Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Gigi:

It was really important that I meet Rochelle and speak with her. I needed to do it for my own sake.

I knew her sister had died, and no matter what I had been through, losing her sister was undoubtedly more traumatic than anything I was dealing with.

That was why I had been waiting so impatiently for her.

After dinner, Rochelle called to tell me she was coming to see me.

Her mother was in the hospital, and so was her father.

She was going through an incredibly difficult time, and I knew keeping her under control would not be easy.

I was sitting in my room, waiting for her, when she finally arrived.

As if everything else was not enough, Ragnar had dumped me in some wing where that pathetic Verity was staying.

It had completely ruined my mood, but there was nothing I could do about it for now.

A knock came at the door.

”Come in,” I called, already knowing it was Rochelle.

She opened the door and stepped inside, looking exhausted.

The bags beneath her eyes were deep, with dark circles that were almost painful to look at.

She also seemed to have lost a significant amount of weight in just a few days.

She placed the flowers on the nightstand beside the bed without even handing them to me, then crossed the room and lowered herself onto the couch instead of sitting beside me on the bed.

”How are you?” I asked.

”I’ve been better,” she replied, raising her gaze to meet mine directly.

”Well... I heard about Diana. I’m really sorry,” I murmured, my lips turning downward.

The only reason Rochelle did not immediately suspect that I had something to do with it was because I had been abducted around the same time Diana started being blackmailed.

Of course, Rochelle did not know the exact date.

She only knew it had begun sometime around then because Diana had been deleting a lot of things from her phone.

And Rocky had not initially blackmailed her directly.

He had done it in my room, where no one else was ever going to find out about that conversation.

Two or three days later, he started texting and calling her from another phone.

”Well, what can I say?” Rochelle muttered. ”My sister had to suffer for the things we did.”

Just as expected, Rochelle was already talking nonsense.

”Don’t blame yourself,” I told her.

She looked up and tilted her head, almost as though the next thing she was about to say was that she blamed me instead.

”He was always a terrible person,” I continued. ”Even when you were in a relationship with him, he used to do strange things.”

I immediately reminded her that she had been the one who introduced him to her home and family.

”Why was he in contact with your brother?” she asked.

I shrugged at once.

”How would I know? They were probably doing some shady nonsense together.”

Rochelle leaned back and folded her arms across her chest, looking at me as though she were judging every word coming out of my mouth.

The problem was, she already knew what my brother and I had done to Jenna.

That was what frightened me. I could tell she was starting to insinuate something else.

Before she could take it any further, I added, ”He was around your house that night.”

The moment I said it, her entire posture changed. The cocky expression she had been giving me shattered instantly.

”Around my house?” she asked, shifting to the edge of the couch, suddenly far more interested in what I had to say.

”Why would he even be there?” Rochelle asked.

”I don’t know. I have no idea. I was only coming over to see you. He was hiding somewhere near the house, behind some bushes or something. I don’t know if he was planning to attack you or what he intended to do, but I happened to run into him.”

I swallowed before continuing.

”The moment I saw him, I tried to run so I could warn you or scream for help, but he wrapped his hand over my mouth and took me hostage in my own car. While he was driving me away, he kept saying the same thing over and over again. My only crime was being your friend.”

Rochelle’s expression changed.

”For the next eighteen days, he would laugh at me and mock me, saying that if I hadn’t come to your house that night, you would’ve been the one in captivity instead of me.”

As I told her everything, I saw fear settle over Rochelle’s face and guilt creep into her eyes.

She was finally beginning to understand.

If her sister had suffered because of my brother and the horrible things they had done, then I had suffered because of her too.

”What did he do to you?” she asked.

I drew in a deep breath.

”He did things to me, Rochelle. The kind of things you can’t even imagine.”

My throat tightened, but I forced myself to continue.

”He wouldn’t let me wear clothes. He treated me like a dog. He would put his belt around my neck like a leash and make me walk outside under the burning sun.”

The moment I said it, Rochelle covered her mouth.

I had never wanted to tell her any of this. Talking about it was humiliating, but right now, I needed her to know.

”They were things he did to me, Rochelle. And I know what you’re thinking, that this was karma for what we did that day, for sending him to the river to use and torture Jenna. And I guess maybe it was.”

I looked at her, my voice softening.

”I’m just glad you survived. Because you have no idea...”

I was still speaking when Rochelle suddenly broke down.

At the same moment, I heard a voice outside the room.

My heart dropped almost instantly.

Even Rochelle looked at me, and our eyes met as though we had just been caught admitting what we had done.