Chapter 217 A FATHER'S GUILT
AURORA’S POINT OF VIEW.
“The betrayal didn't just break Silas; it shattered the foundation of everything he thought he knew. I’d never seen him so….broken. nothing could get him to eat or live like a human being again. Especially when saw the hell Kai endured for six months, and the effects of it.
I had to get him seated so he could sleep and force-feed him. For months, Marloise never reached out, not a word, a text, a letter….or even a pidgeon. A part of me hoped she was suffering too for what she did; at least from guilt. Kai was distraught….utterly wounded.
And he kept calling for you. No matter what, he wanted Aurroa. But Silas and I didn’t know what would happen if you two saw each other again. We knew it could go awry.
So we made a plan. I’d get you hypnotized and taken far away, while he would lie to Kai that you never survived. That Marloise had gotten to you.
We did all we could to get evidence against Armando, too. I had a feeling he worked with Marloise and was the one to demand the shares be pulled out. If that had happened, I would have been kicked out of the company for incompetence.
Yet even though it did happen, the directors wanted me to stay. For years, I watched my shoulder, waiting for the moment Armando would slip up. But nothing happened. Well, nothing except him kicking us out so he could keep Denise and her daughter.”
“No wonder Silas hates Dad.”
“Yes, Aurora. He knew he had something to do with Kai’s suffering, but we needed evidence against him.”
I understood everything now…well, a couple of bits and pieces. My mother wasn't just shielding me from Armando; she was shielding me from the fact that I had stood at the center of a bloodbath of the soul.
"Silas wanted to kill her," Mom whispered, her eyes fixed on the reflection in the window. "But Marloise... she vanished before the police could even set a perimeter. She left Kai behind like a broken toy she was bored with. And you, Aurora... you were the only one who could get him to speak. But every time you opened your mouth, you talked about the Shadow Queen and the 'red medicine. You were slipping away into his trauma. While Kai cried for you, clutching onto that pack of Skittles, I had to hope and pray I would finally get you back.”
“But what about Marloise now….is she dead?”
“We believe so….Although I know Silas doesn’t. He’s still waiting for the perfect chance to get her and make her pay. We got a tip that the body of a woman with her exact descriptions was found about three years later in Spain. She’d died in a hit-and-run and was killed on the spot.”
I moved closer to ask a question, but before I could, the radio drew out attention. “News coming in now; sources allege that the alleged criminal mastermind, Armando De la Vista, was arrested a couple of days ago at his daughter’s engagement gala, where there was supposed to be some announcement of a union between his daughter, Aurora, and the son of a mogul, Silas Mercer, Kai Mercer. Armando is in prison on charges of murder, espionage, embezzlement, and a lot more.
His legal team has hinted that the said criminal now claims that he was coerced into a confession by his future son-in-law. He states that he remembers taking a liquid that could have contained drugs, or memory deductions that made him hallucinate.
He also alleges that the Mercer heir is tagging him falsely. Additionally, Armando….he seems to have gone mad in prison, just like his daughter, Morgan.