Chapter 493-I Break Down While Making A Confession

Chapter 493: 493-I Break Down While Making A Confession

Verity:

Continuation Of The Flashback:

I felt as though my soul had left my body.

This was far more complicated than I’d ever imagined.

"Let’s go. What are you doing?"

Julie’s voice came from behind me, making me jump to my feet.

"There’s somebody outside," I heard Gigi complain.

Thankfully, Julie had already grabbed my arm and was pulling me away, hurrying down the hallway before either of them could catch us.

End of flashback

"I don’t remember you ever coming to us."

Ragnar’s voice pulled me out of my memories, and when I finally looked up at him, a tear rolled down my cheek.

"Because I was turned away every single time."

I drew in a deep breath.

"Sometimes they called me a fat pig, and other times they threatened me, saying that if I ever spoke up..."

My leg began bouncing uncontrollably as I sat with my elbows resting on my knees and my hands clasped together.

I tried to steady myself, but no matter how hard I fought it, my leg wouldn’t stop shaking.

"And sometimes they told me that if I dared to raise my voice, they’d kill my brother. And me, too."

I drew another shaky breath, tilting my head back and closing my eyes as a shiver ran through my entire body.

"They threatened to strip me naked, record me, and make the video go viral, just like they did to my brother."

When I finally fell silent, I lowered my head and opened my eyes.

Ragnar wasn’t even frowning anymore.

He had gone completely still.

The cigar he’d been holding so casually had slipped from his fingers and fallen to the floor.

"Who did that?" he asked in a rough tone.

I could have told him which of his brothers had threatened me, but what good would that have done?

I had no idea how Ragnar would react if he discovered that his own brothers were responsible for all that brutality.

Although I was convinced he already knew, I couldn’t risk naming them.

He would probably get rid of me to protect them because there was no way he’d ever give me justice at their expense.

Besides, he could easily argue that they’d only threatened me and never actually carried out their threats.

He wasn’t going to punish his brothers over something they’d merely threatened to do. I knew that much.

And he was equally involved.

There was no way he hadn’t known what everyone else was doing.

He’d simply turned a blind eye so that, when the time came, he could pretend he’d been completely unaware.

"Your warriors wouldn’t let me anywhere near your home," I finally answered, deliberately avoiding mentioning anyone by name.

"Would you be able to recognize them?" he questioned.

I shook my head.

"No. I just remember what they said," I replied, sniffling as I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

"Did anyone..." He hesitated. "Did anyone do anything to you?"

"Nothing that I can provide a proof of," I shook my head again. "Apart from someone stripping me naked in exchange for money for my brother’s treatment that night, no."

My body began to tremble again.

"Wasn’t that Gigi’s brother?" he asked, apparently remembering what I’d previously told him about that night.

A bitter chuckle escaped me as I shook my head.

"There was someone else, too?" he pressed.

I merely shrugged.

"You can’t just stay silent, Verity. You know your silence..."

Before he could finish, I began scratching my knee while slamming my other hand against my thigh.

"Get me arrested. Do whatever the fuck you want. I’m not afraid of any of you!" I snapped, drawing in a shaky breath as fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.

"Go ahead. Bring your brothers here and tell them it was all a game. Because yes, it was!" I finally admitted. "But don’t act like none of you deserved it. You all put my brother through hell, Ragnar!"

For the first time, I was openly speaking up for my brother.

Ragnar’s expression remained unchanged.

He simply leaned back against the armchair, his legs spread comfortably apart and his arms resting on the armrests, allowing me to continue.

"My brother came home crying that night. He fell at my feet and told me that Gigi had betrayed him. And that night, I broke down with him."

I paused, struggling to speak through the hiccups interrupting nearly every word.

With a trembling hand, I pointed vaguely ahead.

"That was when he told me you’d stolen his mate."

I pointed directly at Ragnar, my finger slowly curling into a fist.

He noticed the movement.

Only his eyes shifted from my face to my clenched hand before returning to mine.

"And you... you killed his child. Just so you could take his mate away from him."

My voice shook.

"It’s so easy for powerful people like you to take whatever you want, isn’t it? And then what happened?"

I slowly lowered my shoulders, both hands tightening into fists against the couch on either side of me.

"My brother wasn’t even given the right to ask a single question, yet I could show you hundreds of messages from your brother. He wouldn’t stop texting me, asking why I wouldn’t choose him, why I wasn’t choosing him over someone else."

The bitterness in my voice grew with every word.

My lips were so dry that I felt one crack, and the metallic taste of blood spread through my mouth.

I was terribly dehydrated, but Ragnar remained silent, watching me.

"And then my brother was stripped of his dignity."

I drew in a deep breath and slowly released it.

"I watched my brother suffer, Ragnar. I watched him struggle like a fish out of water."

A small chuckle escaped my lips, although there was nothing remotely funny about it.

It was the bitter irony of everything I’d endured.

"Nobody helped me."

I shook my head, my voice dropping to a whisper as my gaze grew distant.

"Because I wasn’t a conventionally attractive woman, everyone rejected me. They told me the fucking brothers wouldn’t even look in my direction. That if I were beautiful, maybe they’d listen to what I had to say."

When I finally looked up, I caught Ragnar closing his eyes and lowering his head, almost as though those words had made him feel a little ashamed.