Connected
"Rupert?" Gray asks dumbfounded staring at his photo, I just nod my head placing the photo on the desk.
"We had the same reaction to the news, we've found out that Rupert was also one of your fathers men that helped him commit such heinous crimes" I start to explain while Erik begins to pull more papers out, we fell down a rabbit hole investigating this "now all this linked together and I mean it all, Matilda's death, your mother as we now know, faking her death and Rupert's house burning down, they're all connected" I say laying the photos on the table, honestly it was a lot, we must have used about a tree and a half making all these up.
"But you say there was a witness there, if Rupert was working with his dad he wouldn't spill his guts to officials, after his dad killed Rupert's mate he didn't have anything to do with Grayson's family at all" Josh asks as Erik starts to stick more of the papers on the walls.
"Rupert never told officials, he told his mate who told officials, but as he was King nothing was done and it kind of got pushed to the side" I say but I now knew it was the time for me to explain what, something that I knew would break Gray's heart once he heard.
"Now to what happened to Matilda, as Erik was starting to explain your father never intended to kill Matilda, he was actually going to sell her and make it seem as though he killed her" I explain which I could tell caused Gray to get rather angry, but I wasn't finished "he got Rupert to find contacts of anyone he thought would be interested in buying something, I want to point out that he never told Rupert what he intended to sell, but anyway the day it happened your father met up with Rupert trailing behind your father was Matilda" I continue as Josh speaks up to ask a question, Gray didn't go to speak yet.
"So Rupert didn't know what he was putting an ad out for, how did they manage to get people who would want to buy Matilda if he didn't know?" Josh asks which is something I didn't understand when we first looked into it.
"Gray's father wrote the ad, Rupert just send it out without reading it, so you can probably guess what his reaction was when he realised it was Matilda the ad was about, Rupert refused at first to play any part but somehow he managed to persuade him, we don't know how at this point" I say as Erik hands me a flyer, the one his dad put out to people who wanted her.
I hand it to Gray who took one look and dumped it on the table shaking his head, if only he knew how dark it was really going to get.
"They met down at the lake where this auction type thing was set up, Matilda was placed on a stand where the buyers would bid to buy her, it all went smoothly as first and someone won it and was willingly to pay your father one million pound for her" I sigh picturing what that poor girl must have been thinking when all this was happening "they went to do the transition but Matilda wasn't going down without a fight, she fought and managed to take down the guy that intended to buy her and bite your father so hard, that she took a few layers of his skin off, he throws her off where she hits her head and gets knocked out" I say nearly rounding up the story, but hadn't got to the worst part yet.
"She was as they put it unwanted goods and all the buyers left, this angered your father who just picked her up and threw her in the lake, Rupert went to save her but he was grabbed and also knocked out by your father so he couldn't, that's why she was found days later in the water" I say wrapping up the story tears just pricking my eyes as I spoke, Gray gets up from his chair just staring out the window.
"We'll step out for a second" Josh says before he and Erik make their way out the room, as the door closes Gray breaks down crying.
I run over wrapping my arms around him as he sobbed, he places his head on my shoulder just crying uncontrollably, this is why I didn't want him to find it all out until we know all the details, we're still lost on some parts.
"I could have helped her, as her brother it was my job to protect her" he manages to say through crying, I hold him tighter knowing how untrue that was.
"Gray you were only small yourself, even if you tried your father would have stopped you, you cannot blame yourself" I tell him just hoping to get through to him how wrong he was.
"He is lucky I cannot go to the castle this minute, or I would be ripping him to shreds this very moment!" He growls out but continues to cry, I shake my head moving away so he could see me.
"I won't let you do that do you wanna why? Because you are nothing like that man, you are kind and thoughtful and put others first before yourself" I say looking him in the eyes as I spoke.
"Erik and I are going to make this case airtight and make sure all of his crimes are reported, we will make sure he pays for all those people he hurt especially, Matilda, I'm gonna make sure he pays for ever hurting her" I say wiping a few of his tears away, he smiles a little but soon wraps me in a hug once again.
A little while later Gray calmed down, Josh and Erik even came back into the room so we could go over what he learnt about Rupert and his mate. It wasn't so plain and simple as we all first thought, it was a messy situation. This time I was sat on Gray's lap, he said he wanted me close to him after the whole story time I had to do.
Erik stood by the wall of papers with maps and photos, while Josh sat the other side of the room just trying to make sense of what was on the wall. It was confusing to people who didn't know our system, but to us it made complete sense.
"Well let's back into why Rupert and your dad stopped being best buddies, well after the incident, Rupert was just going through at lot due to what he witnessed that day, well he confided in his mate and let's just say she was utterly disgusted at what happened" I say as Erik points to a photo of Rupert's mate from the wall, she had bright red hair with bright green eyes, it's still so sad at what happened to that poor girl "Rupert told her she couldn't report what happened to officials, but thankfully, his mate did it anyway and that's the reason we know what we know about what happened, well as he was King he was never held accountable and the officials pushed it under the rug and acted as though they didn't know a thing" I go onto explain, I'm so glad me and Erik got rid of them when we did.
"Word got back to your father about what happened and he was furious, he called Rupert in that night and just went off at him, he told him he better do away with his mate or he would for him" I say but once again Josh spoke up to ask another question.
"Is that why he set the house on fire?" He asks but I shake my head no at him, he must be confused with the timeframe.
"No, if you remember the fire happened a few days after Gray's mother faked her death, that was the tenth anniversary of Matilda's death. Rupert tells the King that he will do nothing of the sort and if the King were to try, Rupert would go with proof and show everyone what horrible crimes the King had committed over the years" I say looking back at Gray to see if he was okay, he sends me a smile nodding at me to continue "let's just say the relationship between your father and Rupert came to a halt, your father didn't bother Rupert after that and hired new men to do his dirty work, which ended up being Cyrus and my father" I say but this time it wasn't Josh that spoke up to ask me a question, it was Gray.
"You said the fire that killed Rupert's mate was linked, in what way?" He asks which makes Erik turn their attention to a different part of the wall, the fire at Rupert's house part.
"As you know your father was going through the lists of people he didn't like and forcing them out their homes, Rupert was one of those people he didn't like, he tried to make him move but Rupert said he'd go to the papers if he dare try and that worked for a few years, that was until the incident with your mother" I say looking back at Gray who rolls his eyes, it shocking that if I brought her up a week ago he would cry, but now he's disgusted at even the thought of her "he knew that you were about to lock him up and just needed to get one more loose end dealt with, that's when he burnt down the house killing Rupert's mate" I explain about to get into the topic of Gray's mother, but before I could shouting erupted from outside.
Please don't say Rupert's found us.