Page 93 of All for her Forgiveness

"Forgive me for interfering, but I saw this man come to New Orleans for three years."

"What?"

"In the beginning, Beau told me you were missing."

"Yes, Ernest helped me hide. We stayed out in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin in Missouri."

"Hades didn't know that, I'm sure, because he kept coming to New Orleans. He did it even after you went into a coma."

"That doesn't make sense. I was in a hospital-prison in Massachusetts."

"I don't have all the answers. Maybe it was because he wanted to find out about your past; maybe he thought he'd find answers here. The fact is, he kept coming, and he even dined with us a few times. Let me tell you something, dear: I've seen many tormented men, but I've never seen someone dying inside, and that's how he looked."

"Have you ever loved and hated someone at the same time?"

"No. I fell in love with Beau at first sight, and in our situation, I was the one in the wrong. I was the one who approached him with ulterior motives. My love for Beau has always been absolute. I'm not good at trusting, and neither is he, so we butted heads a lot before we understood that we couldn't be happy apart from each other."

"I'm afraid to love Hades. I'm not a liar; I know that the passion is still there, no matter how much I deny it. Just a touch from him and my body ignites. But is that love?"

"You'll never know unless you give it a second chance."

"I’ve agreed to marry him. When we arrived, Hades proposed for the second time, and I said I would accept for King's sake."

"And is it just for your son?"

"I don't know, just as I don't know if I'm capable of forgiving him."

"For doubting you?"

"For not choosing me."

"I don't know where you were hiding, Kennedy, but did you have access to the news?"

I shake my head. "Ernest protected me and didn't let me watch it. Mostly because I soon found out I was pregnant. Only after King was born did he tell me what was happening in the outside world, the repercussions of Pam's death. That's when I decided to turn myself in, even though it was against his wishes. I didn't want my son to grow up thinking his mother was a coward who ran away from her responsibilities. Anyway, Ernest gave me a summary of what had happened. I read some headlines and the name Kostanidis being mentioned, saw Hades' photograph and what they said about him being a sort of protector, an older brother to Pam."

"I followed the story. I usually don't watch the news because I've had my fair share of violence, pain, and wickedness, so I choose to stay in my little bubble with my children and husband, pretending not to know that there are monsters on the loose. However, since the issue involved a well-known family, the Kostanidou, I looked at everything that came out. It was very bad."

I feel my heart contract with fear and curiosity at the same time. "Really?"

She nods. "The Kostanidou are very well-known and respected worldwide. Their connection to the dead girl wasn't given much importance. Perhaps out of fear of Greek retaliation, the newspapers chose to focus on you. They kept mentioning how Pam's death had been a bloodbath, a drug-induced frenzy. It seems that one of the investigators leaked images of the body. The whole country wanted the culprits punished, but as they say, the rope always breaks on the weaker side. The family of that man accusing you of being an accomplice tried everything to prove that you were the murderer, but just as with the images, someone leaked to the press that your fingerprints weren't on the knife. The problem is that his weren't either."

"What?"

"You didn't know that?"

"No. I always assumed that since mine weren't there, only his could be."

"No. In fact, there were no fingerprints on the knife, and Beau thinks someone wiped them off."

"My God! If that’s true and Ryan had time to think about it, to erase evidence, it means he was sober and that the theory of the drug-induced frenzy the prosecution has put forward is nothing but a lie!"

"Yes, or maybe he was drugged but still lucid enough to know what he was doing, which is what I think is more likely to have happened. I'm sure Hades is already checking into that, but I brought up this topic so that you could understand the extent of the scandal that the press created around his ward's death. The grandmother, from what I heard, had a stroke the day the photos of the girl's body leaked to the press."

"I knew Mrs. Vina had had a stroke, and I assumed it was because of Pam's death. I wasn't aware of the photos."

"I think the Kostanidou suppressed the images. If they still exist on the internet, they're probably on secret sites, since the investigator who distributed them was punished, and shortly after, it was announced in the press that anyone who had the images stored or distributed them would also be punished. But my point is that things got out of control. Your fingerprints were on the statue. You were on the run, just like that wretch. Everyone drew the same conclusion."

Of course, I had already guessed some of what she's said, but Amber has given me information that I didn't have before, and looking at it from her side brings a different perspective.

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