Chapter Photo credits:

@AnaIacobPhotographyDepositphotos

Years before, when Sloane and Jonathan were twenty, and Tommy was eighteen...

Jonathan Hayes scrounged around the kitchen for something to eat. He opened the door of the full-size refrigerator. There were jars of olives and some blocks of cheese. The rest of the contents were uncooked meat and vegetables. He couldn't boil water and the pantry was no better. He was hungry and dinner would be late. It was New Year's Eve.

His mother walked into the kitchen. "There you are. Where's your brother?"

He shrugged, although he'd seen Victoria's coat, so he could guess. "I'm hungry."

"I'll heat up a snack, if you find your brother. I want him to know we're having a family brunch tomorrow. Just family."

"He won't like that. Do we have to? Jessica is so annoying."

Vanessa Hayes sighed as she massaged her temple. "Trey loves her, so we will too."

"You don't sound very convinced."

"Just find your brother and stop causing trouble. Your father is due home soon."

His mother warned him the Honorable Richard Hayes would not approve of their conversation. His father always favored Trey and his bitchy wife over his younger sons.

He stood at the basement stairs and listened for moans or any other indication Tommy and his girlfriend were in the throes of passion.

When only silence greeted him, he called out. "You hiding down here?" As he walked down the stairs, he asked, "You decent?"

His little brother, Tommy said, "Bare - ly" Tori giggled.

Jonathan rounded the corner and looked from Tommy in his boxers to Tori wrapped in the blanket to the pile of clothes on the floor.

He shook his head. She looked like a woman under that blanket with the swells of her breast peeking out. What happened to the little girl in pigtails? She was a sexy vixen, and she was all Tommy's. If he had a girl like her, he wouldn't be running off to school two states away, like his brother.

Tommy was one of a kind for choosing West Point. Jon was happy at Vanderbilt, where the winters were warmer. He dated, but no one seriously, because they had a lot of pressure to date girls from the right family, and by right he meant wealthy. Victoria met the objective hands down. Jessica did not. She came from a broken family and when Trey met her she was struggling to pay for law school. She had severe memory loss because she acted like she grew up in a castle.

"Having fun kids?"

"I can see you are at our expense." Tommy smirked.

"Sorry, I have a message." He wasn't really sorry. Interrupting them was an older brother's entertainment and the view was worth it.

"What couldn't wait?"

"You should thank me. Mom was going to come find you. I doubt she would have announced herself. Apparently, she wants a family brunch tomorrow. Sorry Victoria, it doesn't include you."

She shrugged. "My mother will probably want the same thing."

"Well, okay, lovebirds, I'll let you get back to it."

Tori sighed. "I should go, so I can make myself beautiful."

"You already are." Tommy was a charmer.

Jonathan thought about making a gagging sound, but his brother wasn't exaggerating. With her blond hair and blue eyes, she was beautiful.

He left so Victoria could come out of the blanket and get dressed. Once back upstairs, he found his mother in the kitchen. Something delicious was in the oven and his stomach growled.

"I delivered your message." He snatched an olive from the charcuterie platter, which was filled with cheese and meat.

She went to slap his fingers. "Wait until I serve."

He left the room before she waved the bread knife in his face. He would have liked to grab a slice of bread. Tommy joined him. "Is she gone?" He nodded. "How are you going to survive without her?"

"I'm so busy, I'm too tired to miss her most of the time. I just hate the goodbye. When she cries, it breaks my heart."

"What's your plan? Are you going to marry her?"

Tommy shrugged. "I love her, but I have eight and a half years ahead of me. I could be anywhere in the world. I can't ask her to wait for me."

"Do you want to marry her?"

Tommy smiled. "It's too soon."

Jonathan's brother was too young to know what he really wanted. Their mother placed a tray of food in front of them and the conversation was over. He was hungry. Tommy was too, since he had worked up an appetite all afternoon.

The party was in full swing when he arrived with his brother and parents. Bea greeted them with a hug, even his father who was not an affectionate man. He went to join his friends Sage and Sloane. They were the only three without a date. He saw his brother across the room with Victoria. She stood out in her blue dress and he turned away when he remembered her under the blanket.

