Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

The next morning, I woke up with a terrible headache.

Of course I did. I had cried myself to sleep.

I hadn’t said a word when I got home. I had simply gone straight to my room and broken down.

Standing beneath the shower, I kept wondering what was wrong with me.

Or rather, what was wrong with the Moon Goddess?

Why would she do this to me? Why would she betray me like this?

I was supposed to take revenge on these men.

They were the same people who had made my brother’s life a living hell, pushing him to the point where he believed taking his own life was his only way out.

And now I had felt the mate bond with both of them.

That was what made everything so much worse.

My head was completely fucked at that point. I was angry at everything and everyone.

Even after I woke up, I didn’t want to leave my room or see anyone’s face.

I stayed in bed, tossing and turning for what felt like hours.

Eventually, I forced myself up, took another shower, changed my clothes, and then climbed straight back into bed, still refusing to go outside.

A sudden knock on the door jolted me.

How long could I really hide in here?

It had to be Jenna.

She was probably here to talk about last night, maybe to tell me whether she had liked anyone at the party or if something had happened after I left.

Trying to fix my mood, I pushed myself off the bed and went to open the door.

But it wasn’t Jenna.

Of course it wasn’t.

"What are you doing here, Theodore?" I asked.

I kept one hand firmly on the doorframe, making it clear that he was not welcome to invite himself inside.

"I need to speak with you."

Something in Theodore’s voice told me he had come here ready for an argument.

I gave him a tired look before stepping aside.

"If anyone comes by and sees you in my room, you’re the one explaining it."

He didn’t argue.

The moment he stepped inside, he turned to face me, planting his hands on his hips.

"What?" I asked.

"You seriously don’t know what I’m bothered about?"

Of course I knew. I just chose to act nonchalant.

Was he really forgetting that this was exactly how he and Jaguar used to respond whenever I complained about how close they were to Gigi?

Whenever I told them it bothered me to watch them act all lovey-dovey with her?

And now, after what I had learned, Theodore expected sympathy from me.

"Oh, right. You think I was supposed to come and tell you something that wasn’t my place to talk about."

Before I could continue, he raised a hand to silence me.

"Come on, Verity. It was your place. How were my brother and I supposed to know what was going on when we both had feelings for you? You knew we did. You should have talked to us."

His jaw tightened, and his chest rose and fell with each heavy breath.

"Verity, I just need to ask you something."

He turned his face away, drawing in another strained breath before finally asking, "Did you and my brother get physical?"

I said nothing.

Even the sound of me swallowing seemed unbearably loud in the silence.

"Seriously?"

He turned back to me, taking my silence for the answer it was.

"Oh God, Verity. You played me!"

It finally seemed to register.

He started pacing across the room, dragging a hand through his hair before gripping it in frustration.

"I was single. I wasn’t dating either of you. It wasn’t cheating," I argued, although I had no intention of explaining myself too much.

He needed to feel betrayed.

He needed to understand even a fraction of what my brother had felt when Gigi betrayed him and they sided with her.

They had acted as though my brother was the problem simply because he wanted answers from the woman who had hurt him.

"Verity, he is my brother!" Theodore snapped. "You were sleeping with my brother. Does that not register with you? This isn’t about whether you were single or exploring your options. He’s my brother."

I had heard enough.

I wasn’t going to stand there and let him act as though he deserved empathy when none of them had shown any to my brother.

Hadn’t they sent their men to humiliate him when all he wanted was to confront Gigi and ask why she had betrayed him?

Fine.

Now I would humiliate Theodore the way they had humiliated my brother.

I didn’t have guards or warriors to do the dirty work for me, but I didn’t need them.

I could do it myself.

"Didn’t you get physical with your brother’s girlfriend?"

The words had barely left my mouth when Theodore went completely still.

"What?"

His entire expression changed.

"What the fuck, Verity? Are you accusing me of crossing a line with Gigi?"

Of course. He was doing exactly what I expected, focusing on my accusation instead of his own actions.

"Save it, Theodore," I hissed. "You don’t need to know how I found out. I know boundaries were crossed between the two of you. I know there were things you both felt the need to apologize for afterward while trying to comfort each other."

As I spoke, the color slowly drained from his face.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

If he and Gigi had already discussed what happened between them, then he was probably searching his memory now, trying to figure out where they had talked about it and who could possibly have overheard them.

"The thing is, you put me on this pedestal and came here to question me when you’ve made the same kind of mistakes. And I knew about yours."

His face grew even paler.

"Yet instead of cutting you out of my life, I tried to understand that mistakes happen. But you have the nerve to come into my room, stand in front of me, and lecture me about right and wrong?"