Page 130 of All for her Forgiveness

"Good afternoon," he says and looks directly at her.

I want to squeeze the idiot's neck because the man is a born actor. He’s even pretending to be thrilled to see Kennedy.

"What are you doing here?" she asks, getting straight to the point, but before the man can respond, she makes a gesture with her hand, as if telling him to wait. "I don't care what you say, but just for the record, you’re wasting your time."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, I do, in the same way that you knew who I was while I spent part of my childhood sleeping on the floor, being beaten by Riny Marcotte and sometimes even starving."

Kennedy has told me in detail everything she suffered at the hands of her guardian, but hearing it again makes me crazy with hatred.

"I didn't know your life was like that, daughter."

"I'll give you some credit and accept that maybe you didn't know my life was hell, but what kind of man, knowing he's the father of a motherless child, doesn't look for her? And now you call me daughter? I'm not your daughter. I have a father who truly loves me and took care of me."

I realize he has no idea that Kennedy remains close to Ernest and how strong their bond is, or he would have asked about it.

"You got married. You're pregnant again," he says, looking at her belly. "I want to make up for lost time."

My patience runs out. "Stay out of our lives. That’s not a warning—it's a threat. Don't approach my wife or my children, not now or in the future, because next time you might not come out with all your teeth in your mouth. Instead of trying to salvage a lost relationship, you should worry about what the good people of Louisiana will say when they find out you stole from them.”

"Are you the one behind their investigation of me, then?"

"Let's say I got the ball rolling, but I won't stop until I see you behind bars. And don't act clueless. If you came looking for Kennedy, it's because you knew it was me who asked for your head."

"Why so much resentment?"

"You haven't seen anything yet, senator. The daughter you didn't know her entire life is not just my wife and the mother of my children—Kennedy is my heart. Everyone who hurt her will pay. Now, get off our property."

"You had him investigated?" she asks, hugging me and resting her head on my shoulder as the unfortunate man's car leaves our property.

I place my hand on her belly, which is already round. "What I said is true. Everyone who made you suffer will pay."

"I didn't even know he existed or was my father."

"But he could have taken care of you, given you a real family, and he didn't."

"You're still as cruel as ever."

"I never promised to change my personality, wife. The fact that I'm crazy about you doesn't mean I've become a better man. Maybe it has even heightened my worst traits, because there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you and our children."

Hades

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

We didn't comewith a driver, but the bodyguards are in a car behind us because my wife once told me that having employees around us all the time bothered her, as if she lived in areality show.So every now and then, I break security protocol to please her.

We've just left Kennedy's ultrasound when my phone rings. It's connected to the car, so as soon as I answer, Zeus's voice comes over the speakerphone, and with our family's characteristic lack of subtlety, he says, "Vina was murdered in jail."

"What?" Kennedy almost screams.

"Damn, sorry, Kennedy. I had no idea that you were with Hades or that I was on speakerphone."

"We just left Kennedy's ultrasound."

"Is my nephew okay?" he asks, as if he hadn't just broken the news of Vina's death.

“He’s fine,” I say. "Now, explain to me what you just said?" I stretch out my hand to take my wife's, which is freezing cold, while I, despite having understood the message that Vina is dead, remain unmoved.

---