Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Theodore:

Jaguar had called us that night and asked us to come take Verity.

Everything descended into chaos after that.

The fact that Oliver had violated the dignity of our home had terrified the women around me had left me completely lost.

It only made everything uglier for all of us.

"Did you guys know there was a secret sting operation against my brother?" Gigi asked.

Jaguar and I were sitting with her on my balcony.

She looked completely shattered.

I had never seen Gigi cry for this long.

Her eyes were swollen, and the exhaustion on her face was impossible to miss.

"No, we didn’t," Jaguar answered honestly.

But Gigi didn’t seem to believe us.

She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest as another tear slid down her cheek.

"I’m not going to defend my brother. He did something horrible. But did your brother not think about what all of this would do to me?" she asked, unfolding her arms and gesturing with her hands.

"I think it was more about the victims."

The moment I said it, Gigi shot me a sharp look.

I immediately shifted in my seat.

"But of course he should’ve thought about you too. I mean, those videos shouldn’t have been exposed to the entire world. No one should have to suffer that kind of public humiliation."

I didn’t even know what I was saying.

I didn’t believe that.

What I really wanted was for Oliver to be held accountable.

I wanted him to suffer the consequences of everything he’d done.

But Gigi didn’t need to hear that from me.

Oliver had gotten his karma. That didn’t mean Gigi deserved to suffer because of it.

Ragnar could’ve given him the worst punishment imaginable without dragging the entire family through it.

"This breaks me," Gigi began, finally unfolding her arms and placing a hand over her chest. "Do you know what this is doing to our family? People are throwing insults at us."

She sucked in a sharp breath and closed her eyes.

"While I was coming here, people were saying that I should be put through the same humiliation."

The moment those words left her mouth, rage shot straight to my head.

"Who said that to you? Fucking give me his name."

I snapped so loudly that my own voice cut through the air like a blade.

"So you defend him, and then you leave me behind so that he comes after me in anger?"

Gigi’s voice crushed me.

I looked at Jaguar, who glanced at Gigi before deciding to stay silent.

"Anyway, I know my brother is a scumbag, but my parents are old. They don’t understand any of this. Even if they slapped him themselves, they’d still want to see him. Can you please ask Ragnar to at least let my parents see their son?"

I guessed Gigi still didn’t understand the severity of the situation.

She was right about one thing. Any parent would want to see their son.

But Oliver was a disgusting creature.

Why would his parents still want to see him after everything he’d done?

"Gigi, I feel for you. I really do. And I don’t think you should have to suffer because of your brother. But the truth is, your brother made his own choices." Jaguar hissed.

"The way he behaved and what he did were incredibly wrong. It’s really not our place to say anything to Ragnar. Oliver is a criminal now. Once he’s transferred to prison, you and your parents can visit him."

Thankfully, Jaguar said it before I had to.

I didn’t have to speak at all.

The way Gigi stared at him was unsettling enough on its own.

She looked disgusted. Or maybe she was simply hurt.

I couldn’t really tell what she was feeling.

"Okay," she replied, her voice breaking.

"You guys stay here and talk. I’ll be back soon," I said, excusing myself before hurrying out of the room.

There was one person I needed to speak to more than anyone else.

Verity.

I’d been struggling to gather the courage to face her.

She had stood up for Jenna and taken an enormous risk to expose Oliver.

I didn’t know whether I should be proud of her or worried about what she’d gotten herself into.

When I went toward Verity’s living room, I realized she wasn’t there.

So I went inside and sat down to wait for her.

A little while later, she appeared looking gloomy, holding a warm glass of milk in her hand.

She stopped when she saw me, but then lowered her eyes sadly and walked toward her bedroom.

I didn’t say anything.

I waited.

The moment she opened the door and stepped inside, I followed her in.

"Please, I need to rest," she said immediately, dismissing me as she turned her face away.

"You’re upset," I murmured, trying to approach her, but she clearly wasn’t in the mood or the condition to accept any affection from me right now.

"Some recent events have brought me down a little," she replied without even looking at me.

"I was going to come to you."

The moment I said it, she looked down at the floor and started laughing bitterly.

That was when I realized that whatever place I had managed to make for myself in her heart, I had probably lost it all.

"No, no, it’s okay. I understand. You needed to go to Gigi first because it’s very clear to me that Gigi comes first in your life."

I stared at Verity in surprise.

I had never thought she would have a problem with Gigi, but now the situation has become far more complicated.

At first, Gigi had been the victim.

But now we were learning that Verity had suffered abuse too and had endured Oliver’s attempts to do the same thing to her.

Just because she had managed to escape didn’t mean she hadn’t been abused.

Oliver had tried many times to do to Verity what Justin had done to Gigi.

And it hadn’t been because of revenge.

Oliver was simply a terrible person.

He had done the same thing to Jenna, and now we were discovering there were probably many other girls we didn’t even know about yet.

So in a way, Verity was on one side and Gigi on the other, but both of them had been in the same boat.

The only difference was that our connection with Gigi ran deeper, while what I had with Verity was something entirely different.