Chapter 494-A Kiss So Gentle, It Melted My Heart

Chapter 494: 494-A Kiss So Gentle, It Melted My Heart

Verity:

"And what happened after that? Look at me, Ragnar. Lift your head and answer me. What happened after that?"

At my insistence, he raised his head and met my gaze, giving me the eye contact I’d demanded.

"You all listened to me, didn’t you?" My voice cracked. "I made mistakes, and nobody punished me. Why couldn’t you do the same for the Verity who came to you back then? Huh? Because she was fat?"

My voice completely broke on the last word.

"Because I was ugly, I couldn’t even help my own brother. He kept suffering, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. The same brother who always defended me, who looked after me all his life. And when the time finally came for me to do something for him, I failed."

My lips trembled as I struggled to continue.

"Why? Because I’d never been taught how to deal with people like you. I was a loser."

With those words, I slowly sank back against the couch.

"Gigi lied. My brother never disrespected her, neither to her face nor behind her back."

My body began trembling again, but I clenched my jaw and kept my gaze locked on Ragnar.

I refused to look away because I wasn’t guilty, and neither was my brother.

"There were video clips of your brother, Verity. Entire recordings of him chasing her with weapons," Ragnar finally responded, his voice calm but firm. "There were also videos of him setting up a camera and forcing himself on her."

As he spoke, I noticed his hand slowly curling into a fist.

"There has to be... there has to be something else. I don’t believe it," I uttered, my breathing growing increasingly uneven.

"I would’ve shown you the footage."

The moment those words left his mouth, I looked straight at him.

"I want to see it."

He shook his head at my demand.

"It’ll be too much for you, Verity," he remarked.

I let out a disbelieving chuckle.

"Since when do you care about me? You expect me to believe you’re withholding the footage because you’re worried it’ll hurt me? I call bullshit," I hissed.

My chest was rising and falling rapidly now, each breath becoming more difficult to control.

Ragnar drew in a deep breath before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone.

He scrolled through it for a moment, then slid the device across the table toward me.

I immediately snatched it up.

He’d opened what appeared to be a private folder, which he’d already unlocked with a password.

There was only one video clip inside.

"The rest are on the computer. I’ll show them to you whenever you want," he informed me.

I barely registered his words as I tapped on the video.

And there it was.

A close-up shot of Gigi, crying with my brother’s fingers wrapped around her neck while he appeared to be forcing himself on her against a tree trunk.

"This can’t be?"

I began shaking my head.

"No, this can’t be happening. My brother would never do something like that."

My voice cracked, and I started sniffling, crying so hard that I had to repeatedly wipe the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

"No, this isn’t possible," I sobbed again, putting the phone aside and covering my ears with both hands. "My brother can’t do this. He would never do something like this!"

My entire body began trembling as I slowly curled up on my side on the couch, pulling my knees toward my stomach and wrapping my arms tightly around myself.

I couldn’t stop screaming and crying, clutching my stomach as I struggled to make sense of what I’d just seen.

Through my blurred vision, I saw Ragnar rise from his chair and approach me.

He crouched beside the couch, gently resting one hand against the side of my face, his thumb brushing over my tear-stained cheek.

His other arm extended along the couch behind me as he leaned closer.

"Hey, take deep breaths. Calm down," he murmured softly.

He didn’t look like someone who wanted to kill me.

Nor did he seem interested in arresting me, at least not at that moment.

"Deep breaths," he encouraged, continuing to caress my cheek with his thumb while his palm gently covered my ear.

I gradually began to regain control of my breathing, although my body was still trembling.

"My brother... my brother can’t do this," I whispered, barely managing to form a complete sentence.

Ragnar nodded.

"Okay. We’ll talk about it later, all right?" he murmured.

"Take a moment. Just breathe," he whispered, leaning a little closer.

Then I felt his lips brush against the side of my nose as he planted a gentle, comforting kiss there, unlike anything I’d experienced before.

He was still sitting close beside me when he pulled away from the kiss and tilted his head slightly.

"You okay?" he asked.

I nodded and slowly began to sit up on the couch.

Ragnar withdrew his hand and rose, only to lean over me again, bracing both hands against the backrest on either side of my head.

I pulled my knees close to my chest and wrapped my arms around them before resting my head against the back of the couch between his hands, looking up at him.

"You should arrest me," I uttered.

His nose scrunched slightly in confusion, clearly bewildered by my sudden suggestion.

"Because I don’t believe that clip. I’ll keep going after Gigi until I provoke her into telling me the truth behind those videos."

Saying those words made me feel considerably lighter.

There was no way I could believe what I’d just seen.

There had to be something else behind those recordings, some truth that hadn’t come to light yet.

Ragnar studied me for a while, his eyes narrowing as he remained bent over me, supporting his weight against the back of the couch.

Then he slowly began to nod.

"Then how about we make a deal?"

He straightened to his full height, his voice dropping into that familiar low, rough, gravelly tone.

"What kind of deal?" I asked, slowly lifting my head away from the backrest.

"I’ll help you uncover the truth about Gigi. We’ll see whether there’s anything suspicious about her or any evidence to support your doubts," he explained, walking away.