Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

”They can be faked.”

I looked up at him, and he frowned.

”I mean, it’s just— he can’t use me as an excuse to abuse someone.”

I had to correct myself quickly because, in front of them, I had already admitted that I believed Gigi’s claims.

Defending Justin now would only make me look suspicious.

”Well, I checked them. Those chats were real. They were sent to Gigi. I took the screenshots myself.”

As he said that, my head started to spin.

This was Justin’s number.

And it wasn’t just the text messages.

There was also a picture of me sitting on my couch, looking all crumpled up, and I knew Justin had taken it.

I remembered that day, so I knew the picture had been taken by him.

But why had he sent it to Gigi, claiming that I was upset because he wasn’t punishing her?

In reality, I had only been playfully upset with him over something small, something so insignificant that I could not even remember it now.

”I swear, I never said anything to my brother. I didn’t even tell him the full extent of Oliver’s bullying,” I explained as I got to my feet.

Then I felt as though my heart might stop.

Had Justin really sent those messages and used me as an excuse?

If that was true, then what else had he done?

There was no way.

No way Justin would do that.

”I’m not sure what the truth is behind these text messages, but for now, I am investigating Oliver.”

Ragnar put the phone back into his pocket and clenched his fists again.

”And I will make sure he gets punished.”

He paused before saying the word ’punished.’

He said it with so much force that even I wondered what he would do to him.

”But you should have told us before because that asshole sat and ate with us,” he commented.

From his body language alone, it seemed like he would never willingly sit with a man like Oliver.

So that’s why he had reacted so aggressively toward Justin? Was it not only because of Gigi?

I was a little stunned.

”Anyway, I’ll need your phone. We need to run some tests. We’re confiscating Oliver’s phones as well,” he commented.

Then he scoffed to himself.

”We were going to do it in a few days, but I’ll send my warriors early in the morning to surprise him,” he hissed before clearing his throat and extending his hand for my phone.

Thankfully, I did not have any secrets on this phone.

The problem was that this phone had practically nothing on it.

No conversations, no history, nothing. That was why I handed it to him without thinking twice.

”If I still had my old phone and had given you my old phone, you probably would have found a lot more about Oliver too. Although I changed my phones and SIMs, so I don’t know how useful this one will be,” I commented.

He stared at the phone and nodded.

”It’s okay. I’ll make use of it,” he added under his breath, almost a little too secretly.

I wondered what he was planning.

He put the phone into his other pocket and walked away.

Taking a deep breath, I stared at the bottle of alcohol before grabbing the whole thing and walking into my room, chugging it down.

I shut the door and sat on the bed.

The alcohol was not helping either.

Every time I blinked, during that brief second when my eyes were closed, I felt as though Gavin and Oliver were watching me naked.

Hours passed, and I finally put the bottle down. I hadn’t drunk it all.

After the first few gulps, I had simply set it aside.

I sat on the bed and stared at the wall.

The time had come. Slowly but surely, everything would fall into place.

More specifically, I could not wait for Gigi to go through what I had gone through because it seemed like her brother was going to face the same fate mine had.

However, my brother was innocent.

There was no way I believed those messages.

Although they had been confirmed to have come from Justin and were not fake, there had to be some other truth behind them.

I closed my eyes, deciding to fall asleep, when a hard knock on the door jolted me awake.

I rushed toward the door, opened it, and found a very distraught Jenna standing there.

Her eyes were swollen, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Her cheeks were rosy, and her skin looked sore.

Her hair was messy, as if the wind had blown it all over the place.

I dragged her inside and quickly shut the door before anyone saw her.

”Where is your phone?” she asked, holding my hand.

”What?” I asked in confusion.

”Where is your phone?” she repeated, this time with much more urgency.

”Why?” I asked.

”There’s a video. There’s a video on your phone. You need to delete it, please.”

The minute she started begging me, alarm bells went off in my head.

”What kind of video?” I asked, taking a deep heavy breath.

”Please don’t ask me any questions. Just delete that video, please. If you don’t want me to be ashamed in front of you, don’t open it. Just delete it.”

Seeing her break down like that, everything started to make sense.

I held her arm and made her look up at me.

”Jenna? Is this the kind of video I think it is?” I demanded.

She stared at me with wide eyes before squeezing them shut and bawling.

”I didn’t make it, I swear. I was fooled.”

The moment I heard those words, my whole body shuddered.

All this time, I had known something was wrong. I just wished I had been firmer with her.

Or maybe this was why she had been acting this way. Maybe she had been dealing with this mess all along.

Then it struck me.

I grabbed her again and made her look at me.

”Is somebody blackmailing you?” I asked, watching her swallow hard.

She did not say a word, but her silence was enough.