36. Hades
Hades
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Zeus goes crazy when he sees my bruised face from the fights at the fight club. Usually, when I come, I stay here for a few days to avoid worrying them. I never wanted to tell my brothers how I exorcise my demons. Now I can’t escape an explanation.
However, the issue gets overshadowed by something much more important: King.
"You are completely screwed!" Ares is the only one to speak, getting up during the video call and pacing back and forth, but I see in the expressions of my other brothers and Christos that they think the same.
Only Odin, who by now has already returned to New York, remains calm.
"Bring them to us," says Zeus. "Kennedy and King . . . They are ours now. Jesus, two years with her in a coma and you didn’t know you had a son, Hades!"
I don't respond. I have nothing to say. I clench my jaw, trying to keep a neutral expression, but inside, I'm going mad. "It won't be that easy. Kennedy won't willingly leave the life she's started to rebuild and follow me. She hates me."
"And what about King?"
"I spent the day making sure he is registered with my name. He is my heir. Besides recognizing him as my son, which will happen soon, I’ve revised my will. If something happens to me, I want my entire fortune to go to him and his mother."
"If something happens to you? What the hell are you talking about?" Christos asks.
"The only way to prevent Kennedy from going back to prison is by capturing Ryan."
"You are not going on a hunt for him, Hades!" Zeus shouts, but I remain unfazed. I look at Odin in silence because he might be the only one present who understands what I’m feeling.
Only a destroyed soul understands another.
"And what is the next step?" Ares asks.
"About two hours ago, a report came out in my newspapers and some news shows on my TV channels," Dionysus explains before I can speak, "that Kennedy, from today, will have Hades by her side, helping her prove her innocence."
I talked to Dionysus before talking to the rest of my brothers.
Although each of us is a partner in our family's businesses, mainly the bank that has been with the Kostanidou for generations, we also have private enterprises, separate from each other.
Ares owns the nightclub SIN. Dionysus mainly works with media, and I own the largest advertising agency in the world. Only Zeus is exclusively dedicated to the bank.
"As soon as King is registered, I will publicly acknowledge him too."
"And we'll need to put a dozen bodyguards on him immediately," Zeus says.
"I’ve already done that. From the moment I left the two at home yesterday, after coming back from the hospital, the bodyguards were already in place."
It's nothing compared to the amount of time I left my son and his mother unprotected. A drop in an ocean of pain.
"When do you plan to return to New York?" Odin asks.
"I don't know. There’s no deadline. Starting tomorrow, I will resume working normally, from here in New Orleans, as I haven’t attended a meeting at my company since I arrived. I won't return to Manhattan until I convince Kennedy to go with me. Their place is by my side."
"And what about the old man who helped her?"
"Ernest is a question mark. He let slip that he has been in prison before, and usually that would be enough to make me send him away from my son, but he took care of King, loved and protected him, for two years. He is absolutely devoted to Kennedy too. I don’t care if he killed someone or was a thief—for her and King, Ernest is family. For me, he is someone to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for protecting my son when I wasn’t around."
"There was no way to know that King was yours, Hades. In fact, you didn’t even know about his existence," Odin says. "Damn, even to me, this story sounds crazy. It’s like life is playing with you and Kennedy in a twisted game of endurance to see how much you can take."
"Not anymore. I will never leave her side until the day I die. No matter how long it takes, I will do everything in my power to gain her forgiveness."
"You love her. You don’t just want or defend her because of King."
"Yes. I love her and I will make her my wife."
"Good luck with that," Ares says, and despite the tension they are feeling, the others laugh.
"Are you staying at Kennedy's house?” Christos asks. “She’s more generous than I would be."
"I have two allies. Ernest is on my side, believing my intention to help Kennedy is sincere. And then there’s my son," I say, unable to hide the pride in my voice.
I send a photo of King to the group, which soon appears on the screen.
"He looks just like you," everyone, even Odin, says.
"Yes, he is mine."
"How did you know for sure?" Christos asks.
"When Kennedy was hospitalized because of the bee sting, Ernest took a while to get to the hospital. King stayed with me. I took him to the bathroom, changed his diaper, and noticed the birthmark that all Kostanidou have, but at that moment, my mind refused to believe it, even though when I saw him for the first time, I noticed something familiar in his features."
"Familiar? King is the type of kid that if the father asked for a DNA test, the judge would laugh," Dionysus says. "He is a miniature copy of you."
"I had to ask for the test because I think Kennedy wouldn’t have given me access to him without concrete proof. She also didn’t remember that we had sex."
"Damn, that’s true. Your story would make one hell of a movie," Ares concludes.
"A nightmare, that’s what it is. I thought I was living in hell while waiting for justice to be served, waiting for Kennedy and Ryan's trial and punishment, but my true hell will start now, with my quest for her forgiveness."
