Chapter 26

I leapt to my feet, staring at her, fury and disbelief warring within me. Her eyes didn't leave my face, there was triumph in her gaze, as if she had successfully won the war.

"Hey Rox, I think I've got enough here for a couple of- Ohhhhh"

Evan stopped the moment that he turned into the room. He looked between me and Mel, reading the tension of the room, then dropping the bags on the floor and instantly joining me at my side.

"Rox?"

His hands closed on my shoulder, his voice gentle and questioning. I couldn't tear my eyes from Mel, my fist was clenched so tightly that my nails were digging into my palm, hard enough to draw blood.

"How?" I managed to ask through gritted teeth.

Mel crossed one leg over the other, placing the invitation on her lap and leaning back against the cushions.

"How did I know you were fucking my fiance?"

I felt Evan stiffen up beside me, his whole body was tense and on guard, he was ready to dive to my defence within a moments notice. Not that I needed him to defend me right now though, the anger that was coursing through my body was enough to make me want to charge at her and rip her to pieces.

"Well, you see, it didn't instantly register to me what was going on. Of course I realised there was something off with him. He was getting more and more distant, having less to do with wedding planning than he'd already agreed to."

She spat the words as though they were bitter on her tongue, before continuing.

"I went to see him at the office one evening, but he wasn't there. His assistant happened to let slip that he was having dinner at The Rouge. I knew there was no work reason for him to be there, that teamed with his behaviour, well, I'm a lawyer. I know when someone is hiding something, so I did what I did best. I looked into it."

"So you spied on us?" I growled, anger poured through my words like venom.

She seemed to take great joy in the effect she was having on me.

"Oh no, nothing so pathetic as spying on you." She tilted her head slightly in thought, "Well, not quite anyway. Why go to such drastic lengths when I had far easier ways."

"Then how?"

"We work in the same building. I simply stopped by his office."

"Somehow I fail to see how that would have told you anything, it's not like you found us stretched out across his desk."

My sarcasm seemed to knock her off guard for a second, she blinked a couple of times in succession and her smirk disappeared momentarily.

"No, but I did find his phone, it was simple really, I got him out of his office for a few minutes to photocopy some documents, whilst he was gone, I checked it. Right there, a whole stream of texts with a number saved simply as, R."

My breath was coming harder and faster as I longed to scream, to shout, to hit out. How could she do that?! Invade his privacy.

"I was going to run a little check on the number, but as I went to write it down, I realised there was no need to. I knew that number. It was you."

"Then why not call this whole fucking sham off?" Evan growled from my side.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" She taunted, her fingers tracing the corners of the invitation.

"Because he doesn't love you!" I snapped, I felt my limits breaching and I knew that I was giving her what she wanted.

She wanted to watch as I fell apart in front of her, but right now, I just didn't care about that. She wasn't just winding me up, she was toying with people's lives. More than that, she was playing with people who she was supposed to care about.

"And you think he could love you?"

Her tone was disbelieving, cold and cruel. She let out a humourless laugh and shook her head.

"Don't you dare." Evan stepped forwards, his words were a harsh warning to her, one she listened to, stopping her laugh and holding her hands up, a smirk remaining across her features.

"Me and Sean were happy together, after we're married, we can be happy again."

"Are you delusional? He wasn't happy, he broke up with you!" I practically screamed it at her in frustration, but she didn't bat an eye.

"I love him." She said simply, as if that solved everything. As if it was the most important thing.

"Shouldn't he be allowed to be with who he loves, as in, not you?" Evan replied.

"You can't seriously expect him to go ahead and marry you Mel. He is done with this arrangement of yours, he told me. He's breaking it off."

I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to summon strength from the memory of Sean's face as he told me he wanted me. Hearing his voice in my ear as he told me he was breaking off the engagement.

"No, he's not."

It was my turn to laugh now. I knew that Sean meant what he said, he wasn't going to back out of it now, no matter what she said.

