"Holy Shit! Adam did it. I know he did it because he wanted revenge because I left him," Victoria said hysterically, and the cops looked at her with a lot of interest.
"So, you were having an affair with your husband's business partner? Interesting, right? Does Max know about this?" Simeon asked as he adjusted his sitting position.
"He doesn't, and please don't tell him," Victoria pleaded, and Simeon hid a laugh.
"Tell us more about you and Mr. Pattens and why you were quiet about this all along," Dennis said in a serious tone, and Victoria sighed deeply before dropping another bombshell.
"I left him because I got involved with someone else, someone close to him."
"Who?' Dennis and Simeon asked in unison, their eyes wide in shock.
"Jake," Victoria said in a whisper
"This is insane," Dennis said in disgust. He shuffled the chair, and Simeon nodded in agreement.
"Father and son? Are you okay upstairs, or should we ask for a mental checkup?" Simeon asked Victoria, and that question hit her to the core.
"I'm fine," she answered between hiccups and sniffles.
"How did you get involved with a man your son' s age?" Simeon asked with interest and Victoria looked up at him hollowly without any expression.
She was more than ashamed of herself at that point, and honestly, she was contemplating not saying anything, but she thought of Travis lying on a hospital bed because of her.
She thought of Adam smiling and happily living wherever he was and thought she had had enough.
"Didn't you for once imagine how you would feel if a woman supposed to care for your son did the same? Weren't you afraid of bigger repercussions? Yes, we are aware you were suspended from work. What was the reason?" Simeon asked, and Victoria kept quiet, at a loss for words.
She thought back to the first time she met Adam because of Jake and her ensuing entanglements.
He had gone to her school to follow up on his son Jake's performance. He was in the principal's office, and the principal kept calling Jake's subject teachers, but no one showed up.
They all knew the drill well. Adam would embarrass and fault them for Jake's poor performance.
He was known to demean teachers in front of his son, and Jake had followed in his footsteps.
He attended class when he felt like and when he did, he was always talking back at teachers and totally not paying attention.
He was rude to his classmates, and one by one, they started avoiding him. Rumour was that he used to pay his classmates to do CATs and assignments for him, but everyone refused to after he harassed them for getting something wrong.
Now, his performance had dropped, and his dad was worried.
Victoria had stepped in and talked to him, and Adam offered to pay her to tutor his son, and that's where the problem began.
Victoria would go to their home, and most often, Jake would skip classes and opt for parties.
Adam would apologize for his son's misbehavior and still pay Victoria for her time.
Once in a while, Adam would show up instead of Jake, and the two would catch up and drink a little.
It became a routine, and Victoria started longing for evenings with Adam as he would hear her talk about herself, something she loved doing.
Max was always at home late and tired, and they never really caught up.
Each evening, Victoria and Adam drank a little extra than the previous night until one evening, when too drunk and out of their senses, they went to bed together.
"How did you start your relationship with Jake?" Simeon asked, seeing Victoria had stopped talking without narrating that part of the story. "How did Adam find out about it? If it's about you and Jake, why would Adam want to kill Travis? You didn't kill his son."
"Jake's performance was dropping so drastically, and I saw how changed Adam had become towards me. I didn't want to lose his friendship, so I thought of a way of helping his son. It was illegal," Victoria said, then sighed deeply and heavily.
"I…I used to leak exam questions to him. I used Travis to give Jake the questions. Then Jake and Travis started hanging out and became friends. Jake got to know our home as a result, and I think he got to know my other side from that point," Victoria narrated in a low voice as she looked down and fumbled with her fingerns.