"Make no mistake about that," Dionysus says. "I don’t know Kennedy, but I know that if she made you fall in love with her, she at least has a strong personality. If your woman has even a third of the fiery temperament of any of ours, it will take a while to convince her that you’re sorry."
"There are no excuses capable of fixing my mistake of judgment. It is through actions that I will achieve my redemption."
I not only told them everything, I showed them the videos. However, Odin firmly believes there is more to be discovered about Pam. Maybe Ryan went to my grandfather’s house one day. That would be definitive proof that he and Pam had a relationship, not Kennedy.
My cousin has divided the hours of recordings between me and my brothers. We decided not to let anyone outside the family have access to them yet because we have no idea what we might find.
"There’s something you’re forgetting, Hades," Zeus says. "Vina. How do you plan to tell her about your support for Kennedy?"
"I will call her as soon as we hang up. I made a mistake that almost destroyed my life because condemning Kennedy, an innocent, would also condemn me and King. Nothing and no one in this world will make me forsake her from now on. I will tell Vina the truth."
"And if she doesn’t believe that her granddaughter was worthless?" Christos asks.
I shrug. "She has no reason not to. I have never lied in my entire life. I can show her the video of Pam drugging the drinks, but I won't ask for her blessing. Kennedy and King are mine, and anyone who can’t accept that will be excluded from my life."
"And what about Ryan? Any news?"
"No. That bastard is still hiding, undoubtedly with the support of his family," Odin says.
"I will arrange for a reward of one million dollars to be offered to anyone who gives us the whereabouts of that scumbag. It will be all over the news in"—I look at the clock—"about half an hour."
"You’re going to declare open warfare, Hades. Not only by defending Kennedy but also by hunting Ryan. Until now, we were doing this behind the scenes," Zeus says.
"That’s the idea. I want the whole damn planet to know that not only is Kennedy mine and under Kostanidis protection, but also that I won’t stop until I catch the real culprit."
Five minutes after I hang up, I wait for the phone to ring only twice before Vina answers.
"Hades, I was hoping you would call. Tell me that report in the paper is a joke and you are not on that woman’s side!"
"That woman? I thought you saw her as a granddaughter."
"A figure of speech. Juliet is important to me, just like Pam was."
"Then why this reaction?"
"I was just . . .surprised. Can you at least explain why you’ve decided to support her?"
"I am convinced that Kennedy was the victim of a scheme."
"A scheme? By whom?"
"There were three people in that house, Vina. Ryan's connection wasn’t with Kennedy. Everything suggests it was with Pam. Kennedy will be under my protection." I pause. "Forever."
"Oh, my God! So you think Pam . . .no, that’s not possible! Pam wouldn’t do that! It would be such a disappointment if she had participated in some sordid scheme to harm Juliet."
An alarm goes off in my head immediately because her attitude shift seems abrupt.
When she answered, she acted as if she was about to demand an explanation for my supporting Kennedy, and now, with just a few words from me and without any proof, she is already considering her granddaughter, the girl she raised and who died so tragically, as an accomplice in a scheme gone wrong to harm Kennedy?
At no point did I say Pam was guilty. I merely raised the possibility of a "maybe" when I said that Ryan had a connection with her.
Wouldn’t a normal grandmother assume that her beloved eighteen-year-old granddaughter couldn’t have been influenced by her much older friend to do something so terrible, instead of, without hesitation, adjusting her viewpoint to suit the situation?
This is confirmed when she adds, "I would like to speak with Kennedy, my son. Poor girl! If what you are thinking is true, she went through hell."
Kennedy.
Not Juliet.
Vina is calling her the same name I do.
I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach, suspicion, something that was already ingrained in my blood, amplifying.
I’ve thought a lot since I found out about Pam drugging the drinks and concluded that even if Vina didn’t know what her granddaughter intended, there was no way she wouldn’t have at least suspected that Pam’s feelings for me were no longer those of a little sister.
The two were very close, and as far as I know, Pam didn’t have any friends. Kennedy was the first one she made, so it would be natural for her to confess a little crush to her grandmother.
The million-dollar question is: Did Vina encourage her to go down this path?
If you had asked me that a week ago, I would have said no. Now, I’m not so sure.
"You never showed this desire before."
"What?"
"All the time Kennedy was in a coma, you never touched on the subject or showed any willingness to go see her."
She spoke in a generic way about missing both of them but never made any concrete plans. On the contrary, as soon as Kennedy was declared a suspect by the police, Vina said almost the same words she just said about Pam, but in that case, she "didn’t believe Juliet would do that."
"I was weak, feeling sick. I'm better now. Besides, I trust your judgment." She pauses. "You said you would protect her forever. What exactly does that mean, Hades?"
I’ve deliberately kept the discovery about my son out of the conversation, and I will continue to keep it from her until my statement about King's paternity comes out in the press.
"Isn’t it obvious? What I'm saying is that Kennedy is mine, and her place is by my side."