"Yes he is, it might not be something you're used to, but he wants me Mel, he's choosing me."

I couldn't hide the element of pride and satisfaction in my voice. Mel rose to her feet, casting the invitations aside, into her handbag.

"Sean will be marrying me, because you won't let him break it off."

I looked at her, confusion raced through my brain so fast that it was as if someone had wiped my mind. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"What? Why wouldn't I let him?" I asked.

"Because I know you Roxy. You don't do relationships, you don't do serious, well, not until Sean. So, that being said, it's clear that he must mean a great deal to you. Do you really want to be the one to cause him pain. To be the reason his entire life crumbles?"

"If anyone does that, it would be on you." Evan snapped.

"In a way, but Roxy would be to blame, and not only would Sean be crushed, but he'd never forgive you Rox."

"Just what are you saying?"

I felt like my heart was being covered with ice, ready to be shattered into a billion pieces any second.

"I'm saying you will end things with him," She stepped even closer, stopping just short of us both. "You will tell Sean that you don't want him, I don't know, that it was a game, that you can't be with one just one man, that you're unable to be tied to him, I don't care. But you'll tell him something that makes him walk away, back to me, and go through with our wedding."

"And if I don't?"

Her evil smile was back and she shrugged casually as if it was a trivial matter that required no thought.

"Then I will end his career, ruin his reputation and leave his family disappointed and sick at the sight of him."

"You really think you could do all that?"

"Oh, I know I can, you see, I'd be the victim. The one who has been sweetly planning her dream wedding to the man that she loves, all the while he's been screwing her sister. With the issues at the office already, he'd be kicked out on his ass without a second thought. With that kind of gossip hanging around his neck, he'd be lucky to get a job as a cleaner at any other law firm." She laughed, "And just imagine how his parents would view the situation, their successful son, suddenly at the head of a work scandal and abandoning his fiance for her easy and reckless slut of a sister."

"Oh you little-" Evan lurched forwards, probably prepared to grab her and throw her from the house.

I grabbed his arm, holding him back from going after her.

"So, your choice there Rox, you end things with him, or have him ruined, and hating you. Which route are you going to take?"

I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and run, how could my own sister be this poisonous and hateful. How is it that she could stand here and make me choose to lose the first man who had ever meant anything to me, or make him suffer and lose everything. I may have floated through life with little tying me to anyone else, but those I cared for meant everything to me. I could never be the reason why Sean's life fell to pieces, and Mel knew that. As she waited for my reply, her brow arched and her smirk in place.

"If I leave him, you won't do anything to hurt him or his family in any way?"

"I wouldn't do that to my husband."

"Fine." I choked on the word.

The very effort it took to say it shattered my heart. I felt my eyes begin to sting as I fought back tears.

"Fine, what?" She pressed, clearly enjoying every second of suffering she was inflicting.

"I will break up with him. You win."

"Good, you don't tell him about any of this, just end it, the sooner the better."

She went to leave, then turned back, her gloating face a few steps in front of me.

"Oh and don't forget, you're still the maid of honour, you need to be in attendance for all important wedding things, afterall appearances must be kept up."

That was the final straw, her insistence on making me watch as she married him, broke my resolve. I swung my hand at her face, my palm hit her full force across the cheek, a loud smack echoed throughout the room. She staggered, clutching her cheek in shock.

Evan's voice chimed up beside me.

"You're supposed to close your fist Rox."

"Yeah, you're right." I replied coldly.

Before Mel could move, my fist connected with her jaw, knocking her to the floor. I went to land on top of her, prepared to rain down a storm of furious punches. But Evan stepped forwards, taking hold of me under the arms he hauled me backwards, away from Mel's cowering figure, and against his warm and firm chest.

"Get the fuck out of here!" He said in a tone of disgust.

Mel grabbed her handbag and scurried out the front door, slamming it closed as Evan held me against him as the tears began to fall and I fell to the floor, taking him with me and breaking down, sobbing in his arms.