I Ditched My Toxic Fiancé and Married His Hot Brother

I realized everything had spun out of control during a trip to the movies.

Dean and I were watching a romance film, and the couple on the screen had just started kissing. I turned, wanting to whisper something to him—only to see him behind me, making out passionately with her. His hands were already where they absolutely shouldn’t have been.

Rage flared up in my chest in an instant.

I shot to my feet, yanked up the tub of popcorn, and dumped it over Dean’s head, then tossed my soda all over the two of them.

“Dean! You fucking asshole!”

The theater erupted into chaos.

I used the confusion to bolt, running out into the night. I crouched under a streetlamp and burst into tears.

I could practically hear my heart shattering.

Dean had gone way too far this time.

Still shaking with anger, I went straight to the Shepard house and blew everything up.

I stormed over there, flung open the door, and barreled straight into someone.

My eyes were swollen red from crying, my head full of rage. My voice came out sharp and harsh. “Move.”

The man stepped aside at once, giving me space to enter.

Mr. and Mrs. Shepard had just finished catching up with their eldest son, who’d returned from studying abroad, and their good mood dropped off a cliff the moment they saw me.

“Paige, weren’t you at the movies with Dean? What happened?”

The question hit a raw nerve. My control snapped, and I started sobbing even harder.

Between tears and sniffling, I spilled everything to Dean’s parents—every humiliating detail.

By the time I finished, both of their faces had gone cold.

“Don’t worry,” Mrs. Shepard said, her tone like ice. “Auntie Shepard will make sure he gets a proper lesson. He’ll give you an explanation.”

I was crying so hard I could barely breathe. Someone kept quietly handing me tissues at my side. I assumed it was Auntie Shepard, so I just took them one after another, wiping my tears and blowing my nose. I must have looked absolutely pathetic.

When I finally cried myself out, my eyes were swollen and aching. I said goodbye and left.

The whole time, I never once noticed that there was an extra young man in the Shepard living room—and that he was the one who had been silently, thoughtfully passing me all those tissues from start to finish.

That was the first time I met Grant Shepard.

We didn’t exchange a single word.

When Dean got home, he’d already washed the popcorn and soda from his hair and face, though his clothes were still damp.

He didn’t even have time to change before his father’s fists and his mother’s scolding came down on him. It only ended when he finally promised to break up with Fiona.

Once he’d escaped to his room, he called me.

“Paige Ellison, you traitor! I haven’t even confronted you yet, and you already ran crying to my parents?”

I was still furious, and my words were anything but gentle. “Dean, you know exactly what you did. If you’re not going to break it off with her, then go straight to my parents and call off the engagement.”

Dean went and broke up with Fiona.

Fiona refused to accept it.

Backed into a corner, Dean told her the truth—that I was actually his fiancée. In return, he got a slap across the face.

Fiona stormed off in a rage.

They were one week short of their one‑month anniversary when their relationship officially ended.

Dean and I went back to our little two‑person world.

But once something changes, it never really goes back to the way it was.

Soon I was getting dragged through the mud online. Fiona’s roommate spread a story that I was the other woman who had ruined their relationship.

I opened the school forum, and almost every post was cursing me out:

“Didn’t peg her for a disgusting mistress.”

“She’s like some freaky third wheel. They’re on a date, and she just won’t leave.”

“Listen, she’s famous for being Dean’s little lapdog. Everyone on campus knows how hard she grovels.”

“Don’t be friends with her or she’ll steal your boyfriend too!”

…

The insults went on and on. I actually hesitated, wondering if I should explain.

I could have told them Dean and I were engaged.

But if I did, it would make it official: Dean was a complete asshole.

After all, having a fiancée and still going out to find a girlfriend? That’s trash behavior, plain and simple.

I had no idea that this was exactly the trap that high‑level green‑tea bitch Fiona had laid out for me.