Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Theodore:

I wanted to sit with Verity, take care of her, spend more time with her, all of it.

But the minute I reached her room and set the tray down, my phone beeped.

There was just one sentence from Ragnar:

Brother: Come to my room now!!!

I gulped, staring at the screen.

"I’ll be back in a minute," I told Verity, turning and briskly leaving the room.

When I reached Ragnar’s room, I realized he had left the door open for me.

"Don’t bother knocking. It’s not like you remember any rules or regulations anyway," Ragnar called from inside.

He must have heard my footsteps.

I stepped inside and slowly closed the door behind me, though I didn’t lock it.

I mean, I needed easy access to the outside if things got to the point where I had to run for my life.

Ragnar sat in the corner of the sofa, his arms resting on the armrests and one leg crossed over the other.

His body leaned back, with only the side of his face illuminated by the warm light of the lamp.

I could already tell I was in a huge trouble.

"Yes, brother? You asked for me?" I asked, approaching the sofa and taking a seat across from him.

"So, since when have you started lying to me so blatantly, tell me if there is anything else I should be concerned about."

There was no anger in Ragnar’s voice, only sadness.

"I..." I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, resting my elbows on my thighs as I rubbed my hands together. "Actually, she was crying a lot, and I thought..."

I began repeating the same story I had told him earlier while defending Verity.

Ragnar shook his head and closed his eyes, a clear sign that I was heading in the wrong direction.

"I know the truth," he uttered, causing me to frown.

"It wasn’t you. Someone else asked Verity to do their dirty job. But we’re not going to talk about that." Ragnar spoke hastily, cutting me off before I could keep lying and embarrass myself further.

I tried to respond, but no words came out.

"I just want to ask you something." Ragnar cleared his throat as he slowly lifted his hands from the armrests, fiddling with his cufflinks for no apparent reason.

"You can ask me anything," I told him, even though I was deeply ashamed that he had caught me in such an obvious lie.

Ragnar placed a great deal of importance on trust, and betraying his trust was the worst thing I could have done. He had done so much for us.

"Tell me again, why? Why am I hearing things about your personal life from other people?" His voice was so quiet that it only made me focus harder on every word.

"I don’t understand what you mean," I replied, growing more anxious.

"Theodore, is anything going on between you and Verity?"

That was Ragnar.

Sometimes he approached things carefully, and other times he threw out a blunt question without warning.

His words hit me like a wrecking ball.

But the timing couldn’t have been better.

We had only just learned how much Verity had endured.

Before that, I knew she was forbidden fruit simply because she was Justin’s sister.

But now that Gigi’s brother had hurt other people too, Ragnar couldn’t exactly keep treating Verity like she was taboo.

If he did, then the same judgment would have to fall on his own girlfriend.

People would have to say she deserved the same hatred Verity had received.

It wasn’t that I wanted Gigi to be hated.

I just believed Oliver being exposed had helped clear Verity’s name and changed the way people looked at her character.

"But I just want an honest answer," Ragnar said, stretching one arm across the armrest again as he rubbed his thumb and index finger together.

I closed my eyes for a moment, opened them again, and nodded.

"I like her."

The moment I said it, Ragnar’s fingers stopped moving, and his hand curled into a fist.

The reaction was obvious enough that I heard his knuckles crack.

"Does she know?"

I shifted in my seat again at his question.

For a moment, I wondered what the safest answer would be.

I didn’t want Verity to lose her job or end up in a difficult position because of me.

"I don’t know," I lied.

If my brother had a problem with me, I could handle it.

But if he objected to Verity, she would be the one in trouble.

"Well, then talk to her and ask what she thinks about it."

Ragnar had practically spoken the exact words I wanted to hear.

A smile had barely started to form on my face when he pointed at me.

"But before that, I want you to have a conversation about this with Jaguar."

I didn’t know why he had said that, but there was something strange about it.

"Actually, I was thinking I should talk to Verity alone first. If we make things official, or if she tells me she loves me, then I’ll tell everyone. I just don’t want to make a fool of myself and then later..." I paused, leaving the sentence unfinished because I truly wanted to speak with Verity first.

Ragnar shook his head and cracked his knuckles, rubbing his hands together.

"No. Don’t do that. First, you’ll talk to Jaguar, and you’ll do it in my presence. It’ll be just the three of us, and we’ll have a proper conversation. You’ll tell us honestly what your plan is, where this is going, and how involved you are with Verity."

Ragnar was confusing me, but whatever this was, at least it meant things were moving forward.

So I immediately nodded, smiling.

"Thank you so much. Tons and tons," I replied happily, noticing Ragnar frown at how excited I was getting.

"I should go now." I pointed my thumb toward the door.

Ragnar gestured for me to leave.

But before I could even stand, Jaguar stormed into the room with his phone in his hand and his eyes wide.

He looked as though he had just woken from a deep sleep, wearing nothing but black shorts, his hair a mess.

"What is it?" Ragnar asked immediately.

"Gigi is gone."

That was all Jaguar said.

And I felt the blood drain from my veins.