Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: BETRAYED

With trepidation in his heart, Adonis turned in time to watch Detective Alaya Petrov march inside the police headquarters wearing a serious expression on her face. Gone were the sultry looks they’d been sharing for the past days. Gone was her amenable and friendly face.

Instead he found himself staring into cold brown eyes he’d met on the first day which lacked its usual warmth and sunshine. He knew instantly that something was wrong. Things was so hectic right now that he had trouble focusing. Why the cold shoulder? Had she somehow guessed that he’d had a trail in the investigation?

“Where is he?” she asked without sparing him a glance, focusing her attention on her Captain. His heart sank. So, she knew about the witness.

No one was around since it was the weekend, and the officer in charge must have specifically called for her.

Not surprising under the circumstances. Those being that the sneaky little a**hole Kenneth Benedict Fortune was at the headquarters preparing to inculcate his uncle Elijah for the murder of his father. Talk about a twisted family. It had been Uncle Eli on the phone which had sent Adonis in such a frenzied spiral.

He'd been beyond his mind with worry when he’d reached the Xanadu estate. “Uncle Elijah!” he’d shouted as soon as he’d entered the living room. “Uncle Eli, where the hell are you?”

His mother had been the one to make a first appearance. “Elijah is here?” she’d asked with stars in her eyes and Adonis had snapped. That woman was unbelievable, she’d just lost her husband, and all she cared about was her estranged lover?!

“Mom, now’s not the time for your soppy little romance,” he’d hissed exasperatedly. The blue eyes shaded with a dark shadow showing that he’d hurt her, but he’d been beyond caring. His heart was beating out of bounds with the new discovery that his uncle might be responsible for his father’s death.

“Have you seen Uncle Eli?” he asked roughly.

She gave a shake of her head in negative answer, and Adonis impatiently felt for his phone in his jacket. “Uncle Eli, where are you?” he’d barked into the phone and was informed that the man was on the patio.

Without wasting time, Adonis had joined him to catch a glimpse of a frantic Elijah Fortune pacing the pavement like he would bore a hole in it anytime soon. “Adonis, thank God you’re here!” his uncle grasped his hand, his green eyes beholding a pleading look, but Adonis was so out of his element that for the first time he didn’t give any consolation.

“What’s going on?” he’d asked hyperventilating as he was finding it difficult to draw a breath. What’s that insane phone call about? Are you the one who killed my father?” he murmured in low tones to avoid the servants from picking up their conversations, but with enough inference to indicate that he was angry.

“Of course not!” Uncle Elijah had sent him a look full of reproach, but Adonis still didn’t allow himself to relax. Unfortunately for him, things weren’t as white and black with the Fortune family. “How can you think that of me?”

“What about your last statement though? Kenneth has proof of me being the murderer. What does that even mean?”

Uncle Elijah had sighed and stopped his march to unload his body on the couch. “It’s not what it seems like. Listen, on the night of the murder, I had a heated discussion with Kenneth.”

Adonis had frowned and sat down on the opposite seat to be able to look the man in the eyes during the confession. It was the only way for him to be able to gauge whether his own blood was lying or not. “About what?”

The older man had hesitated, his mouth hanging open as he seemed to weigh his options.

Adonis had growled menacingly. “If you want me to help you, you’d better come out with the whole truth. Right now, if I’m not convinced by your innocence, I’ll be the one sending you to the gallows.”

He’d never spoken to his favorite uncle in that deadly tone. Not even when Adonis had been disillusioned to find the man boning his own brother’s wife.

The threat had seemed to be working, his uncle shuddered in reaction, and shrunk back on the sofa seats. “He’d been angry for not having been chosen as the heir. He said that he gave as much as you for the company.”

Adonis was stunned. Kenneth had never expressed any interest in the family business, or the heirloom. Was there anyone who was authentic enough to give their own opinions in his cursed family. “You don’t say,” he replied calmly, in complete contrast to what he was feeling inside. “Let me guess. He wants the CEO post as well?”

“Not only that,” Uncle Elijah was shaking his head in disappointment. “He wants everything. The mansion, the properties, the reign over all the companies. He said he’s the first-born son in the third generation. He’d older than you, so it’s logical to him that he inherits everything.”

“He was pretty silent during the dinner? I never thought he would be the one after the throne. Did he say anything about having financial difficulties? We all know that Uncle Graham is too proud to ask for help.”

“I don’t think Kenneth is worried about himself. He was very weird on that day, almost like he was acting out of desperation. I think he didn’t mention anything during the dinner was because he wasn’t very keen on disrespecting my mother. You know how she can get when the children starts to speak out of range?”

