"Not to ntion it might give the culprit a heads-up," Detective Bea added with a frown. "We don’t want them to destroy whatever evidence they might have left behind. I believe whoever orchestrated this has enough power to react quickly enough to slip away if given the opportunity."
Both were valid considerations, but Matteo privately thought that the court of public opinion was always more deadly than any legal outco, and he already had an inkling of who could be behind this ss.
But he gazed at Alia, wordlessly asking her for her opinion. This case was the closest to her after all.
Alia thought about it, vengeance slowly curdling her veins. She wanted all three relatives to be destroyed. She wanted their reputations ruined beyond repair. She wanted them crippled beyond belief. She wanted―
"I want to release the news on social dia," she decided, her eyes flashing with anger.
"It shall be done," Matteo promised. "Don’t worry Alia, they would never know a single peaceful day."
***
True to Matteo’s words, he got Ronan to leak the news to Lady Vanity, while Detective Bea and her officers promptly bundled and cuffed Alia’s relatives and dragged them to the police station in full view of all the doctors and nurses in the hospital.
They did not go quietly. Their loud voices ensured that even if there was soone who wanted to stay unaware of their presence, they couldn’t.
"Alia Kentwood, you unfilial granddaughter! I’m ill! How could you arrest soone who is ill?" Lewis Kentwood roared, spit gathering at the side of his mouth.
Alia could only snort. Oh yeah, this man was definitely ill, if one scanned the contents of his mind.
To think he still had the audacity to open his mouth and play the victim!
Next to him, his wife was also screeching incoherently, her hair ssier than a bird’s nest in spring. "How could you do this to us?! You’ll be struck by lightning!"
If the gods were planning on striking humans for blasphemy, Martha Kentwood would be a lot closer to the front of the line than Alia was. Her beloved son would be the first to be electrocuted.
Alia turned to watch Joshua, who was surprisingly quiet. However, his eyes were full of rage, and he was gnashing his teeth so tightly that dentists would despair. Alia knew he was a powder keg waiting to explode. It was only a matter of ti.
She glared back at him as he was shoved into the police vehicle.
"Finally," Matteo grumbled under his breath as the police sirens faded into the distance. His phone rang and he picked it up.
"It’s done," Ronan’s voice ca from the other end. "Check your phones."
There was no need to explain what he was referring to; Alia quickly went to Lady Vanity’s page and was greeted with the thumbnail of them bursting into Lewis Kentwood’s hospital room.
’SHOCKING TWIST REVEAL! KENTWOODS OUT TO LEECH MONEY FROM HAWTHORNES!’
Well, she had to give them points for not wasting ti with the preamble. She clicked on the video, only to hear Martha Kentwood’s voice echo in the air. To her surprise, it was edited pretty well on top of the CCTV footage, giving viewers a pretty authentic experience of what happened in the ward.
Matteo nodded in approval as he watched the lipsync happen. Ronan had gone the extra mile to make it easier for those nosy busybodies.
Alia scrolled down, and her heart cheered when she read the comnts. Almost all of them were blasting her relatives, calling them heartless snakes, narcissistic scumbags, a blight on this planet.
So comnts pitied her and her father, while others were calling out the preferential treatnt displayed by the parents. Others wondered how Lewis Kentwood could have gotten admitted when he was perfectly healthy, and they got a slew of nas in reply.
Alia raised an eyebrow. How nice of the netizens to help police investigations by offering suspects.
There were even more astute comnts made by armchair psychologists who wanted to analyze the family dynamic of the Kentwoods and debated about Alia’s ntal state, wondering if she was fit for marriage.
But she didn’t care about that. Now her father’s na had been cleared for good, and everyone knew who the real scumbags were. She felt a heavy weight leave her shoulders.
"Lady Vanity’s team is also asking if you can update them about your father’s injuries. They want a photo," Ronan added. "For privacy issues, I’ve declined for now, but I think you should give them a nifty description to really hamr ho how bad the beating was. Drum up the public sympathy, and make people more angry at the misuse of hospital beds."
"I’ll talk to my father about it," Alia decided. She had already made too many decisions about him without his input. "Do you think they’re done treating him?"
In response, Matteo glared at Benji Wales, who leaped to attention to quickly help them find out. Apparently, Alia’s father needed a few X-rays because Joshua had hit him hard enough that he fractured a rib. He was now lying in a VIP ward, asleep after the painkillers had kicked in.
Alia was this close to driving straight into the police station to tear off a few heads. But staying with her father was paramount.
The blood on his face had been cleaned up, and there were bandages on his nose and wrapped around his waist. He was hooked up to several machines; Matteo’s threat had lit a fire in the hospital staff― they could not afford to skimp on even the tiniest bit of care for this man!
Alia held her father’s hand, but Michael Kentwood continued to sleep, oblivious to her concern.
"He’ll make a full recovery with ti," Matteo said reassuringly. He squeezed Alia’s shoulder. "They’re keeping him for a week for observation."
Alia nodded.
"Do you have a plan to catch whoever’s responsible for letting them stay inside the hospital?" Alia asked with gritted teeth. "I want them sued. I want them gone. I want a restraining order for and my father!"
"Your every wish is my command," Matteo replied, gravitas in every word.
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