Chapter 63

AMBER'S POV
LATER IN THE MORNING
Daniel Fletcher had helped with the kids two days in a row and I felt way too much gratitude towards him. It was funny how we, humans, always emphasized on the whole _Don't judge a book by its cover_ and then go ahead to do the exact same thing. Its a crazy trait we had as humans and what are we without our insane traits?
Asides finding out Daniel was more than the rich, spoilt, womanizing bachelor I thought he was, I also found out he was in partnership with Jay Harley and they were the owners of Black Worth industry corps, where Ken worked. Fate plays tricks on you when you try to act smart and that was the exact thing that was going to happen to Ken.
Melissa had been quiet ever since we got to the house and I was worried. It wasn't like Mel to dwell on a bad situation but this had most definitely left it's scar on my nest friend. I knew it wasn't just her foot that was hurting, her heart had suffered quite a few blows too.
Speaking of the foot, I looked at the leg she had propped on a pillow, it was bandaged all around but you could still see some patches of blood to show how badly she had been hurt. The doctors had scolded us for bringing her to the hospital after she had lost so much blood, _us_ in this context, was majorly Daniel Fletcher and a little bit of Me.
RECAP
My first instinct after I parked in front of the house was to call Jay Harley. I had no idea why I wanted to call him but I couldn't get the thought out of my head, so I just did it. It was either he wasn't close to the phone or he just didn't want to talk to but either way, he was unreachable.
Summoning whatever courage I had left in me, I whispered to Ken to stay put in the car and got out of it. It felt very strange to be sneaking into the same house I had been going to freely for years but I had seen an angry and drunk Ken in full display before and it was nowhere near pleasant.
Mel's car was still parked in the garage but Ken's was nowhere to be found. I had a feeling he had driven out of the mansion but he wasn't my problem, Stacey and her mother, were. The huge French doors were ajar as I tiptoed towards them, my breath hitched in my throat as I did a quick sign of the cross and walked into the mansion.
There was this feeling that was usually associated with Melissa's house, it always reminded me of my status in life. Weird, right? Unlike my poor background, Melissa had everything growing up as a child. Parents who adored her, siblings who doted on her as the last child and a comfortable life.
Even though she never allowed what she had to make her act superior over me, I still had those days I felt less, this was one of them. Asides being born with an obvious silver spoon in her mouth, Mel had gone ahead to get married into the Duke family where they made being middle class look like poverty.
The first thing I noticed as I entered the house was the trail of blood, my heart started racing wildly as I kept on walking. The bedroom was worse than the hallway, there was blood all around, broken glasses and even all the picture frames were scattered and in pieces. I unconsciously covered my mouth with my hand to stop myself from screaming. What had caused so much mess and why was no one in the house?
PRESENT DAY
Alcohol had been proven to bring out the beast in most men but in Ken Duke's case, alcohol just helped to remove the veil of disguise he had always been wearing, it was finally time for everyone to see the man was a beast in totality and every other side of them that they had seen till that point, was a charade.
According to the information the police had gathered, Ken Duke wasn't just the Manager at Black Worth industry corps, he had been involved in illegal businesses before he started working there. He had also been accused of sexual harassment at work but the charges were dropped after a few days.
'Sexual harassment?" Mel had choked out as we both stared at the officer that read out Ken's case file, he even had a case file with the police, how didn't we know about any of these sooner?
The young officer had looked at us squarely, 'Your husband has done quite a lot of things you don't know about, Mrs Duke" he responded with conviction. I had placed my hand on Mel's hand and squeezed tightly to offer any form of reassurance but my friend was trying too hard to assimilate everything she was hearing.
It would have been hard for anyone to believe, Ken Duke was a literally saint in the eyes of anyone and everyone that knew him. Everyone except his family and mine, we had all gotten a glimpse of the real Ken Duke and after the trip to the police station, we had a better view.
With Mel finally sleeping, I dragged my tired self to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, there was way too much on my mind for me to comfortably rest. Abusing Melissa was one thing, hitting the children was an entirely different dimension, Ken Duke had done more than cross the line, he had walked entirely over it.
To make matters worse than he obviously already were, Jay Harley hadn't even returned any of my calls. He most definitely had seen them but there had been no response from him and it was almost evening. Had I misinterpreted the relationship between us? I couldn't even think of anything that I had done that could possibly be wrong.