Chapter 426-It Is Never A Peaceful Night

Verity:

I drew in a deep breath and reached for both the cup and the packet of wafers.

As I straightened, holding them in my hands, Ragnar remained seated on the right side of the room.

But he wasn’t the one I saw.

For a moment, all I could see was my brother sitting across from me on the bed, smiling as he held out his hand and waited for me to share the wafers with him.

I couldn’t help smiling like a fool at the empty space in front of me.

"My brother was my savior," I began, opening the packet of wafers with a faint smile as tears blurred my vision.

Ragnar couldn’t see him, but I could.

Memories of my brother played out right in front of me, his familiar smile, the way he would wait impatiently for me to unwrap the wafers so I could hand him one.

"It was pretty much just the two of us our entire lives. Our parents left us when we were very young."

I smiled sadly and took a bite of the wafer.

It tasted almost the way I remembered, yet somehow, the sweetness was gone. I remembered it being so much sweeter before.

"Then how did the two of you manage to stay together? Were you adopted by the same family, or were you placed in foster homes?" Ragnar asked, his voice gentler than before, careful enough that I didn’t feel the urge to shut down.

I wanted to talk about my brother. I was tired of having these conversations with myself.

I wanted to say his name out loud and remember him for everything he had done for me.

"No, we were never adopted. My brother worked incredibly hard to take me under his wing and become my legal guardian while he was still very young himself. They made an exception for us, but... well, after that, it was pretty much just the two of us."

Even saying it aloud filled me with guilt.

Now I shared my deepest bond with the very people responsible for his death, and the thought made anger simmer beneath my skin.

"He started working when he was really young. He worked himself to the bone. Whatever money he earned, he would divide it into two portions, keeping one for me and the other for..."

I trailed off, lowering my head as my fist tightened around the cup of hot chocolate.

"The other for whom?" Ragnar prompted quietly.

I slowly turned toward him and met his gaze.

"Gigi."

I watched his jaw tighten, the veins at his temples becoming more pronounced as his gaze narrowed.

"They were friends long before they started dating," I continued. "Every Friday, Gigi would come over, even when they were both still underage, bringing her video game with her. The two of them would sit in the living room for hours, playing and yelling at the television."

A small smile tugged at my lips as the memories resurfaced.

"By morning, she would still be asleep while my brother slept on the couch. He would wake up early, quickly clean the entire place so I wouldn’t have to deal with the aftermath of their fun night, and then leave for his shift."

I smiled, remembering how sweetly my brother used to check on me throughout the night, always making sure I didn’t feel left out.

He would ask me to come sit with them, but I knew Gigi didn’t like having me around, so I never told him.

Instead, I stayed in my room, making up some excuse whenever he came to get me.

I drew in a deep breath and decided to mind my own business after that.

I had already said enough.

If I revealed any more, Ragnar might begin to suspect that my feelings toward certain people were not what I pretended them to be, and I couldn’t afford that right now.

Silence lingered between us for a while before he finally cleared his throat.

"Have you made any decision regarding my brothers?"

After everything I had just told him about my brother, hearing him suddenly bring up his own brothers caught me off guard.

It felt as though I had already exposed far too much of myself.

So I forced a smile, the kind someone foolishly in love might wear, purely for show.

"It’s difficult," I replied.

"Why?" he pressed. "Do you like someone else?"

The moment the question left his mouth, I snapped my head toward him.

He immediately lowered his gaze, pretending as though he hadn’t been watching me at all.

"I have feelings for both of them. It’s hard for me to choose one."

I ignored his question and gave the most reasonable answer I could.

He didn’t lift his head, but he nodded slightly.

"You should get some rest. You must be tired," he mumbled.

He rose from the couch, tossed the trash into the bin in the corner, then walked over to the bed.

It felt strangely intimate.

He eased himself onto the mattress, keeping to the far edge, but he was so big that he still took up a good portion of the space.

Then he lay down and turned his face away from me.

His back and shoulders were enormous.

I didn’t think I had ever really noticed them like this before, but with his face turned away, I found myself studying him more closely.

He was dressed casually for the night in a plain white shirt and shorts, yet somehow his shoulders still looked so fucking broad.

I finished eating, set the remaining things on the side table, and slipped beneath the blanket.

He didn’t pull the blanket over himself, even though I could tell he was cold. Goosebumps covered his skin.

After a moment, I slowly turned onto my side, facing away from him as awkwardness crept over me.

Sharing a bed with him felt so strange, almost as if there were something between us, some kind of relationship, even though there wasn’t.

Slowly, sleep began to overtake me, and before long, I drifted into a deep, peaceful slumber.

I woke with a start to the sound of loud, bloodcurdling screams coming from outside.