Home For The Holidays - Jordan Silver Page 0,4

know but still find subtle ways to get to the truth. I started with Deidre. For some reason, it never entered my mind to believe the story of her cheating. I’ve seen her with my brother, and she loves that idiot something fierce. I think she was more heartbroken that he’d believed the lie than about him cheating.

I picked away at her bit by bit until she finally broke down and told me what really happened the night that she went out with Tessa. According to Deidre, they ran into an old flame of hers at the restaurant they’d gone to, and Tessa had asked him to join their table. Deidre didn’t think too much of it since they’d all been friends back in high school, so though she wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, she didn’t fight it.

This guy, Troy, was her last boyfriend before she met my brother, and the two of them had ended on not so good terms when he cheated on her. Apparently, he had tried getting back with her up until the day before she married my brother but had seemingly moved on after she shut him down.

She hadn’t seen or heard from him in years, so running into him that night had been a bit of a surprise. She doesn’t know what or how it happened, but she got up to go to the bathroom, and when she came out, he was standing outside the door waiting for her. She started to ask what he was doing when he just leaned in and kissed her. She pushed him away and lit into him, but the damage was already done.

She had no idea that anyone had seen, but someone did, and word got back to Tom along with a snapshot of that kiss. I wonder who the hell took it. I’d looked at my sister in law that day like she’d just fallen off a turnip truck. It was so glaringly obvious that she’d been set up, but she still didn’t see it even after all that had transpired since.

That’s when I knew that I was not dealing with your average everyday home-wrecking skank; this bitch was devious, heartless, and an expert in her craft of deception. It was then I started on my course of destruction.

I planned to eliminate this blighted parasite from my family if it was the last thing I did. It was going to be a long one, time and energy and maybe money well spent along the way. Plus, you know, schoolwork. But wait, I still haven’t told you about Jared.

“Oh shit, what the hell are you plotting now?”

“Drake, language.” I looked from mom to dad and back and grinned at him before getting to my feet and walking over to kiss his head. I’d been lost down memory lane for a while, and dad had been studying me. Time to go hide out in my room before I give myself away.

As I said, my dad knows me very well, and it would only take a few well-placed questions from him, and the jig is up. I can’t let anything spoil my surprise, though, not after all the hard work I’ve put in. I rubbed my hands together as I headed up the stairs, where I ran into Tessa, who was on her way down.

“Your brother and I are going to be married, so you’d better get used to it.” She was feeling brave and looking smug. I looked back down the stairs where the coast was clear.

“There are no witnesses if your ass end up at the bottom of these stairs; you sure you wanna be talking shit to me?” I fake rushed her, and she screamed her ass down the stairs. Man stealing twatwaffle.

I was already turning the corner on the landing when I heard her peanut gallery made up of mom and Tom asking her what was wrong. I’m not worried; my dad would skin all of them alive if they even look at me cross-eyed.

Samantha

I opened the door of my childhood bedroom, which mom had kept as some kind of shrine to in the years since I’ve been gone. This is supposed to be my last year at college, but I had no intentions of coming back here to live after that was done and still don’t, but it’s my haven when I come home on holiday and will be for the next few days at least.

I laid back across the bed and picked up the