THE CRUISE SHIP AFFAIR: A twist of love and murder

The Party

It took Kennedy two minutes for him to snap out of his shocked state. “How did you know that?”

“You are the one to explain yourself here, not me," Quinn said.

“No seriously, you don’t understand how much danger you are in for knowing such information," Kennedy said almost in a whisper. “How do you know that?”

It was a funny sight for Quinn to see. Since when did Kennedy start caring about her? Quinn refused to tell him that she had found out about his detective job ever since she herself became a detective and could track him well. He tried to hide away from her, but she was smart enough to know his location. What she was not smart enough to realize was that he loved Oprah and not her.

“I am not going to tell you that Kennedy, it is none of your business, and I certainly do not want your explanation anymore; your existence means nothing to me, and you are just a full-timer trying to gaslight me and lie to me like you have been doing.”

“Insult me all you want, Quinn, but you have to understand I did everything for your own good. I don’t expect you to understand, but I am willing to give an explanation now”, he said, but Quinn was out of patience.

“Get out of my sight, you man w***e," Quinn said.

“I don’t like getting insulted," Kennedy said, and Quinn burst into laughter. This was the same Kennedy; nothing had changed since she left him; he was still manipulative and selfish.

Quinn laughed harder than she had laughed for a long time. “You really are stupid, Ken. After what you did to me last year, you are here telling me that you don’t like insults? f**k you.”

“Can you please tell me how you know that I am a detective? I promise I will tell you everything that happened last year”, he said.

“Are you deaf, Ken? Didn’t you hear I do not need an explanation anymore? Get lost and stop harassing me; I need peace”, Quinn said. A year ago, she would have been on her knees begging Ken to say what he had to say, but now she was way past that; she had given him an opportunity to talk, and he blew the opportunity away.

“Okay, I will leave you, and with time, I hope you will see why I did all that to you. I am sorry for hurting you; I really am. I still have feelings for you," he said, and Quinn finally lost her mind. She threw the glass she was holding at him, and luckily for him, he was able to dodge it.

She got up from her seat. “Leave. Now”

Kennedy saw the blazing fire in her eyes, the anger that could cause a lot of damage. He had never seen Quinn the way she was in his life; she was always submissive. Had he gone too far with his plans?

Without uttering another word, he left Quinn alone, and she burst into tears. How could a man have broken her into pieces and left her to herself for a year just to try to slip back into her life and expect her to just welcome him with open arms? Quinn had never thought of investigating why he was being mean to her and why he left her for Oprah because she was too hurt and was afraid of what she would find, but now she wished she had actually looked into the case to find out why he suddenly changed so that he would not gaslight her into believing something else.

The next day, Quinn went to Mrs. Reed’s room to do what she had to do and was out after a few hours. She then went to do a lot of socializing, even though Kennedy and Oprah were around. She got to meet other famous people like Miss Maria and Miss Mariette, who were rich twins; Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright, the ruthless CEO and his wife, who was a gossip monger; Mr. Andrea, a rich man; Federick, and a few others.

Federick was the man that was staring at her the previous night, and she was able to recognize him as the greatest art lover who currently owned a lot of impressive art works like the Mona Lisa painting, the Starry Night painting, the Girl with the Pearl Earring painting, and so much more. Quinn knew him because of how popular he was, although she had never met him personally.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Federick, and you must be Quinn, the cloth company owner," Federick said when Quinn greeted him.

"Yes, I am. I know who you are; you are the greatest art lover of all time”, Quinn said with the brightest smile she could give, even though she had not slept well the previous night and was finding it difficult to smile.

“Not like Da Vinci, of course," Federick joked, but he noticed that Quinn was not paying full attention to him and kept looking behind him. “What is wrong? You keep looking behind me," he said, turning his back to see Kennedy and Oprah. Oprah wore her sneer like some kind of makeup while Kennedy was drinking something but watching Quinn.

“If it helps, I don’t like them too," Federick said, and Quinn laughed. They spent most of the day together, talking about different things, and Quinn realized this was the first time she had talked to a guy for a long while after her breakup with Kennedy. But if she was being sincere, she did it because she loved the uneasy look Kennedy had when he looked in their direction; to her, it was so heartwarming. Also, Federick was an easygoing person who knew what to say and when to say it; no part of her conversation with him felt awkward, and she was happy about that.

Mr. Martinez, the owner of a big tech company who was known to show off a lot, announced that there would be a party and everyone had to attend. Mr. Martinez was a flashy and flamboyant man who avoided problems as much as he could, and although he did show off, somehow he did not have too many haters, so it was easy to convince everyone to attend the party, although some people said that they were not going to stay till the end of the meeting, like Mrs. Reed, who said she had to take care of her child, Anne, who said she usually slept early, and Dr. Chase, who said he had an online meeting he would want to attend, so he would not be able to stay till the end of the party. Other people had their own excuses, but Mr. Martinez was still happy that everyone was coming from the party.

At the party, Quinn enjoyed herself with Federick and got carried away with drinking and dancing with Federick. She was whining her hips against Federick when she was suddenly pulled away from the dance floor by Kennedy.

“You are not supposed to be drinking; it's not good for you," Kennedy said.

“Take me back to my darling Federico; he is fun and you are not," Quinn said, her speech slurred.

“Listen to me, Federick is not the nice guy that you think he is," Kennedy said.

“What are you saying, beautiful man?" Quinn asked.

“Oh God, you are wasted," Kennedy said.

“I like your trouser; I would like to see what is underneath’, Quinn said, touching his trouser as she felt him harden, but out of nowhere she received a resounding slap. She looked up and saw that it was Oprah, she was still not in her right mind and could not react, but Federick came to her rescue.

“I will not have you steal my dance partner just to have her slapped by your girlfriend," Federick said to Kennedy, and to Oprah, he said, “If I see you lay your hand on Quinn again, you are going to pay one way or the other, no matter what it costs me.” Then he pulled Quinn to the room session, and after a long walk of Quinn trying to locate her room in her drunk state, Federick finally dropped Quinn off on her bed but refused to cuddle her like she had pleaded.

Quinn slept pretty fast and woke up with a splitting headache. To make matters worse, it was a knock on the door that woke her up, and when she opened the door, it was Kennedy, and immediately she remembered what happened the previous night, but she was too weak to fight.

“I don’t want to talk to you, Ken; I remember what happened last night," Quinn said.

“I just came to apologize to you," Kennedy said.

“Well, apology not accepted, get out," Quinn said, but instead Kennedy walked closer to her, their bodies roughly touching each other, and Quinn fought with herself to move away from him but she was failing at her attempt.

“I love you Quinn, give me a chance to explain myself”, Kennedy pleaded, still very close to Quinn.

But then there was a scream—a loud, piercing scream—that echoed around the ship. Kennedy and Quinn looked at each other, then they both went out to see what was going on, keeping in mind that they had unfinished business.