Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Jaguar:

Ever since I had seen Verity trembling, clutching her blanket as she tried to lower herself to the floor, then squeezing herself into the narrow space between the bed and the bedside table when she had nowhere else to go, I had been restless.

The whole incident kept replaying in my head.

Even when Theodore and I called Gigi into the room and tried to deal with everything, my mind kept drifting back to Verity.

Eventually, Theodore excused himself and left, but I still couldn’t concentrate on Gigi.

"You know, I feel like I’m so broken. Everything has changed. I feel like everyone is going to hate me," Gigi complained, crying as she buried her face in her hands.

"I just wish you two had at least told me you were investigating him. I would’ve helped you catch him myself, but humiliating our family like this wasn’t right," she cried again.

I watched her in silence.

It wasn’t that I didn’t understand her pain. The problem was that her brother was the reason Verity had suffered.

Gigi had every right to be upset.

Anyone would be devastated to discover that a brother they loved so deeply had turned out to be such a bastard.

She needed time to mourn the relationship she thought she had with him.

But what was I supposed to do?

I couldn’t get Verity out of my head.

"You gonna say something?" Gigi asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I looked up at her and shook my head.

"I don’t know what to say. I’m still so shocked. Who would’ve thought Oliver would turn out this way?"

It had become my default response whenever I realized I had zoned out.

I had practically rehearsed it in my head so that if anyone asked me something while I wasn’t really listening, especially when I couldn’t focus on what they were saying, I could just give them that answer.

"Anyway, you should go talk to Ragnar. Stay with him. He’ll comfort you," I suggested as I rose from the chair.

My whole body ached. Maybe I was coming down with a fever too.

But the real problem was my head. It felt like it was about to split open.

Verity had suffered so much, while all this time, we had been enjoying ourselves at parties and living as though nothing was wrong.

The worst part was that I couldn’t even bring myself to face her.

The guilt was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even think about Gigi properly.

"Okay, but I’ll come to you when I need you, okay?" Gigi said, approaching me and suddenly wrapping her arms around my waist.

But I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even take my hands out of my pockets. I didn’t hug her back.

She pulled away and looked at me, annoyance flashing in her eyes.

I could only give her a weak, broken smile.

It wasn’t until I watched her walk through the door that I realized what I had done.

I should have hugged her back.

She was my friend. She was my Gigi, my closest friend.

And yet somehow, even while thinking about Gigi, my mind had wandered straight back to Verity, the woman I loved so much.

The realization hit me all at once.

Even when I tried to focus on someone else, somehow, everything kept leading me back to Verity.

Outside, I still couldn’t understand what was happening, but for some reason, I was getting angry.

It felt like there was something from the past involving Gigi and Verity, something I should have remembered.

Like I had known Verity before, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing came back to me.

"Do you remember when all that stuff with Gigi and Justin was happening? Did anyone ever talk to us about Verity? Apart from those few times I saw her with Justin from a distance?"

I asked because my memory from that time was terrible.

"Yeah, you body-shamed her a few times, but other than that, personally? One-on-one? I don’t remember anything," he replied. "I mean, you were usually drunk, and I was usually passed out."

I frowned, almost frustrated with myself.

"What the hell? Why can’t I remember anything? There’s something in the back of my mind that keeps telling me I met Verity before. Oh," I groaned, running my hands through my hair and over my face before taking off my shirt and throwing it to the side.

I walked over to my closet and pulled out a pair of black shorts, slipping into them.

"Well, if you hadn’t been doing so many drugs back then, maybe you would remember."

I clenched my fist, lowered myself onto the edge of the bed, then threw myself backward with my arms spread out and my feet still touching the floor as I stared at the ceiling.

"Don’t you think Ragnar’s being weird too? He’s never really asked what’s going on between us."

That thought brought me back to something Ragnar had said before.

He had practically hinted that he already knew there was something going on between Verity and me.

It had been after they returned from the trip, when he specifically asked me to drop something off at her place.

I had agreed immediately because I wanted an excuse, any excuse, to see her.

"I don’t know, man. You can never really tell with Ragnar," I replied.

I must have fallen asleep right there.

By the time I slipped into a deep sleep, hours had passed.

Then, sometime in the middle of the night, my phone suddenly started ringing.

Confused and barely awake, I answered the call.

"Hello?" My voice came out rough and irritated.

"Your Highness, it’s warrior Wicks from the c-border."

I frowned, still disoriented as I tried to understand why someone from the border would be calling me at this hour.

Then I realized I had been sprawled across the bed for hours.

I should have been awake. I should have been with Verity, comforting her.

But how could I?

Somehow, I felt responsible for everything she had endured.

"Your Highness, there’s been an incident. We have witnessed a purple Rolls-Royce heading toward the cliff. It drove straight off the edge and disappeared into the abyss."

For a moment, I simply lay there, letting his words register.

But only one thing truly sank in.

Someone in that car had driven off a cliff.

And there was one woman I knew who was heavily associated with that particular car.

Gigi.