THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 314: People Do Change

"All I have to say is that there is more to this case which the police are not even aware of.

And I intend to solve that myself,"

That piqued Stanley’s curiosity.

"Are you saying there might be someone else?"

"Benita only pulled the trigger, and that is what we all saw," Kilian uttered, carefully choosing his words.

"Don’t tell me that someone else shot another gun from somewhere," Stanley asked in disbelief.

It is true that Benita came in all covered in a veil and no one knew who was behind the veil initially. But it was right there before their eyes- Steffan only fell down after Benita pulled the trigger.

There was no interval between when the trigger was pulled and when Benita’s veil fell off, revealing that she was the one behind the veil. How can there be someone else?

"You had better come up with a better explanation for letting Benita off the hook because I’m not buying this," Stanley said, refusing to believe what Kilian was hinting at.

If the police or Kilian cannot bring her to book, he, Stanley will find a way to make her pay.

Not after the pain she plung everyone into by her actions. He couldn’t even bear to think of what would have happened if the bullet had gone straight to his only brother’s heart?

"How long have you known Benita?" Kilian suddenly asked, ignoring the doubtful look Stanley was giving him.

Stanley was forced to swallow the words on the tip of his tongue as Kilian spoke before him. He wondered where Kiian was getting at with this kind of question but still answered.

"From when she was born," Stanley said.

"I can say I watched her grow as she practically spent most of her life in our house because of the close relationship between our parents."

"And after her father got the appointment in the capital, they left Baltimore, but Benita stayed back and only left when she found out that Steffan had gone abroad for further studies."

"I guess you should have known her character all those years, that she is all bark and no bite, right?" Kilian said, raising his brow in an inquisitive arch.

The way he put it, it sounded more like a statement than a question to Stanley, who for a moment didn’t know how to respond.

"Unfortunately, you are right, but people do change, especially when it concerns the matters of the heart." Stanley replied skeptically.

Kilian nodded in agreement as he remembered how the simple and kind hearted friend of his sister had changed drastically after she was betrayed in love. If not for the genuine repentance and persistence of her husband, he doubted if they’d be together today.

"Do you think Benita also changed?" he asked.

"Obviously, the evidence is right before us. But seriously Kilian, why do I feel like you are trying desperately to defend her? Your sister, Lauren who happened to be my brother’s fiancé was her real target. If not that Steffan blocked the bullet, I bet you wouldn’t be sitting here so calmly analyzing Benita’s character like one renowned psychologist. So sincerely speaking, I’m lost." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"I’ll help you find yourself, if only you’re patient," Kilian chuckled casually as if they were talking about the weather.

"Well my patience is not that huge, so hurry up," Stanley snapped.

"Take a look at this," Kilian said and handed over his phone to Stanley. Whatever Stanley saw there was not something he wished to see again for the rest of his life as he quickly passed the phone over to Kilian, wiping his hand in the process as if he had just touched a plague.

The corners of Kilians mouth turned up in a smirk.This Stanley is quite an interesting character, he had not even seen what they had to do to people who were bent on making life difficult for innocent citizens and he was already acting like a woman.

"From what you saw, does it look like my men have been idle?"

Getting no response from Stanley, Kilian smiled, "I’m taking your silence to mean that you attest to the fact that they’ve been busy."

"From all the interrogations my men did on Benita, we found out that she did not load the gun with any bullet when she came to the church. According to her confession, the gun was empty."

Finally finding the courage to speak, Stanley asked, "So how did a bullet get into the gun if she didn’t load it with one?"

He was still shaken by the torture he had seen Benita experience. No girl whatsoever would be able to withstand such torture and still refuse to say the truth, talklless of the fragile Benita.

"Patience, brother, I’m getting there," Kilian coaxed gently. "But it’s not difficult to understand if you carefully think about it."

"So from your analysis, Benita thought she had an empty gun and came with it to threaten my brother to stop the wedding but when she pulled the trigger, she did not expect it to suddenly shoot someone."

"Are you saying someone tampered with the gun?" Stanley’s eyes trained on Kilian as he spoke gradually turned incredulous.

It was beginning to get complicated. On one hand he still had a little hope in Benita’s character that she was not that wicked to the extent of taking someone’s life and on the other hand, he felt she might have changed these few years that she was away.

"That is what the investigation is pointing to and we are trying to find out how the gun suddenly had a bullet inside when the gun had been with Benita throughout and she did not load it herself.

So to get the person who did that, we had to release Benita on bail so that out of agitation, the person will crawl out of his or her hole to seek out Benita."

"In other words, you are using Benita as the bait to lure out the hidden character."

"Absolutely, because if we let her be, forget about your brother ever hooking up with my sister, not to mention that my sister’s life will also be at risk."

"Is there any lead so far?"

"For now, we are looking into all the places Benita visited and the people she has been in contact with for the past two weeks, especially on the day of the wedding. And it is pointing to one of her friends. It was from her house that Benita came to the wedding."

"What’s her name, maybe I might know her?" Stanley asked as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Kimberley Lamb. Does it ring a bell?"

Stanley squinted his eyes as he thought .

"Not really. Maybe she’s one of the new acquaintances she made after she came back."

"Probably," Kilian said,and glanced at his phone screen for the second time.

"Why aren’t you picking your calls?"

"It’s not important."

Hardly had the words left his mouth than a notification popped up on his phone.

He clicked on the voice note and instantly grabbed his coat.

"What’s wrong?" Stanley asked rising to join Kilian who suddenly seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere.

He had not heard what was said in the voice note since Kilian had listened to it with his AirPods.

"It’s Benita."

Stanley suddenly felt uneasy at the pit of his stomach. "What’s wrong with Benita?"