get that straightened out?”

Jordan’s only answer was a quick nod of her head. She refused to meet my eyes, so I decided to give her the chance to make amends with backup. “I’m supposed to go to Mom’s house for dinner tonight, so I can get to know Cleo.”

“Clea,” she corrected.

“Weird name, but whatever.” I took Jordan’s hand in mine. “Why don’t you come along?”

“Who else will be there?”

“Mom didn’t say anyone else. Katy probably and Dad since he lives there and loves food.” We both giggled at that because there was no way my father would ever willingly miss a meal.

“Yeah, okay. That should be fine.”

“Of course it is. You’re family and always have been, even if Austin lost sight of that when he started thinking with his dick.”

“You’re not even going to ask what I did to make your family angry with me?”

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