the brother she shouldn't love

Chapter 1 Justina's POV “Justy, it hurts to tell you that I can't make it for our honeymoon.. my schedule just won't fit it in,” my newly wedded husband said, 3 hours before our flight. I clutched my luggage, sinking my teeth so far into my lip that it nearly punctured it. “Why?” Came my feeble response. He sighed heavily across the line. “I'm sorry, Justy,” He cooed like calling me by my nickname was going to make this any better, “ but this is a really important time for the company, I have to prove myself to my dad that I'm fully capable to take over, you get? And I've already paid for everything so it will be such a waste if you don't go any ways,” It will be a waste if you don't come with me, I wanted to say but held back my tongue. Truth be told, I wanted to throw back my head, check my feet and wait a couple of hours before I was on a first class flight to the Bahamas where I would spend the next two weeks sun bathing and sipping water out of coconuts. It was tempting but… “I'll be making sure to call and check up on you, okay Justy? Are we good?” No “Yes,” The call ended leaving a weight on my chest that dragged me down. I face palmed myself, honestly what was I expecting? It's always been like this since we were kids. Mark came into my life by pulling my hair at kindergarten, at first I thought he was annoying. I told our teacher, she just had this goofy smile and said he did it because he liked me. One thing after another and before I knew it, we became friends and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and the only thing that had changed over time was that my feelings had intensified. Who could blame me? Mark was the complete package. He could be a model any day he wanted and give them a run for their money, he was witty, sweet and charismatic. The kind of guy that knows how to light up a room without even trying, without needing to try. I wanted to be more than his best friend-yes I'm greedy I'll admit it. But when he had his first girlfriend at twelve she looked nothing like me, our personalities were polar opposites to so yeah we didn't become best friends as well. He kept dating girls that were more or less like his first, clearly he had a type and that type was not me. There was no need to ruin an otherwise perfect friendship. No need to tell him that my heart split into two whenever he talked about those girls. He'd come straight to my apartment after a fresh heartbreak, with booze and anecdotes. I loved that I was the first place he went to when he was hurt. I hated it too. I didn't want to hear about how he went to sleep thinking of Jennifer's blue eyes, or how he had a hoodie in his closet that smelt like Stacy. It was during one of such visits that he asked a pivotal question that would change our relationship forever. “Justy, will you marry me?” For three straight seconds I didn't breathe gosh I forgot I had to until my throat started to burn and I inhaled deeply, turned to face him on the couch we were sitting on accidentally brushing our thighs together and warmth spreading up to my neck. “That's it you're wasted, let me take you to the guest room so you can sleep this off,” I stood up ready to play it off as a joke but he wrapped his fingers around my wrist firmly and pulled me back down. “Justy, this isn't a joke. I…” He swallowed a breath. Then another one, eyes burning into mine keeping me right there looking back. “You've always been there, Justy, through every heartbreak I could always come to you. And that was when I realized it. It's always been you I've just been too blind to see it all this time,” I'm ashamed of the way I folded under his words, how I instantly burst into tears and how those tears smeared into our lips as he kissed me. After the kiss I got in my breath and finally confessed the feelings I had kept buried for years. I told him that I loved him too but I never thought they would ever be us. He hugged me. “You dummy, you should have said something earlier!” I thought this was it-this was my happily ever after, cheesy or not, who cares? The crush I've had even before I knew about the word who was finally real, the wedding I had planned for us in my head was materializing. So what if he hardly helped with wedding preparations? He was busy with work! Nevertheless the wedding between the Grey and Vaughn families shook the city to its core, anybody who was anybody was dying to get an invitation to what would arguably be the wedding of the decade. But I didn't care for the sheer opulence of the occasion, I would have been fine exchanging our vows in an alleyway if that means I could be with Mark forever calling him my husband. Now after the wedding we were supposed to have an equally fantastic honeymoon that was the plan but no he was telling me that he was busy with work what about me just like the wedding I had planned for The honeymoon vacation myself in fact I heard paid more than half of it my only way of impressing him we both came from comfortable homes so it wasn't really skin off my back but it was still something especially all the efforts with planning however he heard an entire week to tell me that he was cramped up on work yet he waited until this moment a creeping sensation run up my spine. Something wasn't right and I was going to find out what tonight.