The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 251: Picking sides (3)

"Kenneth, I don’t like your mother going with him, but there is nothing we can do right now because she still loves him and doesn’t want to leave his side," Tessa said, placing her hand on Kenneth’s shoulder to try calming him.

She wanted Karen to stay as much as Kenneth wanted her to stay, but they were not going to succeed in changing her mind so easily.

"We have to kill him," Kenneth said, more certain about it now than before.

Grant was not only a threat to Hazel and Tobias, but to his family. It was hard to think of killing his father before, but now Kenneth saw it as something he could easily do.

"Your mother said that we must attend his winter party. She said she could point out all the men he had been meeting with. I can tell my parents that Linda and I won’t be coming," Tessa suggested.

"No," Kenneth shook his head. "I need the two of you out of town by then. I will send you off with guards. I prefer the two of you away from what is to come."

Kenneth’s weaknesses right now were his wife and children. The boys could protect themselves while Linda and Tessa could not as they didn’t know how to use a weapon. Since he did not pick his father’s side today, Kenneth knew Grant well enough to know that he would try harming his family to convince him.

"Start packing your things right now. You will return right after the winter party as I know Linda will not want to be away for long. Should something happen, I will send someone to stop you from returning. I must speak with the king. Liam," Kenneth turned to his son. "Watch over your mother. Call Jack from training the men."

"Shouldn’t you wait a little? What if your father is nearby to see you leaving? They just made it out the gates," Tessa said, fearing a fight would happen now if the two crossed paths so soon.

Judging from how Grant treated Karen before them, if he planned to harm her, Grant was not going to wait until they were home to do it.

Tessa no longer believed that she was the only one Grant wouldn’t hesitate to kill. With Kenneth being one of the people who could get in the way of Grant’s plans, she didn’t doubt for a second that he would hurt his only son.

"Please stay a little longer and then leave," Tessa requested. This was the only way to calm her mind. "And bring Linda when you return. He needs her so he won’t harm her but I don’t want him to fill her head with nonsense. I will gather a few maids to pack our things now."

"Be safe," Tessa said, kissing Kenneth goodbye.

Liam watched as his mother walked away. He would need to join her in packing her things along with Jack to keep her in a good mood. "You should be careful. Outside of our current falling out, it is disappointing to see Grandfather become this way. It is hard to fathom that he was one of the men I once respected."

"Perhaps he has always been this way and we failed to notice. Especially me," Kenneth said, feeling this was partly his fault. He was around his father in the past to notice something if he just paid a little more attention.

When Grant’s interest in the throne started growing, Kenneth thought he should have been there to end it. Now there was no convincing his father to stop.

"Father, you are not to place any blame on yourself. We swore to protect the kingdom so we would have never thought a traitor would have come from our family," said Liam.

He could not have Grant getting to both of his parents.

"When placing blame, it is to only go to Grant. When speaking of a Henson traitor, it is only Grant that we speak of. I won’t forgive you if you place blame on yourself and fall into a sunken place. You’re normally the person who is the voice of reason and we need you now. Excuse me," Liam said, parting with his father as he needed to find his brother.

Kenneth smiled as Liam certainly was the most mature of the three sons though he had moments of acting like the most childish one. It wasn’t a simple task to not place some blame on himself but one thing Kenneth was certain of was that the blame he placed on himself was small in comparison to what he put on his father.

When this all ended, Kenneth would not try to help deflect the blame that would be put on his father for anyone who would be hurt if there were to be a fight. Grant was responsible for every order he gave.

Kenneth exited his home, ready to head toward the palace. "Prepare a carriage."

...

Over an hour later, Kenneth arrived at the palace. He was led to a palace garden where there was now a large statue of Hazel.

"Are your gifts for her always like this? So grand," Kenneth commented.

Tobias approached Kenneth, his gaze still on the statue. "My gifts are to be fit for a queen. Hazel loves flowers so this gift suits her. Long after the two of us are gone, this statue will be here for her to be remembered. I am making an order that it is not to move. Jealous?"

Kenneth looked at the statue again. "It is well done but not so beautiful that I prefer it over my appearance."

"I mean by how good I am at spoiling my wife. Must you always be so serious? What bad news have you brought to me now?" Tobias asked, knowing Kenneth wasn’t here for fun.

"My parents came to visit me today. My mother told my wife that we should attend the winter party. I wasn’t planning to attend as I was escorting my wife and daughter out of town, but I will now," said Kenneth.

"Take them out of town, Kenneth. I don’t want you to regret not escorting them. Unfortunately for us, Hazel wants to attend the party and I couldn’t find a good reason for why she cannot attend this year. I may soon need to tell her the truth. I am only concerned about piling this on everything else troubling her," Tobias said, worried that he might be the one to add the final piece to offset her.

"My father is rarely in the palace so I don’t have anyone else to ask. Have you ever felt that you were lacking as a husband? That no matter what you did, it just isn’t enough?" Tobias asked.

Kenneth was strangely a second father figure so Tobias trusted coming to him with his fears.

"More times than I can count. I thought Tessa would have long grown tired of me with the many times I had to be away to fight. Each time I returned, I would have been apologising to her. Doing that was what made her angry," Kenneth said, still not believing it years later.

Kenneth continued, "Then I worried about what she faced when I wasn’t by her side. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that no matter how many people I placed by her side, I couldn’t always protect her. It’s normal to feel like you aren’t doing your best sometimes. Just talk to her."

"I did but the feeling persists. I’ve been doing everything I can to please her which is why I am letting her join me at the winter party. Edgar will be there with his wife so I have an ally. I look forward to seeing who Grant has become close with. I want to remember the faces of who I will kill after him," said Tobias.

All the men who thought that Grant was going to be the one to bring them all that desire would find their life coming to a quick end.

"Only you and Edgar will know right now that I am looking for somewhere to send Hazel while I do a proper cleansing of this palace. I can no longer do things by the book by finding evidence. I don’t care if I will be called a tyrant. I must handle this another way," Tobias said, done with trying to go the safe path.

Kenneth couldn’t object to Tobias’s plans as things in this town were getting a little out of hand. "I will help where you need extra hands."

"Then, I would like to borrow one of your sons. I have tasked Edgar to find the missing girls in town, but now I need someone to look into why the maids here seem to be declining. One of Hazel’s maids was the one to bring it to her attention. Would one of your sons care to look around?" Tobias asked.

The only person Tobias could trust to look into this was Mark, but Mark was busy at the moment with looking into what happened with Edgar’s wife and helping where he could with the missing girl’s case.

"Liam would be the one most suited to help you. I will send him tomorrow morning to start looking. Please be safe when you attend the party. Do not stay long," Kenneth advised Tobias.