Chapter 353 Hate Men
ADRIANA
The words hung in the air of the car, heavy and suffocating. "Just as I'd found out, I think Lucy found out too. And that's why Alisha killed her." Tobias's confession was a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. The city lights outside the window blurred into meaningless streaks as my mind struggled to process what he'd just admitted.
"Tobias," I finally managed, my voice barely a whisper. "Do you realize what you just said? You know that this means Alisha is guilty of murder?" I watched him through the rearview mirror, searching his face for any sign of deception.
He nodded slowly, his head hung so low his chin nearly touched his chest. "I know. At this point, I don't even care anymore. She's guilty and I know she did it. Alisha had gone off the hook, she wasn't the woman I'd loved all those years." His voice cracked with emotion. "When I asked her to meet our son, she said she couldn't bear to look at his demonic face because he looked like her step father."
My blood ran cold. The question formed on my lips before I could stop it. "Why would the kid look like their step father?" But even as I spoke, I saw the understanding dawn in his eyes. He knew what I was asking.
He looked up at me, and the raw agony in his eyes made my chest ache. "I found out that my father was her step father. The only reason she didn't kill me was because she once loved me. But she told me to leave and never speak to her again, and as for the kid, he was better off knowing that she was dead." Tears streamed down his face now, unchecked. "I cried, I hated myself for her. I couldn't bring myself to face her so I let her be. How could my father do a thing like that?"
The car swerved slightly as my hands tightened on the wheel. Tobias's father had assaulted her? His own father? I'm surprised she didn't kill him actually. That would have been my first instinct when I found that out.
Tobias was sobbing into his hands now, his shoulders shaking with the force of his grief. But there was no time for that right now. We needed answers, not tears.
"Tobias, how did she find out? Did she know that it was your father?" I pressed, my voice harder than I intended.
"She must have seen our son somewhere and figured that they look too alike," he choked out between sobs. "So she got his DNA somehow and tested it. Alisha had connections all over because she was famous. I felt so sorry for her. She had continued his bloodline and I knew that no matter what I said, it wouldn't matter to her. She will continue to hate me forever."
I couldn't imagine what she had gone through. Finding out that you had unintentionally fallen in love with your assaulter's child and gave birth to a son for him who would continue to increase his bloodline. The thought made me sick to my stomach.
I tried to remind myself that Alisha had refused help and, in this case, she had committed murder. Cold-blooded murder of a woman who didn't deserve it. So even though she might have been a victim, Lucy didn't deserve any of her anger.
I couldn't believe that he had been keeping this in for so long without saying anything. How could he know all this and not say anything? What else did he know?
He seemed to be drowning in his grief, so I let him be. It seemed like everyone in Alisha's life was sad and going through something. I didn't want to interrupt the grief because a lot had happened to all of them.
"Maybe if you had told us about this a long time ago, we would have made sure that Alisha didn't die. We would have arrested her from the beginning and saw to it that she paid for her crimes." The words came out harsher than I intended, but I couldn't help it.
He didn't seem happy with the fact that I was feeling sorry for Alisha. There was no way I wouldn't feel sorry for her after hearing everything she's gone through. I mean, I hadn't been abused in that way, but I know what happened to me and how it shaped the way I saw life. I know what the abuse I went through has made me believe.
It's no wonder Alisha found solace in Lucy's arms. I'm sure she hated men, I'm sure of it. That was why she decided to give her love to someone she trusted and not men. The hatred she felt for Tobias, it must have been real. Very real. She must have felt that the only reason why Tobias loved her and got her pregnant was because he wanted to use her. She must have thought that he knew about the whole thing, but Tobias didn't actually know about it.
"How could I tell you that the woman that I once loved was a psychopathic murderer?" he suddenly shouted, his voice raw with pain. "I was going to marry her! We have a kid together. I couldn't bring myself to even say that it was her, and you wanted me to say that she was a murderer?"
I could understand where he was coming from, but it didn't excuse his silence.
"What about Tim?!" I shot back, my own anger rising. "He lost his entire life just because of Lucy's death. He lost his wife, his child, his job, his reputation, and his home. What about him, Tobias? Did you think about how hard it would be on him?"
Nobody is disputing the fact that Alisha had gone through something traumatic, something I would never wish on my enemy. But she had killed a woman. A woman who was her best friend. A woman who would have been there for her through everything. A woman who stood with her even when she knew she had been responsible for killing her first baby. Lucy was a good friend. Maybe too good, and that's what led to her destruction. But we needed more good people like that on earth to make it a better place, or else we would be stuck with a lot of evil people.
I had a feeling that what was going to come next, so I sped up the process.
"Tobias, you know that she did this. You know she's guilty. Why would you help a woman like that? I know you love her, but you also have a conscience. Use it. Listen to your heart. We know that she's not dead."
He raised his head from his hands and looked at me, his eyes red and swollen.
"Yes, we know, and it's only a matter of time before we find out where you hid her, and we will arrest both of you. I hope you tell us where she is." I knew that was a weak offer, but for now, it was the best I had.