Invisible Man (Completed ) ✅

♥ Nine♥

           

Lacey's  mouth dropped open.  "L—love?"

"Yes, love.  I love you, Lacey.  I love everything about you, and have for a while.  I never would have...done what I did last night if I didn't."

"It wasn't Joe this time, J.  It was what Danny  said.  He said that it sounded like Joe and I had had some fun last night.  I don't know how much of this I can handle."

Jordan opened the door.  "You don't have to take any more."

"No!  J!, wait!"  She grabbed his arm and he pulled away.

"If Oriana 's your real friend, she'll understand."

Donnie stared at Jordan as he came striding up the aisle.  Jordan grabbed Joe by the collars of his shirt, and slammed him against a wall.  "J!  What the fuck..." Donnie exclaimed.

"Joe, I knew you were an egotistical materialistic jerk, but you have gone too far!"  Jordan snarled.

"J cmon  man, chill.  What lies has that little whore told you?"

Oriana  gasped and came to stand at Lacey's side.  Donnie joined them, and put his arm around Lacey's shoulders.  "I'm sorry," Lacey whispered to them.

Jordan  slammed Joe even harder.  "That was the wrong thing to say, prick."

Now all the people remaining in the church gasped.  They had never heard Jon speak this way before.

"Lacey is not a whore, and you know it."

"Well, she sure acted like one last night, didn't she?  And there are three other guys here who can verify that," Joe  spat back , looking from Donnie to Danny to Joe.

"That's exactly what she was doing, Joe.  Acting."

"You've been hot for her for ages, Jordan," Joe interrupted.  "You're just jealous because I bagged her before you could.  The sweetest lay I've had in a long time," he finished, smiling sweetly at Lacey.  She wanted to claw his eyes out.  "Was it as good for you, sweetness?"  He asked her, daring her to tell the truth.

"Joe, what are you saying, man?"  Donnie said softly, not believing his friend could act this way.  Joe's defenses were up, and he was trying to protect himself from something.

"Yeah, I bet the feel of your fist in her face was real good.  Something she'll never forget," Jordan hissed his face reddening in his rage.  Joe began to look frightened.  Jordan   had always been the protector, not the tormentor.

Oriana  turned to look at Lacey.  "He  fucking hit you?  Joe fucking  hit you?  I thought you said..."

"I lied," Lacey said, as the tears slipped down her cheeks.  Donnie gently caressed the bruise on her face.  "I didn't want to ruin your wedding day."

"Well, I'm sorry, Lacey, but this had to come out.  I don't want anyone else thinking you are something you're not," Jordan said, pointedly looking at Joe, who suddenly became very interested in staring at his shoes.

"I...she...she deserved it," Joe babbled.  "She used the bachelor party to try to get me into bed.  It was only when I pulled the veil off that I knew who she was, and realized what she was trying to do."

"And no one makes a fool of you, right, Joseph?"  Donnie said.

"Y—yeah," Joe stammered , not wanting to say anything else.

Jordan slowly let go of him.  "Let me ask you something, Joe.  The veil was the last thing she had on, right?  You were turned on by her enough before that to get her naked and work that body, right?  Remember what you said at the poker party?  You said you wanted a woman with a body that burns, and a face to go with it.  That's what you said after you belittled Lacey's clothes and her appearance."  Joe blushed.  "Well, obviously her body was burning, until you saw who it was.  Then, you realized that she had played you for a fool, and you and your dick had followed along right behind her."  His steel brown  eyes burned into Joe's blue ones.  "Tell the truth, and apologize," he whispered so only Jordan could hear.  Joe remained silent.  Jordan grabbed his shirt and dragged him over to stand in front of Donnie, Oriana , and Lacey.  The newlyweds moved to stand in front of Lacey protectively.  She shook her head.

"I'm not afraid of him."

Jordan  forcefully placed Joe right in front of Lacey.  She looked up into Joe's beautiful blue eyes and kicked herself for falling for someone like him.