“Hmm,” Adonis replied gruffly well aware of Aurora Fortune’s volatile temper. “But we’re diverting from the topic. So, Kenneth told you in my father’s study that he believed he was the heir. And then what? You confronted him?”

“I did,” Uncle agreed with a nod. “I saw him sitting on Mason’s chair, the one on which nobody is ever allowed to sit and was stunned by his audacity. He didn’t move when I entered and even after I called him off. Think he had too much to drink on that night. I started to lecture him about being a sneaky secretive little backstabber, and instead of feeling ashamed, he laughed. Right in my face.”

Adonis frowned got deeper. That was so unlike Kenneth Fortune – he’d been a sweet timid little boy who was too afraid to voice his opinion. How could he have changed his personality overnight? Or was it something that had happened gradually over time and that Adonis had somehow missed?

“Go on,” he encouraged his deflated uncle. “What happened next?”

“I was so angry with his attitude that I threatened to expose him to the family. You know it’s not like me to get involved, but I was really stunned by his makeover. Then things started to get dirty. He blackmailed me. Threaten to spill out my secret if I don’t listen to him, and corporate to convince Mason to league the reign to him.”

“What secret?” Adonis queried in puzzlement.

The measuring look loaded with meaning was not lost on Adonis. “Make an educated guess?” Horror filled him at his uncle’s words. No. No. No. Kenneth was aware of the affair between his uncle and mother? Shame, once again, like a familiar friend surrounded him, and he bent his head in defeat. He’d taken extreme measures all his life to ensure that the dirty little secret would be kept concealed.

How the hell had Kenneth found out?

“How did you react?”

Uncle Elijah’s olive-green eyes floated with sadness. “I denied of course. But Kenneth seemed to be sure of himself. So, at a point in the conversation, the tables turned, and I found myself begging him not to disclose it to anyone in the family.”

There was a long sigh during which Adonis tried to settle with the feeling of alarm inside him, and pertaining the silence, Uncle Elijah went on. “Kenneth started questioning your birth, saying that there might be a possibility that you were my son…and…. things got out of control. When he was at the door, out of pure desperation, I issued the threat as a last resort.”

Adonis felt his breakfast rumble in his stomach as nausea hit him. He was about to retch the content of his stomach on the face of his uncle. Of course he’d always wondered whether there was a possibility that he might be Uncle Elijah’s son and had conducted a DNA test under the most secrecy.

“You threatened to kill my father?” Adonis choked on the words.

Uncle Elijah rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t serious. I only meant that I would burn the whole world if anything happened to Nora, including Mason. Kenneth took things literally. I wasn’t supposed to know that your father would be dead within the hour!”

“Right,” Adonis had drawled sarcastically. “That makes so much more sense now.” He was beyond himself to find that his sweet uncle Elijah harbored resentments against his father when the former had been the one f*cking his brother’s wife all along.

Another beleaguered sigh followed. “Look, Adonis. I am your culprit. In every sense of the word. I should never…never have started anything with your mother. She’s my brother’s wife, and I should have controlled myself with her. But I swear to you on your mother’s life that I haven’t killed your father.”

Adonis didn’t bother replying. He just stood up, leaving the tortured man behind with his regrets and ruminations. He’d been about to call Alaya when a call from Benjamin had stalled him. Once again he’d lost his bearings twice on the same day when his secretary informed him that Kenneth Fortune was in the police headquarters, about to give his statement.

He'd jumped into his car and drove straight to the precinct, about to dial Alaya’s number but she had somehow gotten there in perfect timing.

Now, as he stared in the coldest pair of brown eyes, he knew he’d made a colossal mistake. But he’d been too shocked at his uncle’s announcement to react otherwise. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but he’d been too thrown by the confession to react otherwise. His flight had been on sheer instincts.

It was unfortunate that Alaya would take it as a betrayal of course, for they had sworn they would work together. And after what had transpired between them, this was an even bigger treachery.

She thought that he was keeping information from him when it had only been a matter of time and clearing things out. Now, he realized with dread that she was going to make him pay by using his uncle as a scapegoat.

“Al.…,” he took an involuntary step in her direction, but she stopped him with an impersonal glare which slashed through his heart like liquid ice.

If only he’d had the time to explain himself. Everything would fall back to where it was. He took another step in her direction, but her fleeting glance towards the Captain was both a warning and a plea.

 “Not now, Mr. Fortune. I have a witness in the interrogation room.”