Page 112 of All for her Forgiveness

We hear footsteps running. Probably Kennedy fleeing, trying to hide.

When the footage continues, it's her coming down the stairs. We can only see her feet, then she recoils, moaning, horrified at whatever she saw.

"So much blood."We hear her moan of pure terror, and then the footage of this nightmare finally ends.

"She saw the murder," Ares says.

"Probably," the expert says. "Maybe that's what caused her to lose her memory. We don't have a play-by-play of that night, but I believe Miss O'Neal was assaulted. At least, that's what's in the statement she gave, that when she woke up, there was blood on her body, on the sink counter of the bathroom in the suite she occupied. If she didn't see the murder itself, she went downstairs when Pam was already dead, perhaps tried to help her. Then she forgot about it—the only memory left was when she woke up during the night. The killer had already left, but the scene . . . From what I saw in the photos, it was grotesque. That could have led Miss O'Neal to go into shock and develop amnesia."

"How long?" I ask the lawyers. "With what we have now, how long will it take for her to be cleared of the charges?"

"The prosecution will want a forensic analysis of the cell phone to make sure it belonged to your fiancée and to confirm the date this video was filmed, but we'll try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

"That’s not good enough," I say, completely mad. "It doesn't matter what they need to do—even if we end up owing a favor to the Pope, hurry up the process."

I vaguely see my brothers dismissing the lawyers, and then Remo approaches me.

"Thank you," I say.

He shrugs."I just looked where no one else had."

"If you hadn't found the secret room and consequently the phone with the video, people would have doubts forever about her innocence."

"Yes, but with this evidence, the prosecution has nothing. Even the blow with the statue has been proven to be self-defense. But Hades?"

"Yes?"

"When she remembers everything, she'll need psychological support. It's the kind of thing that marks someone for the rest of their life."

"I won't leave her side. I'll do whatever it takes."

After he leaves, my brothers close the door, and Ares says, "I imagined a lot of shit but nothing close to this."

"No one could have thought Pam was a demon. For God's sake, the girl was abused in childhood. How did she have the courage to plan for another woman to go through the same thing?" says Dionysus.

"I just don't understand . . . If Pam was Ryan's accomplice, what led him to kill her?" Zeus asks.

"Does that matter? Not to me. All I care about is that we have proof that Ryan was there and that Kennedy only protected herself."

I don't tell my brothers that Beau is almost certain he found the bastard. I don't think any of the three would agree with what I have in mind for Ryan.

The once untouchable heir will dream of prison when I get my hands on him.

Hades

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

As soon asI get home, instead of immediately saying what I need to, I stay in the kitchen with her, chatting with Ernest and watching as Kennedy feeds our son.

Later, we say goodbye to Ernest and go together to put our little king to sleep.

I never thought of myself as a family man, but I’ve found that I enjoy simple rituals like changing King's pajamas, watching him stubbornly brush his teeth, telling a story, and then stealing his mother just for myself.

When we get to our room, I undress her and prepare a bathtub for the both of us. I wash every inch of her body and then take her to bed and fuck her for hours, unhurriedly.

But I know we can’t go to sleep without me telling her what I’ve discovered, so I invite her to join me in the library.

Remo gave me a copy of the video—the original, by now, is with the police—but instead of showing her that horror movie, I tell Kennedy, in detail, what we watched in it.

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