Introducing Evie Woods - NaNoWriMo 2016 Novel

Chapter 19

"We're married."

I watched as my words settled into her brain, before shock settled onto her face. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, before settling for frowning. I couldn't decipher what she was thinking, so I patiently waited for her words to finally make sense to her.

"For a second I thought you said you married my brother."

"That's exactly what I said."

"Why?"

What?

"What do you mean why?"

"Of all the people, you chose to marry Mimi? Did he force you into this? I thought you were getting married to Cain."

"I don't like how you just said that. Aramis is an amazing man and I love him just the way he is. Cain and I broke up seven weeks ago," I informed, slightly irritated.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that, but the last thing I expected you to tell me after disappearing for almost two months is that you're married to my brute of a brother. I knew you liked him, but I had no idea you liked him enough to marry him," she said.

"Love; I love him," I corrected.

"When did that happen Evie?" she asked.

"It happened a long while back. I was just too hurt at the time by things I didn't understand to let myself truly feel it. It's the reason why Cain and I would've never worked out. Your brother is my soul mate and I'm only telling you first because you're my best friend and I figured you were probably the maddest at me, but now I'm starting to regret that," I accidentally admitted.

She frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I don't like how you view him. He's your brother for heaven sakes!" I snapped.

"Excuse me? You have no idea what it's like living with Aramis! The man is impossible and he's never been the easiest of people to understand!" she shot back.

"Like you tried to understand me," my husband commented as he walked into the room.

"That's not fair," she said to him.

He shrugged before turning to me. "Everyone's here. Judging from how angry you look, I take it things didn't go that well with her?"

I shot Gigi a look before turning to him. "It's not going to go well with any of them. I can just feel it. If she views you like this, then they all do, and I don't know how I feel about that."

"You need to keep me out of this kardiá mou. You have to remember that you're the only one who truly knows who I am, so to them, their views of me are justified," he argued as he caressed my cheek.

"Because you never opened up to any of us," Gigi commented.

"You made me a competition amongst you, or did you think I'd never find out about that?" he asked her.

"They did what?"

"How did you find out about that?"

He turned back to me, anger blazing in his eyes. "When I returned from Greece, I isolated myself, but Gigi, Artemis, Max, Zena, Ivy and my mother all thought it would be a good idea to have a competition amongst themselves to see who could crack me. If I'm not mistaken, the winner would get their own house anywhere in the world, courtesy of my mother. I've always wondered why they were trying so hard when even I knew that their concern wasn't remotely sincere. I guess a part of me was curious to see how long they all thought they could bullshit me for, but when I found out that it was in the name of a competition, things changed for me."