Page 31 of Resolving Rumors

“You know what I mean,” he demanded. “Why would you hurt everyone this way, including Jordan?”

Okay, I was really lost and out of my element, but fuck it. In for a penny and all that. It was time to double down and make sure no one ever wanted to stop by on a whim to witnessmore than they should have my life. “It’s not like you care about Jordan anymore.”

“I will always care about Jordan. She’s been in my life since we were babies. I might not like her very much right now, and she won’t ever be close to me again the way we once were, and that’s partly my fault for getting too involved when I shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I want to see her purposely hurt by this family.”

Austin was fuming mad with me, but he wasn’t even close to done yet. It took everything in me to keep the tears at bay as he continued to tear into me.

“The worst part of what you did, is that you know Becs is pregnant with my baby and stress isn’t good for pregnancy. You decided to put her in undo stress anyway all because you’re miserable with whatever is going on in your own life and you decided to take it out on everyone else. You might be the oldest, Vic, but you need to grow the fuck up!”

I missed whatever was said between my brother and his pregnant girlfriend as I remembered Jordan telling me that Becs was trying to fake a pregnancy to come between them. I glanced at her stomach and immediately knew Jordan had lied to me. Considering what she had said before running away, I wasn’t the only one who she had been lying to.

I caught a glare thrown my way from Becs and decided to double-down again. “Why are you placating the bitch who helped you cheat on your lifelong girlfriend?”

“Jordan has never been my girlfriend and I have never cheated on anyone. Jordan had expectations that didn’t align with mine, and if anything, she was the one who constantly tried to sabotage my relationships with Becs. All three times I tried to date Becs before, Jordan did everything in her power to drive her away. The crazy thing is that Jordan didn’t try to do it this time. My own fucking sister did instead.”

Well, that was news to me and suddenly I felt very bad for Becs.

“She said…” I started to tell them that Jordan had told me a story from the completely opposite perspective with her being the victim, but then she popped back into the room.

“Sorry, I just realized I couldn’t leave because Vic brought me here. Victoria, the first time they dated, I was angry because he hadn’t said anything to me about our arrangement being over. It felt like he cheated on me, but that wasn’t really true, since we were never together that way. The other times, we weren’t together either. I just wanted us to be.”

“But you said…” Victoria tried to argue with her.

“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have misled you, I just needed someone to hear how I felt, not what was true.”

“Are you kidding me?” Victoria lashed out at her friend. “All this time, I thought my brother was doing you wrong and that woman was the one trying to ruin your relationship. Now, you’re telling me it was the other way around? I should have known, I guess, since you faked a Goddamn pregnancy to try to trick my brother.” That was the other thing I’d forgotten when I showed up with her. My mother had mentioned Jordan’s fake pregnancy to me on the phone, but I’d been in the middle of a full mental breakdown and had forgotten all about it until I was faced with my entire family’s anger bearing down on me. Damn, go big as an asshole or go home, I guess. Truthfully, I just wanted to go home and wallow, but I was a little miffed with myself for taking everything out on an innocent - I think - pregnant woman.

“Victoria,” My dad’s admonishing tone hit on the last bit of control I had over my messy emotions. “I think we’ve all had about enough drama. You brought Jordan here on a night when you knew she wasn’t invited, you need to take her home. When you get back, you can apologize for ruining dinner and your brother’s announcement.”

I turned on my heel and ran from the room with zero intent to come back to my family home. My life had officially fallen all the way apart.

Chapter

Eighteen

VICTORIA

I was trulyon my own thanks to my inability to process all the bullshit in my life. My judgement was cracked, and that is the only reason I could find for allowing Jordan to come over and explain everything to me. Supposedly, she told me the truth that time, and it was just ugly enough that I believed her.

I also felt sorry for her. She had been invested in having a happily ever after ending with my brother for longer than I had even known Devin. Part of me understood how big those feelings could be, especially since I’d blocked Dev for real over the past couple weeks and he hadn’t even attempted to come see me in person again.

My life consisted of work, home, blubbering into my covers about how sad my existence was and then repeating everything again the next day. If a person could be stuck in a Groundhog Day scenario - it would resemble my life. The one thing that changed were my outfits and the meals that I didn’t have the stomach to eat.

I shouldn’t be this torn up over a man.

My logical brain knew that. It for sure knew that I shouldn’t sabotage my family relationships just to keep my suffering quiet. That bit of logic was overruled by my feelings too. My parentscalled to tell me that I wasn’t welcome back home until I made a genuine apology to Becs and my brother. While I wanted to do that, I refused. If I did it, there would be questions and those questions would lead to answers I didn’t want them to have about my life.

Despite Jordan telling me her whole sad tale, including how my mother invited her to my brothers’ wedding, and me understanding, she wasn’t even around anymore for me to talk to.

I could have really used a friend around, one who wasn’t caught up in her own bullshit, because that meant I hadn’t even been invited to their wedding. My parents must have meant business when they said I wasn’t invited to come around until I apologized for my behavior toward Becs and Austin. I found it insulting that my mother invited Jordan - the person they were all angry with me for bringing to dinner, but I was a pariah.

It was after that revelation that I called a therapist and scheduled my first visit. I honest to God, could not handle the abandonment from everyone. I knew that part of it was my fault because I had pushed everyone away to keep them from knowing how much I hurt. Still, two of my little brothers got married and I was left out while the woman who caused all the drama between everyone was invited. It felt like a slap in the face. First, Justice stole my future and the love of my life, then my family disowned me because I took Jordan at her word and tried to protect her from the same heartache I suffered.

Life was unfair and I needed help to deal with it.

That was why I decided to crash my family’s dinner. No, it wasn’t my therapist’s idea. She did tell me that I needed to own up to my part of hurting someone else and apologize to Becs, but only if I meant it. Considering I never meant to hurt her, that was an easy ask. I had to remember that my own reasons fordoing what I did could stay private, especially since they’d just sound like awful excuses anyway.

Once again,I walked in on a family dinner that started without me. It was like my family completely forgot about me. I looked around and noticed my father wiping some tears free of my mother’s face and immediately my hackles went up.