"Lacey, I'm sorry I hit you.  I also am sorry for lying about you."  He looked at the crowd.  "Nothing happened between Lacey and I.  I got angry and left the house."

Everyone sighed with relief and began to gather their belongings.  Only Oriana , Donnie, Lacey, and Jordan heard Joe murmur under his breath, "But I still think you're a fucking slut."

Oriana  and Lacey gasped.  Donnie and Jon reached out, but Lacey was quicker.  She reached back and kicked him in the balls with her high heel shoe.  Joe dropped to the floor.

"I may be a slut, but you couldn't fuck me.  What does that say about you?"  She grabbed her purse and strode out of the church while everyone else stood and gaped.  They heard a car pull away from the church.

Lacey drove like a bat out of hell through the city.  She could just imagine what a sight she was, raccoon eyes underneath beautifully arranged hair, tear marks staining a beautiful midnight blue gown with slits up the skirt.  She parked in front of the tattoo shop and ran inside.

The tattooist's wife was seated at her henna table, reading a magazine.  She looked calmly at Lacey when she flew in the door.

"I need..." Lacey panted.

"You need to know which one  is for you.  Why one loves you so, and why one hates you."

Lacey skidded to a stop and gasped.  The woman motioned to a chair, and Lacey flopped into it.

"My name is  Jordanna , by the way," the woman said, getting a glass of water and handing it to her.  Lacey took it silently and waited for the woman to speak.  "Your heart was deeply wounded last night, correct?"  Lacey nodded.  "This man with the light  eyes, is someone you have yearned after for quite some time."  Lacey smiled.  Yearn was definitely the right word.  "The other , with the dark  eyes and generous heart, he has loved you for many months now.  He is shy, no?"

"Yes," Lacey whispered, thinking of how Jordan often shrank into the shadows and let Joe have the limelight.

Oriana studied the bruise on Lacey's face.  "I know it is difficult, but forget the younger man.  He is foolish, and he will get what is coming to him, one way or another.  I cannot see exactly how.  The older man however , he started to unravel the layers around your soul, didn't he?"

"In more ways than one," Lacey replied, remembering the way Jon had made her feel.

"He cares for you deeply.  Listen to what his heart says, and answer it with yours."

"Thank you," Lacey replied, a weight lifting from her shoulders.  She reached into her purse to get some money.  Oriana laid a hand on her hands.

"No.  I cannot take money from you."  She smiled.  "This is the first time that I have really been able to channel what I see and explain what it means.  I thank you."

Lacey hurried out of the shop and back into her car, determined to find Jonathan and tell him what had happened.

The ride in Donnie's car to the reception hall was silent.  Donnie and Oriana  sat in front, while a brooding Joe reclined in the back seat.  They didn't trust Jordan's rage, so they took Joe with them.  After he parked, Donnie turned around to look at him.

"We've been through a lot, J, over all these years.  I've done too many bad things in my life to judge you.  I've treated women like shit, like they were next to nothing, until I found the right one."  He glanced at Oriana .  "And you never know, Lacey could've been the one for you.  She's had strong feelings for you for a long time, and has never been anything but kind to you.  But you blew all that, looking only at what was on the surface."  He opened his car door, then turned around again.  "I forgive you, Joe.  I have no choice in the matter.  You will still be welcome in our home, and things will eventually settle down."  His hazel eyes bored into Joe's.  "But no matter how shitty I treated a woman , I never, ever hit one."  He walked around and let Oriana  out of the car, and led her inside.

Joe sat in the backseat for a while, thinking.  He saw Lacey's silver Cavalier rip into the parking lot, and he slowly climbed out of the car and locked the doors.  He leaned on the car and watched her get out of her car.  She began to walk towards the building, saw him, and froze.  He smiled as he saw her, for out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jonathan peeking out of the building, obviously looking for her.