The Gender Lie (The Gender Game #3) by Bella Forrest (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

very real way of dealing a blow to the institutions. They didn’t care about the people they hurt in the process: All they cared about was revenge.

I also highly doubted that they would believe me about Desmond drugging the boys. If I mentioned it, it would seem like a desperate claim, trying to taint the reputation of someone they loved.

I stood up and continued walking, doing my best to ignore the snide comments and yells. The sand crunched under my feet as I marched through it and stopped about thirty feet from Desmond.

“Let him go,” I said, my voice ringing out loudly, and, thankfully, calmly.

Turning her back to me, Desmond held the microphone to her lips. “You see,” she cried. “Why else would she come, if she weren’t a spy?”

The crowd murmured in agreement, and I felt my brows draw up in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked, taking a step forward and looking at the audience. “I came up here because you were threatening my boyfriend!”

I felt Viggo’s eyes on me, but I kept my focus on Desmond and the crowd. Desmond was trying to convince them that I was working against them, but I wasn’t about to make it that easy.

Desmond turned back to me, shaking her head sadly. “We trusted this girl—we trusted her with our deepest secrets, never knowing that she was really working for Matrus. And her boyfriend here for Patrus.”

She planted a foot on Viggo’s shoulders and gave him a little shove, sending him tumbling to the ground. He sat up quickly, shaking the sand off his face. I held my ground, staring at her. “Seriously? This is the best you can come up with? That I work for Matrus and him Patrus? There are so many problems with that I don’t even know where to start!”

“Enough, Ms. Bates. We are tired of your… deceptions. I have suspected you for some time, ever since that… special meeting you wanted to schedule with me out of the blue… mere days before seeing our plan finally come to fruition. You see… when I started this operation, I knew that both countries would eventually figure out that something was up and send agents to investigate. I don’t know how, but you must have been tipped off that Lee was working with someone else. You probably didn’t know who then, but you and your partner here—as unprecedented as it seems—started working together once you realized how effective we could… would… become.

“But then you got impatient. You bided your time, put on the good soldier act, all the while waiting to be clued in to the details of our plan. And when that didn’t work, you got more impatient and had your boyfriend sneak in to my office to steal the plans that we have spent years putting into motion and escape like rats in the night. Do you deny it?”

The crowd hushed, waiting for my answer. I didn’t address Desmond—instead, I turned to the crowd. “You don’t actually believe this, right?” I said incredulously. “Most of you saw the aftermath of the twins—the princesses—we killed defending ourselves. How could I do that if I was a Matrian spy? Why would I?”

The crowd murmured, and I took that as a good sign; I hesitated, and then decided to go for it. “She’s right—Viggo was in her office, snooping around—but not to report her location to her enemies. He was there because… we suspect Desmond is giving the boys a drug to make them more complicit to her ideas! She’s trying to use them, the same way Matrus used them!”

The crowd hushed and then someone shouted, “Where’s your proof?”

I looked at Viggo, who shook his head grimly. “Desmond caught Viggo before he could find it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Ask for her handheld! Check it out for yourself.”

Desmond gave me a bored look and glanced at the crowd. “Go ahead. I have nothing to hide—you all knew about the Benuxupane. I’ve been giving it to them in small doses to see if they showed improvement, and they have. Why do you think they’ve been getting better faster?”

I felt stunned by her declaration. “You promised you wouldn’t start administering it until you had determined whether or not Viggo’s plan would work!” I shouted.

“I had determined that his program was helping, but not fast enough. Certainly not fast enough for the family members who want nothing more than to have their children returned to them, healthy and whole.”

I paused, realizing I was on a slippery slope. “Okay, but what about this grand idea? Have any of you stopped to think about it? What it means? She doesn’t want to target the nobility or the people in power—she wants to manufacture a war between two countries. One that will kill innocents. Now, I don’t know about you, but I still have family living out there. People I care about, getting killed in the name of a war that they don’t even understand! I can’t live with that. Can you honestly tell me you can?”

The crowd fell silent, and I could see the thoughtful expressions on many of their faces. For a second, I felt certain that my words had swayed them, until someone in the back shouted, “Traitor!” The entire room crumbled into shouts and jeers.

Desmond sauntered over to me and I held steady, keeping my hands at my sides. She twisted her wrist, letting the microphone drop from her mouth and point toward the ground, before giving me a pitying smile.

“You know, Violet,” she said, her voice soft and low, “I never imagined that it would come to this. But now that it has, I hope you can appreciate the irony as much as I do.”

“You’re a snake, Desmond. No wonder your son wanted to be free of you.”

Her smile flickered and faded into a scowl, and she turned back to the crowd. As she did, I took a step back and pulled out my gun, pointing