Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

I had been scratching at the inner sides of my fingers the entire time as I told my story to Alpha King Ragnar.

”When my brother needed medicine, the doctors refused to help him. They wanted the money first, the full payment. So I had gone to Oliver for the money, and he stripped me naked. Then he tried to force himself on me and humiliate me, until his mother arrived and saved me. After that, he caught up with me on the road and tried to do it again, but I managed to hit him on the back of the head and run away. Even before that, there had been a lot of bullying about my body and, well, him trying to force himself on me.”

After telling the whole story in detail, I had to give a short statement at the end while Ragnar recorded me on his phone.

So this time, I kept it brief.

However, even when I had told him the full story, I hadn’t mentioned Mr. Gavin.

Mr. Gavin was a huge name.

He was doing a lot of beneficial work for women, and women loved him.

If there was any royal beta people were willing to die for, apart from the Alpha King brothers, it was Mr. Gavin.

So saying his name and accusing him of something so serious would have been a huge risk for me.

Ragnar already suspected Oliver, which was why he had given me a chance to tell my side of the story against him.

But he had never suspected Mr. Gavin.

Mentioning his name could ruin my entire case.

Besides, everyone would have their time.

Oliver had simply been a little too impatient.

Somehow, his time had come much sooner than the others’.

Once I was finished, I reached for the glass of wine on the table in front of me and held it in my shaky hands.

The minute I took a sip, I realized just how badly I was trembling, as if I were reliving those moments all over again.

I raised my eyes and looked at Ragnar.

He seemed to be seething with anger. His neck had turned completely red.

He sat still on the sofa, both hands stretched out and resting on the armrests, but they had curled into fists.

His grip had torn some of the fabric.

”So, yeah. That’s what happened,” I added, clearing my throat and looking away.

But I kept my spine straight.

I did not want to look helpless or like a victim, even though I was one.

”Why didn’t you tell us?” he hissed, causing me to snap my gaze up at him.

I stared at him blankly.

”Well, don’t you already know? Because of what happened with Gigi—I was—”

I was about to give him the same excuse I had given before for not breaking up with Roman when Ragnar grunted.

”That is bullshit. There is no way you did it for that. One person being abused doesn’t mean another person’s abuse gets cancelled out, and I think you’re educated enough to know that.”

His harsh words made me gulp.

Then I reached for the bottle and started pouring myself another glass of wine.

”Easy on that,” he said.

His body barely moved, but the way he kept clenching and unclenching his fists was frightening.

But honestly, I needed a drink.

Otherwise, I would spend the rest of the night thinking about what had happened in the past and crying myself to sleep.

”Why are you acting like it would have made any difference back then? Isn’t that why you left me alone in my room when I was bruised all over too?”

The minute I reminded him of that memory, of how he himself had punished me because of Gigi, I watched him pull his hands away from the armrests and run them through his hair.

Then he tilted his head back and got up from the couch.

This time, he covered his face with both hands before lowering them and staring at me in silence.

”I cannot believe you let us sit and eat with that abusive piece of shit.”

Ragnar’s eyes began to change color, and then I noticed something else.

There was a quick flicker in his eyes.

His pupils seemed to narrow sideways, almost like curtains closing, turning into thin lines before returning to normal.

I didn’t know what it meant, but it lasted only a second.

Then he closed his eyes and stretched his neck.

”What did you mean when you said I was responsible for what Justin did to Gigi?” I changed the subject because I still had questions for him.

He stopped stretching his neck and looked at me again.

”When did I say that?” he asked.

”The other day, when I woke up after the whole Lycan drama,” I replied.

He nodded and clicked his tongue.

”Justin used to tell Gigi that you had complained about her mistreating you and that you wouldn’t rest until he punished her. So he used to punish her because of you.”

I had never heard anything so delusional in my life.

”That’s not true. He -—— I wasn’t like that.”

I had to bite my tongue and not say anything in my brother’s defense because that would look really suspicious.

In truth, I wanted to say that my brother was not like that.

Ragnar sighed, then shoved a hand into his pants pocket and pulled out his phone.

He did something on it before turning the screen toward me.

Sure enough, there were screenshots of Justin’s conversations with Gigi.

In those messages, Justin told Gigi that I had said if he did not punish her, I would stop eating and stop taking care of myself.

He also claimed that he was angry with Gigi because she had mistreated me.

But none of that made sense to me because it had never happened.

I had never instigated him to go and hit her.

The text messages were right there in front of me.