Chapter 105: 105-Slut Shamed
Verity:
Early that morning, after everything had happened, I received an email.
It was from the office manager, the one who oversaw all of us.
His job, assigned by the brothers, was to go around every floor and check on the employees.
He informed me that my vacation had been canceled and that I still had to come to the office for at least two hours because of some important meetings.
One of those meetings was at a café today.
I knew Ragnar wouldn’t care, and he also knew I was sick.
So it had to be either Theodore or Jaguar.
If my calculations were correct, they had done it because they knew I had gone into the backyard with their brother and never returned.
Or maybe Gigi had told them about my phone being left behind. I just wasn’t sure.
I didn’t know anything. I lived too far away from them to ever guess what was going on inside the mansion, what Gigi was telling them, what lies she was feeding them, or what manipulations were taking place.
So I got ready for the day, wearing a purple dress, and headed to the café.
It was a general lunch meeting with a client.
When I arrived, Jaguar was there, but Ragnar and Theodore weren’t.
The moment I walked in, I watched Jaguar look up from his phone, then lower his gaze before looking at the clients.
The way he looked at me, it was haunting.
There was an elderly man and two elderly women sitting across from them.
I walked over, bowed my head in greeting to the clients, and then nodded to Jaguar. However, the usual spark in his eyes was gone.
"Have a seat."
Jaguar pulled out the chair beside him for me. I sat down and placed my files on the table.
For the next half hour, the clients listened quietly to my proposal, and honestly, they seemed quite impressed.
By the time I finished, they had decided to work with us and invest in our company.
At the same time, the food arrived, and the conversation became more casual.
"Well, our company will never disappoint you. We’re not the kind of people who support a woman who sleeps around, flirts with one brother, and then leaves her phone in another brother’s pants. We don’t tolerate that kind of thing," Jaguar joked.
The words hit me immediately.
It all made sense. His strange behavior had been because of what Gigi had told him, finding my phone in Ragnar’s pants.
"Oh, since you brought it up, I want to share something," the old woman remarked, as though she had just remembered something. "I know you were only giving a hypothetical example regarding your business, but it actually happens in real life too."
The old woman shifted excitedly in her seat.
"One of my friend’s sons and his brother were both being played by the same woman. She was seeing one of them, but then her phone was found with the other brother. It was complete chaos. In the end, they both cut her out of their lives."
When she finished, I turned just enough to look at Jaguar. He listened to her silently before his eyes shifted to me. I looked away.
"Well... did they let her explain?" I asked.
The moment I asked the question, everyone fell silent.
"How do you explain something like that?" Jaguar asked.
I smiled softly and shook my head.
"There are thousands of different reasons why someone’s belongings could be left with another person. I mean, did they ask the brother if anything had happened between them? Why cut her out without even giving her a chance to explain herself?" I replied.
None of them looked impressed by my explanation.
"Well, Miss Verity, are you taken?" the old woman asked.
"Yes, I have a boyfriend."
The moment I said that, I noticed Jaguar’s fingers curl around his napkin.
"Then do you visit other men, or do other men visit your house?" she questioned.
I shifted slightly to look at Jaguar.
"Come on. Answer that question," Jaguar urged.
I smiled to myself. If he wanted to play this game, I would play it very well.
"Actually, I live in an omega community. And yes, once in a while, a delivery driver, or even my boss," I said, pointing at Jaguar, "comes to my place to drop off files or speak with me. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to cheat on my boyfriend."
I kept my voice stern.
Deep down, though, I was burning with anger because I knew Jaguar was probably forgetting how he behaved around Gigi.
"I went there when someone broke into our place," Jaguar immediately explained.
I nodded slowly, almost as if silently telling him that I knew he was lying. More had happened between us. Not once, but many times.
"Well, that’s how women end up being whores," the old woman commented.
Everybody laughed except Jaguar.
My eyes drifted to him, and I watched him nod before pursing his lips, as though he were sarcastically annoyed.
"I mean, when women live alone, they don’t really know how to control their urges," the old woman continued.
I stayed quiet because I wanted Jaguar to speak up for me.
But the way he had defended himself over coming to my place was already a sign that he still wasn’t ready to take a risk for me.
"Well, I’m not sure why women should be labeled like that, but I’m not like that. I know my limits. Ever since I made things official with my boyfriend, I’ve made it very clear," I paused, turning to look at Jaguar, "that no other man is welcome in my safe place."
I finished speaking and began gathering my files.
"I think we were having lunch," the old man remarked after he had finished laughing at every little comment the old woman made.
"I have to be somewhere, and I just realized I’m not very good company for you guys. But it was nice doing business with you," I said firmly, making no effort to hide that I wasn’t happy with the way they had behaved.
I made sure I walked out as quickly as possible. That was when I heard Jaguar coming after me.
"If you need to explain anything to me..."
As soon as he said that, I stopped dead in my tracks outside the cafe.
Oh, he was going to hear some very harsh truths from me today.
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