Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Gigi:

I woke up feeling unusually happy.

I mean, I had been annoyed the night before because I wanted things to go more smoothly and move forward, but the interruption had left me worried.

At the same time, though, I had been so drunk that I couldn’t even stay awake long enough to ask Ragnar why he had called his brothers to talk about Verity or why they had left as if their tails were on fire.

There was only one explanation for it. My brother must have ruined her and left her on the road like he had been saying.

So I went to sleep, and by the time I woke up, it was already late.

My phone was dead, and I could hear noises outside.

There was a knock at the door, and it sounded like my mother, but I ignored it.

I rushed into the bathroom, remembering that I had a tea party planned for that day.

I had spent the past three days preparing for it.

I hosted tea parties all the time, and the guests who came would always compliment me on how I looked, my new hair color, and everything else.

I was actually looking forward to that and didn’t want my mother interfering and ruining it for me.

By the time I walked out of the bathroom, the knocking on my door had stopped.

Maybe my mother had finally realized that, as a grown-ass woman, I could sleep for however many hours I wanted.

She didn’t have to keep knocking on my door and bothering me.

The moment I stepped out of my room, I made sure to flick my hair before making my way over to my friends.

They all had strange expressions on their faces, almost as if they were traumatized.

"What?" I asked, smoothing my hands over my white dress.

The dress was pretty tiny. One wrong move and I would probably end up flashing everyone, but that was part of the fun.

It was a women-only party. We could dress however we wanted.

"What is going on?"

Then my eyes landed on Julia.

"Oh my God, Julia, you’ve gained a lot of weight. Try to go easy on the starters," I told her as I passed by.

She immediately sucked in her stomach.

Everyone was still giving me those weird looks, almost as though they felt sorry for me or something.

Maybe they were just jealous because I looked incredibly sexy.

I hadn’t told them that this glow was courtesy of Theodore and Jaguar and their confessions of love for me.

"Rochelle!" I called, reaching for her and wrapping an arm around her.

"Um, Gigi, we need to talk," she said.

I pulled away and frowned at her.

"What? What is going on?"

"Have you not watched the news?" she whispered.

I started arranging the drinks while the others settled around the table.

Some had already begun eating, while others held glasses in their hands.

Her question made me realize what this was about.

"Oh. Yeah, I mean, I heard about it. It’s pretty sad," I mumbled.

Then it hit me. Verity was the woman who had been hospitalized, and now it was all over the news.

That wasn’t good.

This was supposed to remain a secret.

How the heck was Oliver supposed to keep doing her for another fifteen days now?

In my head, I was furious.

As much as I would have loved watching her get punished, I did need her for the next fifteen days.

Maybe she could stay in the hospital for three days, and then he could continue afterward.

That was what the seer had originally told me needed to happen.

I was still thinking about it when Rochelle touched my arm.

"We thought you would cancel the tea party because of everything."

I gave her a broad smile.

"Yeah, I mean, I’m an empath, so obviously I feel bad about what happened. But I didn’t want to ruin this for you guys. You’ve been waiting so long, and I understand how you always put all your other work aside just for this day."

I gave them my little speech while watching their faces.

They all looked so sad, yet somehow appreciative of what I had said.

"Oh, you’re so nice," Rochelle said, immediately throwing her arms around me.

I hugged her back, although I couldn’t help worrying that she might have eaten something greasy and gotten it on her fingers before touching my hair.

"It’s okay, Rochelle. Don’t get too emotional," I told her, breaking the hug and walking over to sit down. "Come on, guys. Enjoy the tea party."

I smiled at everyone as Rochelle came over and sat beside me, gesturing for a server to bring her another glass of wine.

"So you’re not going to go see him? Have you even checked on him?" Rochelle asked.

"I’ll go and see her."

Then her words registered.

"Wait. What did you say? See him?"

It took me a moment to process what she had said, and I turned to her in confusion.

"Gigi, do you know what happened, right?"

Rochelle, still holding the drink the server had brought her, reached over and took my hand with a small gesture.

"Rochelle, I guess I know. I’m not sure," I said.

Suddenly, everything around me seemed to grow colder, even before I could figure out what she was actually talking about or why she was being so strange about it.

Everyone’s attention shifted back to me.

"There’s a video of it," one of the girls behind me gasped.

The moment the words left her mouth, my eyes widened.

Fear twisted through me as I wondered what Oliver had done.

Wait. Did he upload a video of their interaction?

She must have provoked him into making that decision.

All of those thoughts were racing through my head when my mother rushed back into the mansion.

"You’re awake," she said, already in tears.

"What’s going on, Mother?" I asked, slowly rising from the couch.

By then, everyone was staring at me with the same sorrowful expression, as if they had finally realized that I truly had no idea what had happened.

"It’s Oliver."

That was all my mother managed to say before her body gave out.

Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor, passing out right in front of me.