Before midnight arrived, he had danced with both his friends and their mothers. When Tom danced with their mother, he danced with Victoria. "Sorry for interrupting your fun earlier."

"You didn't seem sorry." She laughed.

"Are you going to be okay when he's gone?"

"Do I have a choice? You'll be gone too." She pouted, as if his absence meant something, but not compared to Tommy's.

After his dance with Victoria, she went back to Tom, and he danced with Sage again. He started making faces, causing Sage to laugh, which made a scene. When they rang in the New Year, he felt optimistic for the year ahead.

His optimism didn't last long. Jon had a bad feeling about the New Year's Day brunch. Family events had been strained of late. He attributed it to the recent addition to the family, and their father's disappointment in his and Tommy's career choices. Neither were studying law like the judge had wanted them too.

He was the last to arrive at the table and felt uncomfortable as the bitch stared at the front of his pants. He didn't know what she hoped to see. His shirt was tucked in and he felt content after a date with his hand the night before.

He ignored the bitch while she monopolized his father. He and Tommy talked with their mother about the party.

After brunch, the football game was on, which was the only sport the judge enjoyed. Jonathan went up to his room to get his phone. He was planning to hang out with his friends later. When he returned, Jessica stood in the door of the powder room.

Her voice was low. "Jonathan, come see this."

Confused, he stepped inside expecting to see a bug or something similar. Instead, she closed the door and pushed herself against him.

"Stop!" Her hand covered him and began to pet him. Through gritted teeth, he asked her why she was doing it.

"Because Trey is boring. I need excitement. You're so much better."

He felt embarrassed, because he responded to the bitch's hand. She was going for his zipper, but he turned her so he could open the door and escape.

Trey barged in before he could get away. It looked bad. He had an erection that deflated in record time when Trey yelled.

"Get your fucking hands off her!"

"Talk to your wife! It wasn't me." His hands weren't on her, except to move her out of his way.

"Liar! You're a bastard!"

"I don't even like the bitch!"

"What's happened?" The judge's authoritative voice boomed.

"He was coming on to my wife!"

"I was not. It was her. She cornered me."

"Take that back! She would never. Would you, Jess?"

She shook her head, looking innocent, and hugged her husband. She was such a liar.

"Jonathan, I don't know what game you're playing, but I'll have none of it in my house."

"You honestly believe her?" Jonathan's voice was filled with hurt.

"I don't!" Tom spoke up.

"The two of them are ganging up on me!" Trey was so dramatic.

"Apologize to your brother, both of you."

"For what? Telling the truth. No way!" He was angry and tired of playing second fiddle to perfect Trey.

"Jonathan."

His father's voice was laced with disappointment. He felt defeated because no matter what he did the man wasn't proud. Straight As - his major was too easy.

"No. He's the one who should put a shorter leash on the bitch he married."

"Enough! Get out of my sight!" His father was livid.

He ran upstairs and Tom followed. He had enough of the dysfunctional dynamic. He wanted to head back to school and started to throw things in his suitcase.

"What are you doing?" Tom's voice shook with emotion.

"Leaving."

"What? How?"

"I was driving back to Nashville, anyway. I'm not spending three more weeks with that man. How can he not believe me?"

"What did she do to you?"

"She groped me. I tried to get away. I don't know what Trey saw, but she was all over me."

"What was her excuse?"

"She said he's boring."

Tom shook his head. "Poor Trey. What does he see in her?"

"Poor Trey, nothing. I'm angry!"

There was a knock on the door. Tom opened it for their mother.

"What are you doing?" Her voice laced with concern.

"Leaving. It was made perfectly clear I'm not wanted."

"Darling, no. I'm sure it was all a misunderstanding."

"Not you too! I didn't touch her."

"I know you wouldn't."

"Well, you and Tom are the only ones. I have to pack."

"I'm going too. I'm not staying here and letting her touch me next."

He and Tom drove away from the house and he didn't look back. He figured Trey would apologize and his mother would talk him into returning home for the summer.