Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Jenna:

The birthday I had waited so long for was the same birthday I did not enjoy one bit.

I’m not even sure I remembered what I ate there.

I mean, whatever I did eat was practically shoved down my throat by my mother.

Other than that, nothing really happened. Nothing I wanted to happen, anyway.

It was the most bizarre day for me, the most bizarre evening.

In fact, the entire time, I was checking the clock to see when it would end because I wanted to fucking get out of there and go meet that asshole.

I did not want him to blackmail me again.

The last time he tried to scare me by saying he had accidentally sent the video to Verity, he left me really scared.

I did not want to go through that again.

So, the minute the clock hit twelve, I was already wrapping things up.

Thankfully, Verity had done a great job.

I had requested it just once, and she remembered. Before midnight, the guests were already gone.

I mean, it was already the next day, so my birthday was practically over too.

Thankfully, Verity hadn’t made me remind her constantly, even though I had thought I would need to.

It was just her family now.

"So, are you gonna open the gifts tonight?" my mother asked, elbowing me happily.

Now the entire family was standing around me, enjoying themselves with Gigi and Verity. And I just could not do it.

"I’ll do it tomorrow," I said, faking the shy smile I used to have before, back when it was genuine.

"Why not tonight? Open the gifts," my mother insisted, pinching my elbow.

"Ouch, Mom, stop doing that." For the first time, I complained, rubbing my elbow.

"What am I doing? I’m just asking you to open the gifts," my mother insisted again.

I could feel my expression slowly changing as she kept pushing me.

"Mrs. Bundy, I don’t think you should force her. Let her rest and open the gifts in her room like she wants to."

Thankfully, Alpha King Ragnar spoke up, and my eyes started to burn with tears.

Before, everybody wanted me to be with Ragnar, and I thought he was just too much for me.

Now I realized what too much really looked like.

I mean, my crush on Theodore had completely shattered me. And to be honest, now I couldn’t even look at him and enjoy that crush.

I was so stressed out.

My body had been put under so much pressure and force that I no longer felt like I ever wanted to be loved by anyone.

I mean, I wasn’t even sure if I could ever love anyone again.

"Thank you everyone for finding time in your busy schedules to celebrate my birthday," I said to everyone before turning around to leave.

"Jenna, are you forgetting something?" my mother called out.

I stopped, turned around, and saw Lady Lucille staring at me with a shocked expression.

"I’m so sorry," I immediately apologized, walking over to Lady Lucille and helping her along.

"It’s okay. I’ll do that. You go ahead, change out of your gown, and rest." Jaguar stepped forward to help.

I placed Lady Lucille’s hand in his and started to walk away blankly.

"I’ll take the gifts and place them outside her room," I heard Theodore say.

Something like that would have made me go crazy before.

But now it didn’t because I knew the reality.

Not every person who smiles at you is in love with you, and not everyone who shakes your hand is your friend.

Well, of course, I realized that quite late, but here I was.

The minute I entered my room, I took off my gown and threw it on the bed.

I was about to rush into the bathroom to take off my makeup when I remembered that the blackmailer had said he wanted to see me with my birthday makeup on.

In fact, his exact words were that he wanted me in my birthday attire.

I was not going to do that. That would be too much trouble for me.

Once I slipped into a pair of baggy pants and an oversized sweater, I thought I was safe. I thought no one would look at my body weirdly.

Sadly, that was not the case.

I snuck out through the back, and before I knew it, I was once again in the freaking woods.

This time, he wouldn’t even send a car for me anymore.

He had stopped doing that after he started blackmailing me. I had to arrange everything myself.

That taught me a lesson.

I was not prepared for the outside world, and I should not have stepped outside, especially not with someone like Gigi.

The way she had completely ignored me felt very weird and, somehow, even deliberate.

I heard a lot of demeaning words from that blackmailer that night.

He kept laughing at me, saying I hadn’t grown up, that I had gotten myself into this trouble even while celebrating my twenty-third birthday.

He would slap my ass and everything.

And to be honest, when he did it, I wasn’t even thinking about it. My mind was completely blank.

I kept thinking about different things. My education, my life, what I would do.

Anything but what I was doing at that moment or what he was doing to me.

And then, finally, he was done.

I quickly got out of the water and started putting on my clothes.

He came out all wet. He had only pulled down his pants, to be honest.

He had not even tried that hard, and I was so glad he hadn’t.

Because, oh Goddess, that would have been worse, right?

As if this wasn’t already bad enough.

"You know, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not gonna miss these," he commented, blatantly chuckling.

I did not even turn around to look at his face, even though I wanted so badly to recognize him.

"But at least I will have these videos."

The minute those words left his lips, I stopped fixing my sweater and spun around to look at his face in horror.

"But you said you would delete them after tonight?" I asked, my voice shaking and my breath catching.

"You believed me? Anyway, I changed my mind. I will need something to get excited over, right?" he commented, holding his phone’s screen towards me.