Athena wasn’t sure how to feel.
Yes, she could hear Aiden and Spider distinctly, present more facts, more information that pointed that Herbert was the wicked person they had been looking for all this while, yet she just couldn’t comprehend it clearly.
Even while they had been in the car, she had just been going through the motions, unable to wait to get ho so that she could disentangle the threads with her grandparents.
Herbert? Behind the death of Ewan’s parents? Moreso, the threats that had pushed Ewan to join the gang in the first place? How? Why? And he was right beneath their noses!
How couldn’t she have seen it? How could they not have known? Yet how could they have? Herbert was... Herbert.
Athena’s musings caused creases to batter her forehead. Her brows drew together tightly, her fingers unconsciously tugging at the hem of her sleeve.
Her eyes darted to Zane. He looked just as wrapped in shock, like Ewan.
No, Ewan’s was different. It was like he was not there with them, like he was having an out-of-body experience. His face was pale, jaw locked, eyes hollowed out as if staring through a fog only he could see. She felt for the both of them.
Zane, having the father he had idolized for as long as she had known him, being accused of murder and thousands of other heinous cris. She couldn’t pretend to understand his feelings. She was yet to understand hers.
And there was Ewan... she wanted to reach him, this male who sat beside her, who seed so far away, but she knew this wasn’t the mont. As much as her fiancé looked dead, she knew he was listening to the facts.
She wondered what his next move would be?
Herbert.
Athena rubbed her face, her palms dragging down her cheeks as her mind started to connect dots of its own.
How her grandmother had been infected with the grey variant... it was only him. She wasn’t sure how he had done it, but she was sure that he had. Maybe put it into a cup when no one had been watching?
Her fingers twitched at the horrific possibility.
He had also been the one that had bribed the guard to let the gates open to Kael and his n. She was sure of it.
And what’s more? The birthday surprise he had hosted for her... her mouth opened a fraction as another dot clicked. Her hand lifted slightly in disbelief.
It had rely been a distraction, to buy ti for the doctors to move their stuff out of the lab. His absences, that made no sense, one that even Zane had no idea of.
She rembered when she had contacted Zane, thinking that Herbert was at the office as he had said he would be, but her friend had ntioned that he was at the hospital. Which he hadn’t been!
It also explained why the hospital had structures, one Ewan himself had said was the way of the old generation, only that it wasn’t, only that Herbert wasn’t who they thought he was, only that he was sinister!
Most likely, he was the one that had been watching them when they had raided the first gang hideout, to search for the first batch of grey virus. How could they have missed it?
There were so signs. But that was the thing about close ties and betrayals. You didn’t see it if it was right before you, until the stab had happened.
If John hadn’t said anything, there wouldn’t have been confirmations, even with Spider and Aiden’s reports. Zane, for one, would be hard to buy over. But John, heaven bless his soul, had rembered.
She bit on her lower lip, eyes glistening. Hopefully, Herbert won’t go for the old man, won’t connect dots as they were doing now, and would think they were celebrating the court case victory and not being hit with heart-wrenching truths.
Because then...
Her phone rang, cutting off her musings. She jolted slightly, then picked, noting the Nimbus contact.
"Hello, Rick..."
Rick’s voice was warm on the other end, and his crush on her quite evident. But the atmosphere in the sitting room was too tense, truths too heavy, to wink at Aiden, who was staring at her with raised brows.
"...he is in the airplane already, en route... the camouflage too has also flown... and we were right to be concerned, our n noted so others following him..."
Athena nodded slowly, one hand wrapping around her own arm. It was truly a good guess on their part. But who were the followers then? Kael’s or Herbert’s?
Was there a difference, since Kael was working for Herbert?
"But our agents are prepared for anything, and we will make sure he gets ho safe to his wife."
Athena hoped so. Her chest tightened. They might need another of John’s testimony, if things went downhill.
"Stay with him too, and his family. Keep close watch. Nothing should happen to them, Rick."
"Of course, Athena. Of course. And congratulations on your victory in court today..."
"Thanks, Rick." Her smile was not there. Her shoulders slumped. "I’ll talk to you later."
She ended the call, not wanting to give him the space to stutter, looking for subjects to bring up so that they can stay on the phone talking. This was not the ti for it.
"This is unbelievable, but... connecting the dots... it’s understandable why it is, why we hadn’t suspected him." Old Mr. Thorne spoke after a mont of heavy silence. His voice shook.
"Herbert had been a good business associate once, and still has a good head for business, but I took a step back when he got involved in politics with his company..."
He sighed weakly, looking his age, or even more, the lines more pronounced, weathered. His hands trembled where they rested on his knees.
"It was your mother’s research, I rember, that got him interested... he t your father, both funded it... got the attention of the governnt..."
He paused again, voice cracking. Florence placed a trembling hand on his back.
"I rember Miley talking about it sotis... how it would change things in the health sector. I also rember when the clashes started happening. Herbert annoyed that they wouldn’t let the military test it... kept ntioning the monetary aspect, the profits and gains..."
He sighed, rubbing his face with both palms. "But Miley was just like her best friend, my daughter... pure souls..."
Florence already had a tear slipping off her eyes, her hand covering her mouth.
"She wouldn’t back down, and neither would her supportive husband. Then the matter died down. I thought that was it. It was months later, Ewan, almost two years, when they had that accident... so, it didn’t occur to then..."
He shook his head sorrowfully, tears shining in his old eyes. "Herbert is a bastard."
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