Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

It felt as though everything was happening in fast-forward.

With one powerful blow, Jaguar broke the door down, and we rushed inside.

Then we saw it.

A horrifying sight I knew I would never forget.

It wasn’t easy for me. Every time an innocent soul suffered like this, it dragged me back into the past.

Diana was already gone.

Probably for hours.

She had taken her last breath long before we found her. She lay there motionless, the poison beside her.

My entire body began to tremble as Rochelle screamed behind me.

Her parents rushed into the room moments later and completely broke down. There was screaming, crying, cursing at the world.

Her mother kept trying to wake her, refusing to accept what was right in front of her, while I slowly backed away from Diana’s body.

I started shaking so violently that everything around me suddenly felt cold.

And all I could see was my brother.

One thought kept repeating in my head.

She must have suffered the same way he did.

After taking the poison, she must have writhed on the floor just like my brother had. Maybe she had even believed someone would open the door in time.

Maybe she had waited for someone to come save her.

My breathing became uneven, and small whimpers escaped me before I felt someone grab hold of me and pull me away from the chaos.

Jaguar wrapped an arm around me and dragged me out of the room.

"No, Jaguar, wait. We can take him to the hospital. He’ll survive. We just need enough money."

I didn’t know what had happened to me.

I’d completely lost control.

Jaguar stared at me, his eyes widening as though he had never seen me like this before.

"I’m telling you, there’s still a way. We just need to take him to the hospital. Keep the money ready, and this time, let’s not go to Oliver and his father, okay?"

My words came out between frantic breaths as I began to hyperventilate again.

"What are you talking about? It’s Diana. Diana is the one who’s dead."

Jaguar gripped both my arms and shook me, trying to snap me out of it.

I blinked and looked around.

I wasn’t at home.

It wasn’t my brother lying in that room after taking the poison.

It was Diana.

Yet somehow, the pain felt exactly the same.

"This isn’t fair," I whispered.

"I mean... Diana," I quickly added.

Everyone around me was allowed to openly grieve the people they loved.

I wasn’t.

I had to pretend I hated my brother because of what he had done to Gigi. I couldn’t cry for him. I couldn’t mourn him the way everyone else could mourn the people they had lost.

And that only made me angrier at Gigi.

She had taken even that away from me.

The right to grieve my own brother.

It was unfair.

So painfully unfair.

"I need to call my brothers, okay? There are some important calls I have to make. We need to take care of her parents, and we need to look after Rochelle too. You’re with me, right?"

Jaguar cupped my face in his hands as he asked.

I nodded, but I kept zoning out.

"You know what? I’ll take you with me, okay?"

He took my hand and led me downstairs.

I clung tightly to his arm, my nails digging into his skin, but he never complained.

Once we were outside, he settled me into the backseat of his car and began calling his brothers to tell them what had happened.

After that, I rested my head against the backrest and eventually fell asleep.

I woke up briefly every now and then. At one point, I saw Ragnar and Theodore arrive. They both glanced at me in the back seat before continuing their conversation with Jaguar.

Then the ambulance came.

There was so much noise.

All I wanted was to get as far away from there as possible. The sound was getting to me. It reminded me too much of my brother.

Every few minutes, the same thought crept back into my head.

What was I doing sitting in this car?

I should have been outside.

I should have been riding in the ambulance with my brother.

Then I would have to remind myself that it wasn’t my brother who had suffered this time.

It was another innocent soul.

After a while, I couldn’t take it anymore.

A strange ache began spreading through my body, and before I knew it, Jaguar and Theodore were climbing into the front of the car, one taking the driver’s seat and the other sitting beside him.

"We should take her home," Theodore murmured.

"Yeah. You should’ve seen her. She completely broke down. It was awful," Jaguar replied.

"Really? What happened?"

I opened my eyes just slightly.

I wasn’t pretending to be asleep. I was genuinely drifting in and out, as though my body was trying to shut everything down long enough for me to calm myself.

At the same time, I was starting to feel feverish.

"I think she got lost in her head and started thinking about her brother," Jaguar explained.

Then silence filled the car.

It lasted for what felt like five whole minutes as we drove home.

That silence was the worst part.

Because when Theodore finally spoke again, goosebumps rose across my skin.

"Do you remember what we did?"

His voice was heavy with guilt.

Jaguar said nothing at first.

Then he cleared his throat.

"We did nothing. Remember? We’ve already talked about this."

There was a sharp warning in his voice, almost like a command for his brother to keep his mouth shut.

"Yeah. You’re right. We did nothing."

Theodore agreed far too quickly.

I wanted to stay quiet and avoid drawing attention to myself, but that became impossible when the pain returned.

This time, I couldn’t hold it in.

I shot upright and reached for the passenger seat, desperate for something to grip as I clenched my fist around the edge.

"Verity, are you okay?"

Both brothers jolted and turned toward me.

It was completely dark outside as we drove along the empty road.

A moan of pain escaped me.

"I don’t know what’s happening to my body. I’m in so much pain," I gasped, my head falling back as another shudder tore through me.

"Oh my God," Theodore breathed.

"She’s going through her first transition."

Those words frightened me even more than the pain itself.