Chapter 458-He Is Missing

Chapter 458: 458-He Is Missing

Verity:

She still hadn’t given up.

My wolf had been bothering me ever since I’d woken up that morning and stepped into the bathroom to take a shower.

She’d been buzzing in my ear ever since.

"What do you want me to do? Expose my game so soon?" I snapped at her as I reached for the coffee pot.

"Verity, this is the moment. We’ve already waited too long. Right now, everything is on fire, and the brothers are already suspicious of each other. We need to act before they come to an understanding and convince themselves that whatever happened was just a mistake made in the heat of the moment. Or worse, Theodore and Jaguar might decide to forgive you and come to terms with sharing you. We need to drive a bigger wedge between them, starting by isolating Ragnar from his brothers."

She continued before I could interrupt.

"You know he’s the main problem. He’s the brains behind everything, and he’s the one who stole your brother’s mate. I hope you haven’t forgotten how he killed his child just so he could be with Gigi."

My fingers tightened around the coffee mug as I lowered myself into one of the chairs at the small, two-seater dining table in the kitchen.

"I think it’s still too soon," I mumbled, unwilling to acknowledge the turmoil inside me.

Was I really losing my mind over Ragnar?

"You have a soft spot for him, don’t you? Wow. Shame on you," my wolf remarked.

I grabbed the mug and poured the remaining coffee down the sink.

"I’m getting late for the office," I told her.

But as I tried to move forward, my body suddenly resisted, and I realized what she was doing.

Art was stopping me.

"What the fuck are you doing? You can’t just take control of my life and my body when you haven’t even been here for me!" I shouted.

"And you think that was my choice?" she screamed back.

I fell silent.

"There’s something wrong with us, Verity. No wolf can simply choose to remain silent, okay? I had trouble coming forward, but I was always there emotionally. So you’d better not throw that in my face again just because you hate it when I speak the truth."

She paused before groaning.

"You love Ragnar."

There it was again. Her dragging Ragnar into everything.

"Look, I haven’t forgotten anything. I will punish them. And as for Ragnar, the worst punishment he could ever face would be watching his brothers tear each other apart, okay?"

I’d barely finished speaking when she started chuckling inside my head.

"So you’re not going to punish Ragnar the way you intend to punish Theodore and Jaguar?"

I stopped in my tracks, my hand reaching for the door.

"Then I guess you really haven’t been here after all. Because if you had, you’d know that their part in all of this was far worse than Ragnar’s."

With that, I walked out of the house, ready to head to the office.

The crazy thing was, even I had no idea how I would behave when I came face-to-face with Ragnar again.

But when I arrived at the office, I found that while everything seemed normal on the other two floors, ours was in complete disarray.

I learned that Theodore and Jaguar had arrived a little late, but they’d already settled into their work. Our floor, however, was a different story.

"Bruno? Would you please listen to me for a moment?" I called out to him as he stood discussing something with an employee.

He turned around and approached me with a nod.

"What’s going on?" he asked.

"Where the hell is Ragnar?" I questioned, gesturing toward his office, which was locked.

"I thought he might have informed you," Bruno replied, looking rather confused.

"Informed me about what?"

"That’s crazy," he muttered, slipping a hand into his trouser pocket and pulling out his phone.

"Wait, what’s going on? What was he supposed to tell me?" I pressed, noticing that he was dialing Jenna’s number.

He had saved her contact with a heart emoji beside her name.

The two had apparently started developing feelings for each other.

Well, at least I assumed they had, considering how long it had been since the full moon when they discovered they were fated mates.

"Jenna, Verity just arrived, and she doesn’t even know where Ragnar is."

The moment those words left his mouth, I realized why they’d assumed I would know his whereabouts.

It was probably because I’d stayed late at the office with him last time.

But why would they expect Ragnar to inform me instead of someone from his own household?

"Okay, okay. Yeah, don’t tell grandma anything yet."

Bruno ended the call and turned his attention back to me.

"Wait, why did you assume I’d know?" I questioned, pointing at myself. "Just because we were..."

"Because Ragnar does that sometimes," he explained. "He only informs his secretary, assistant, or whoever happens to be working with him, assuming they’ll pass the information along to the family. But shit, he’s not at home. He didn’t went home last night, Verity."

Bruno looked genuinely worried, and unusually quiet, too.

"Then maybe Jaguar or Theodore knows. Have you spoken to them?" I suggested.

He rolled his eyes, his mood visibly souring at the mere mention of their names.

"I tried, but neither of them is in the mood for a conversation. They just waved me away."

Oh, I knew exactly what Bruno meant.

That dismissive, unprofessional attitude the brothers sometimes displayed.

I hated it whenever they treated their employees that way, too.

"That’s crazy. Let me go and speak with them," I offered, heading toward the elevator.

"Verity, one more thing."

His voice made me slow down just as I stepped inside. He hurried after me and entered the elevator.

"Did you and, um... I mean, did anything come of those videos? Ragnar had them taken down, so they’re no longer circulating. And if anyone still has copies and tries spreading them, they’re going to be in serious trouble," he explained, nodding as he spoke.

"But you know what I’m trying to say, right?"

Bruno was clearly beating around the bush.

I turned toward him with a sigh.

"Nothing was going on. We were just arguing about some things," I mumbled, shifting my gaze forward again.

"What kind of things?" he pressed.

My fingers slowly curled into fists as my wolf continued pushing me, urging me to tell him that something had happened between Ragnar and me during the trip.