Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

”Thank you so much,” I said to the locksmith as he changed the lock.

I had waited for Jaguar to leave before replacing it.

In fact, I had waited an entire day.

I had done practically nothing except research some of the other things that had been going on.

For example, using my fake profile, I found out that Gigi had been really upset that night when I didn’t let Jaguar attend the dinner.

She had made several vague posts about how she had done so much for people, yet they didn’t care.

Theodore had responded with a sad emoji.

Ragnar, however, had been silent.

There had been no activity on his profile for as long as I could tell, probably since the day he created it.

He only had associates, business owners, company contacts, and a few alphas added.

Practically everyone on his friends list was someone he either worked with or had a professional connection to.

He wasn’t the type to add random people he met online or someone he happened to bump into at a coffee shop.

He did have Gigi added, and in his bio, he had listed her as his fiancée.

I wasn’t sure if they’d had a ceremony yet because I’d never seen a ring on her finger.

Still, he was calling her his fiancée, probably because she was doing the same.

Gigi’s bio was incredibly similar to Ragnar’s.

So I assumed Gigi had written it.

”Hey Verity, Wait up!”

I was about to head to work when I heard my neighbor call out to me.

I turned and watched her come outside, smiling from ear to ear.

Everyone around was staring at us, probably confused about why she was being so friendly and talkative with me.

There was only one reason for it, and I knew exactly what it was.

”Hey,” I greeted, smiling with my eyes.

”Guess what?” Mrs. Baker exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

I waited for her to continue.

”My son-in-law got your money back!” she announced proudly.

She looked so pleased with herself that I could only stare at her in silence.

”Um, he got my money back? I’m sorry, did I lose any money?” I asked, trying to sound completely clueless even though I knew exactly what she meant.

”Oh, no. Remember when somebody stole your things? Well, my son-in-law went out of his way, risked his life, and found the thieves. They had already sold most of the stuff, but there was some money left. So he took it from them and brought it to me.”

She pulled an envelope from her pocket and held it out.

”And he said, ’Give it to Ms. Verity because this is her hard-earned money.’”

I smiled brightly.

”Oh my God, thank you so much,” I said as I accepted the envelope.

”It must have been so hard for him to do it,” I said dramatically, watching her with fake tears in my eyes.

”Yeah, it was really hard. But he did it. You know, we don’t like injustice.” She pouted.

A smile appeared on one side of her cheek and gently tugged at the corner of her lips.

”Thank you so much. But what about those thieves?”

The moment I asked that, I watched realization hit her.

Maybe I wasn’t as clueless as she thought.

”They started crying at his feet,” she mumbled.

I placed a hand on my chest, mirroring her expression by tilting my head and raising my eyebrows.

”Yeah, the thief said his mother was sick and that he needed money and all that. So, you know, my son-in-law, that poor boy, is an orphan. He gets really attached to people. He felt so bad that he was like, ’You know what? I forgive you.’”

Mrs. Baker lowered her voice to imitate Tom, though he had never sounded anything like that.

His voice reminded me of a dying frog.

”Oh, I’m so glad he didn’t press charges,” I said, reaching out and gently squeezing her hand.

”Thank you so much, Mrs. Baker,” I murmured.

Then I checked the envelope.

God forbid this woman thought I was a fool who wouldn’t notice.

There was only two hundred dollars inside when everything they’d stolen from me had been worth far more than that.

”You know what? Tell Tom to find that thief and give him this money for his mother’s illness. I hope she gets well.”

I handed one hundred dollars back to her.

Her eyes widened.

What they didn’t know was that I had been making an investment.

I wasn’t stupid enough to waste my hard-earned money on thieves like them.

But I was planning to get it all back with interest.

The only problem was that they didn’t realize they had become part of my nasty little revenge plan.

”I just wanted to start your day with some good news. Have a good day.”

Mrs. Baker hurried back inside, probably eager to tell everyone that I’d bought their entire stupid story.

I watched them bring home the television they’d bought with my money.

Of course, they didn’t have much to return.

And now that she’d gotten another hundred dollars back, she was even happier.

I tucked the rest of the money into my bag and headed for the train so I could get to work.

I was going to see those faces again.

It was always the same.

A wave of anxiety would hit me.

But the moment I saw them, the anxiety turned into anger.

And once I fooled them , my confidence shot right back up.

Today was no different.

I was anxious, worried that I might slip up or make a mistake.

But when I arrived, I realized it was going to be worse than usual.

Gigi was standing right at the entrance.

She was checking on a few things, probably deciding on new décor because she wanted to be involved in the setup so badly.

Then I spotted Jaguar in the distance.

He was standing on the ground floor with Theodore, discussing something.

And I remembered his words.

That he would have done anything for me from the moment he first saw me.

But I also remembered how fake it all had been.