Hades

Chapter treinta y ocho

Emma's PoV:

I look around the deserted playground while Hades prepares himself to tell me about what happened after our fight. I'm surprised he wants to tell me. I mean, after he snapped at me that one time I brought it up, I didn't think he would. I feel him kiss my knuckles again and look at him to meet his intense eyes.

"Hades, it's okay." I assure him, caressing his cheek with my other hand. He leans into my touch.
"I need to tell you. I want to tell you." He says and I nod. We have all the time in the world, no need to pressure him.

"Well, after our fight I ran into the woods. I needed to get some anger out of me. I knew running was my only opportunity. So I did. While I was running, I stumbled over something. I didn't know what it was and also didn't care. It was dark and I was angry. I just stood back up and kept running." He says. Oh my god. No.

"So...that- you were in jail because of me?!" I ask, standing up and pacing in front of him. Oh my god. If I didn't forget our anniversary, he wouldn't be angry and we wouldn't fight. He wouldn't have ran away and stumbled over, what I assume was the dead body. No, no, no.

"No. Emma, it wasn't your fault. I was there at the wrong time. It all happened at the wrong time. It wasn't your fault. Please sit down." He stands up and grips my shoulders to stop me from pacing. I feel myself calm down and sit back on the bench. He follows me and takes my hand again.

"Sorry. But if I didn't forget our anniversary, you wouldn't have been mad and-"
"If I hadn't introduced you to Compton, I wouldn't have been in that situation either. We can't say it was your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. I was just there at the wrong time." He says slowly and I nod.

"So the day after that, I found out over the news that they found a dead body. And I didn't think much about it. I really thought I just tripped over a loose root or something. But when the police knocked on my door a couple days later, I knew it wasn't a loose root after all." He says.

"I got to their department and they asked me a lot of questions. God, so many questions I didn't understand. I told them my story. I told it so many times. But they thought I would have a motive after knowing the woman who got killed was one of our local vendors at the supermarket. And just to my luck, it was the same woman, who told me and Noah to stop running around like little children. They saw the tape of the supermarket's cameras." He sighs. That's so dumb. Hades couldn't kill anybody. Maybe Bradley, okay. But not just a random woman.

"I told them that she did scowl at us, but that's it. I didn't really care for her. I mean, she was nobody to me. Why would I take it that serious or whatever and kill her?! That's just fucked up. So they eventually had to let me go after two torturous days of holding me in their department. But it wasn't over then. That's when I got home and I was still angry at you. I also couldn't tell you anything, because I was afraid you would think about me as a murderer and go against me. I mean, after all I was at your place when she got murdered and could've told them that. But I didn't want to involve you in anything." He shrugs. I hit him hard, making him frown at me.

"Are you stupid?! If I knew, I wouldn't care if I got involved or not! They put you in jail! I could've verified the fact that you were at my place at that time. I was a witness!" I tell him. I'm so angry at him right now. He stops my hands from slapping him.

"I know. But at that time I didn't even know they really wanted to put me in jail. I thought they believed me. Ha, I was so naive." He laughs humorlessly. I scoff and shake my head. I can't believe that.

"Whatever. I had to go to court and they gave me life long in prison. You wanna know how I came out?" He asks me and I nod.
"They fucking found out that she was raped before and the guy didn't use a condom. He didn't fucking use a condom and it took them two fucking years to realize she was raped! Isn't that what they do every time in movies? Where they check if she got raped or not?!" He says angrily. His grip around my hand tightens. Ouch.