Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

I had no idea what was going on in the mansion after that.

Gigi’s mother catching me outside her room had already been bad enough.

Then there was everything I’d overheard.

I didn’t know what to think anymore.

I kept remembering what O had told me. He didn’t trust Gigi, no matter what.

Even after she had proven herself to be a victim, he still didn’t believe her.

Now I was confused too.

What troubled me most was how much of Gigi’s story we could actually believe, especially when it came to what she’d experienced with Rocky.

She claimed she’d been kidnapped, and Ragnar and Theodore had definitely found her in terrible condition.

In fact, they had caught the criminal in the act.

If they hadn’t rescued Gigi when they did, she could have died.

A delay of even a minute might have been enough.

I was sitting alone in my room, turning all of this over in my head, when a hard knock at the door startled me so badly that my phone nearly slipped from my hands.

"Who is it?" I called, but no one answered.

The knock had been so aggressive that I hesitated to open the door. I had no idea who was waiting on the other side.

After a moment, I climbed out of bed and approached it.

The second I opened the door, I found Gigi’s mother standing in the doorway.

Behind her, Gigi was sitting on the living room couch, crying.

"Is everything okay?" I asked in confusion.

For a second, I wondered if this was still about her accusing me of listening to their conversation.

"What did you say to Oliver?" she screamed.

I gripped the doorframe and steadied myself before glancing past them.

In the distance, I spotted Ragnar approaching from near the end of the hall.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You were the last person who went to see him, weren’t you? What did you say to my son that made him fall into a coma?" she shouted.

I immediately covered my mouth in shock.

Of course, I already knew why Oliver had slipped into a coma.

It was because of whatever O had given him.

I’d known this could happen even before the news reached me, long before anyone had made it public.

I had already expected this outcome.

"I don’t know what I could’ve said," I replied, forcing my voice to shake as though I were close to tears. "Why would anything I said put him into a coma? I don’t think I have that kind of power."

I swallowed hard, making sure I looked frightened by the way she was screaming at me.

"Come on. You’re leaving. You won’t stay here another day."

Stella grabbed my arm and began dragging me away.

At first, I was about to pull free, but the moment I saw Ragnar enter the wing, I deliberately let my body go completely limp.

That only made Stella drag me harder before shoving me toward the exit.

I fell right at Ragnar’s feet.

I didn’t get up.

I stayed there with my head lowered for a moment before slowly lifting my face to look at him.

Ragnar stood over me with his fists clenched, his head slightly bowed, and his eyes locked intensely on mine.

Then he looked up at Stella.

"Get out of my mansion."

His firm command silenced Gigi’s whimpers.

Ragnar crouched down, took hold of both my arms, and helped me to my feet.

"I swear I didn’t do anything," I told him.

My lips trembled as I made sure I looked completely shaken, wanting Ragnar to see just how frightened I appeared.

He placed one arm around me and moved me behind him.

I deliberately pinched a small fold of his coat between my fingers, half hiding behind him as I peeked at the mother and daughter.

Gigi rose from the couch and stared at us.

"What did you just say to my mother?" she demanded.

It was Gigi who challenged Ragnar, while Stella remained silent, staring at him in shock.

"I said get out of my house. She cannot treat my guest like this," Ragnar snapped.

Stella flinched behind her daughter.

"She’s a mother, and she’s hurting. That’s why she’s behaving this way," Gigi replied in disbelief.

Of course.

The invisible shield that had protected them for years was finally disappearing. For once, they were being questioned.

"She’s doing this to a victim," Ragnar said sharply. "Victims of her own son."

Gigi froze.

"Instead of going to Verity and apologizing for what her son did to her throughout her childhood and teenage years, instead of going to Jenna and apologizing for what happened to her, your mother is screaming at them and hitting them."

His voice hardened.

"And you expect me to ignore that? You want me to understand your mother’s feelings while completely overlooking what her behavior is doing to the victims?"

Ragnar’s words struck Gigi one after another.

Her eyes widened, and the color slowly drained from her face.

She had probably never imagined that the man she took so much pride in would begin pulling his support away from her, little by little.

"Is everything okay here?"

Theodore’s voice suddenly came from behind me.

I turned and saw Theodore and Jaguar standing together at the entrance to the wing.

Their eyes moved from me to Gigi and her mother.

"Well, your brother is throwing us out of the house," Gigi announced, immediately turning to the brothers for support.

"No, Ragnar didn’t do that."

This time, I carefully defended him.

I stepped away from Ragnar so I could stand where everyone in the living room could see me.

Every pair of eyes turned in my direction.

"Ragnar was just upset— because Stella was trying to throw —me out of the mansion," I explained, deliberately letting myself hiccup between words. "He never asked Gigi to leave. I promise. He respects— her a lot. He’s just angry."

I paused again, pretending to struggle with another hiccup.

"You’re throwing Verity out of her own mansion?" Theodore demanded from Stella, making my heart skip a beat.