Page 105 of All for her Forgiveness

"Enemy?" she adds softly.

"Yes."

"Who could blame her for seeing me like that, Hades? Like the rest of the world, she thinks I was Ryan's accomplice. Pam was her granddaughter. I would never forgive someone who hurt our son."

"But that's exactly the point. The issue here is not the fact that she felt angry with you. It’s the almost instantaneous change in her attitude that made me suspicious."

“She was always good to me,” she says.

"Do you remember your relationship?"

"Now I do, yes. The first time I saw her in New Orleans, I had been left with nothing. After all, she was the mother of the woman who’d mistreated me my entire life, and there is that saying that ‘the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.’"

"Yes."

"But as soon as I told her I wanted to go back to studying, she went from cold to loving in the blink of an eye. I understood that she was cautious at first because she was worried that I would influence Pam badly, since Riny had obviously spoken very negatively about me."

"I don't know, Kennedy. If you’d told me this a while ago, I would have believed that Vina was good to you because she is generous. Now, I don't think that was it."

"It sounds like you're thinking the worst of Mrs. Vina."

"I am. I think she encouraged Pam’s crush on me. Did you ever notice anything like that?"

"If she did, it wasn't in front of me." Suddenly she frowns. "There's something I'm remembering from the night of Pam's birthday at the club, when we were already leaving."

"What is it?"

"When the car you sent came to pick us up, just before we got in, she put a hand on each of our faces and said, 'Remember there will be two Kostanidou there and you will be the most beautiful women at the party. Behave and you will be the only ones Hades and Ares look at.' "

"What?"

"My God, I had completely forgotten about that, I think because, at the time, I thought it was just a silly warning from someone who saw romance in everything. But now, thinking about it, it was as if she was advising us to throw ourselves at you two."

My Kennedy with Ares—over my dead body.

At that time, he didn't even know Serenity, so it makes perfect sense that, as I suspected, Vina wanted to push Pam onto me, but she saw beyond that and also wanted her other “granddaughter” to win over another Kostanidis.

"Do you think she wanted . . .”

"Yes, the pieces are starting to come together. I’ve thought about it a lot and don't believe that if Pam was in love with me, she wouldn't have told her grandmother. I believe Vina encouraged it.”

"And when she saw me, she thought I could conquer Ares? Why?"

"It would be a way to change herstatuswithin the Kostanidis family. She would go from being a housekeeper to becoming a full member, “grandmother” of two Kostanidis ladies, which would guarantee her a life of luxury forever."

"My God in heaven—that isveryMachiavellian!"

"To use your own words, Kennedy, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. I don't know if it was Vina who turned Riny Marcotte into the monster she was, but she may have been the person who encouraged Pam in her madness. I'm not absolving her of responsibility, but we don't know what kind of crazy ideas Vina put into her granddaughter's head."

"You were never . . .”

I know what she's thinking. "Was I never interested in Pam as a woman?"

"Yes, that."

"Never. On our son's life, I swear she was always like a sister to me."

"I believe you."

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