Everyone held their breath as the juror stood to announce the verdict. "After reviewing the facts of the case, the jury and judge has found Ms. Alyssa is innocent." The man declared without wasting anyone's time. "The case against Ms. Alyssa Fort is now closed."

Desmond let out a sigh of relief and almost jumped to hug his mother. No one had expected that the verdict would be pronounced this soon. In most cases, it took months or even years before a case was finally completed, and he had dreaded that his mother would have to stay in jail for all that time since the court did not permit her to be bailed out.

Once the court was dismissed, Desmond's lawyer found him and Zaria to talk.

"The case against your mother has been closed, but she will be released from jail in twenty four hours. I hope this is okay with you." He explained.

"It's alright. As long as she is released." Desmond was already happy about the good news. "I hope she is protected well enough, since the actual culprit has been discovered. He might want to try and murder her."

"Don't worry. The court will naturally ensure that." The lawyer was happy too, having won another major case. It didn't matter whether or not the prosecutor had been bribed by Desmond, he would have failed if there wasn't sufficient evidence and discussion in favor of Alyssa.

"The court is going to open a case against Samantha and Jaime. Miss Williams, do you mind being a witness against them?" He asked Zaria.

"It's alright." She agreed, not that she had much choice. She knew that testifying in court when one was a witness to the crime was not a choice but an obligation—not that she minded helping pin a nail onto Samantha's coffin.

Once they entered the car, Desmond replayed the video that had been submitted to court. Skeleton had given him a copy, which he played on his laptop.

"Something's wrong with that video." Zaria observed with a frown when she clearly saw it. It wasn't the one she had. Maybe it was a different one that Skeleton had managed to retrieve from a different surveillance camera?

She would have believed so, but the order of events was wrong too. In the video, Marchal did not attempt to mrrder Jaime. On the contrary, Jaime had made the only strike.

"This isn't what happened." She asked in shock.

"No it isn't. It's a video remade by Skeleton." He answered her like it meant nothing.

Zaria was speechless. A remade vddeo was authenticated by the court as the original? Just how talented was that guy?

…

Later that evening.

Zaria folded her laundry in her room as she chatted with Zeus on a voice call.

"You have been quite inactive lately. What are you busy with?" She asked, since he ha always spent most of his time on Creszone.

"My son needed help with his homework." He answered, rendering Zaria speechless with shock. Zeus had a son? He had always seemed so playful that she thought he was a bachelor at the very least and perhaps a man younger than her as well. Who would have thought that he was already a a father?

When she recovered from her shock, she asked for confirmation. "Your biological son? Could it be a godchild perhaps?"

"He's my son." He insisted, and she could only swallow down her shock.

"What about his mother?" She cautiously asked.

"His mother?" He questioned.

"Your wife." She bit her tongue at how nosy she sounded. However, it wouldn't hurt to know about Zeus' wife if it would make Desmond stop being jealous of him. Though she wondered what kind of supernatural woman was able to tame down a man like Zeus. She must be a goddess.

"You mean my husband. We are divorced." His voice jolted her from her thoughts, shocking her immensely.

What in the world did she just hear?

Zeus liked men? They even got married and had a surrogate son? What shocking secret had she just heard?

As if he had not shocked her enough, he continued, "Although we are divorced, I wouldn't mind getting back together if he is willing. I still love him after all."

"Please stop." She had the urge to end the call. Couldn't he drop one bomb at a time? She was already disoriented, okay?

When she was a teenager, she was a huge fan of BL[1] movies, novels and comics—so much that she once thought that Ryan and her idol Jupiter would make a good match. If Natalie ever knew that she thought that way of her boyfriend, she would be long dead.

But now that she thought about it, Zeus might just make a good match with Ryan. One was too playful while the other was unpredictable. One was caring while the other always forced things to go his way. One was…

"Stop it Zaria." She reprimanded herself before she could start thinking about what a pair of dads they would make.

Overhearing her, Zeus decided to change the topic. "I'm going to send you a video. Thank me later."

"Anothe vddeo? Why?" Zaria asked, wondeirng what the hacker was planning this time.

"I'm sure you need it." He hung up and before she could guess what it could be about, she reeeived a notification in her inbox. Her first reaction was to save the video in her phone just in case the idiot decided to once again delete it. When she realized what the content was, she rolled her eyes. It was the video from the Fort family's surveillance cameras, the very one that he had deleted before.

"Watch it." He sent a text message before she could ignore it.

Hence, she did.

…

After Samantha left, followed the argument between Marchal and Jaime. Zeus had sent the original! The voice had not been muted at any point this time.

"What right do you have to hold onto my children's property? What right?" Marchal yelled in anger.

"Aren't I your son too? I'm your eldest son but all you care about is Desmond! Desmond this Desmond that. You might as well make him your god!" Jaime's tone was full of bitterness and hate.

Marchal burst into laughter. "My son? Are you listening to your fucking self? Why don't you take a piss and look at your reflection?"

Zaria's hand flew to her mouth as her eyes opened as wide as Jaime's in the video.

"What do you mean?" Jaime asked with a shaky voice.

"Don't you know why I hate you so much, why I wish you were dead? It's all because of that witch. She whored around with who knows what piece of garbage and had the audacity to claim that you were my son. But you know what? Blood tests ever lie. I took care of you for all these years yet she was still shameless enough to want to rob my legitimate son of his rights."

"Shut up!" Jaime was on the verge of going crazy. "Shut your filthy fucking mouth!"

"I should have done that as soon as you were born. I should have twisted your neck and nipped your stupid head off!" Marchal's face was full of disgust, and when Jaime turned to leave, he tried to attack.

…

"Oh my god." Zaria's face was full of disbelief. Who would have thought that such a shocking secret lay in the Fort Family? Jaime was not Marchal's son?

She jolted from her thoughts and dialled Desmond's number. His phone was off, so she simply dashed out of her room and sped off to his house.

"What's with the rush?" He asked when her car parked at an insane speed and she bolted into the living room where he was watching the evening news broadcast.

"Jaime is not your brother. He is… wait. You're not shocked?" She asked when he didn't flinch.

"I was not going to show him any 'brotherly' affection so it doesn't matter. The police are on their way to arrest him."

She was not shocked about this, but, "Samantha. She will be murdered by him! He killed your dad because he knew the truth about his identity. Samantha has now been arrested and will probably be forced to tell the truth against him. He will definitely kill her!"

"You think so too? I was hoping he would." Desmond's tone was indifferent, and she had nothing more to say. She had hoped that Samantha would not die in the hands of an outsider who was only out to punish the world for a fact that no one had any control over. However, Samantha was not in the right either. Besides , she might know the truth about Jaime's identity.

Now that she thought about it, she finally understood why Jaime would want to accuse Alyssa of murdering Marchal. He was trying to get rid of everyone who knew the truth!

___

[1]...BL, g.a.y movies, novels and comics. I spaced it out in case the word is automatically censored. Literally boys love.

Any BL lovers out there? I'm the biggest fan!!