The Gender Game 2 by Bella Forrest (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📕

that you were being framed… It seems that the culprits used your history against you to make it seem like your dissatisfaction with the government had brought you to a tipping point. But these terrorists got sloppy toward the end, and we were able to determine who they actually were.”

My hands clenched as I leaned forward. “Who?”

“Lee and Violet Bertrand.”

I froze, my mind unable to comprehend his words, much less accept them. “What?” I fought the urge to protest under the stern eye of the king, but the words were already forming on the tip of my tongue.

The king nodded and pushed the file in my direction. “It seems that Lee and Violet were originally sent here by Matrus, in order to steal something significant to our research. They succeeded in stealing the object. However, it turns out that one of them was even more radical than we thought—Mrs. Bertrand. It appears that, after completing the attack with her husband, she murdered not only him, but also Queen Rina and one of her advisors.”

My mouth dried out. This can’t be real. “Your Majesty,” I managed, “Violet wouldn’t do that. She’s not—”

The king arched an eyebrow. “Yes, we discovered what an adept little actress Mrs. Bertrand is. She had everyone fooled, including you; we have recovered documents about her true nature that are a little hard to ignore.” He glanced at the file. “I’ll give you a few minutes to take a look, shall I?”

He stood up, his chair scraping across the floor, and walked out. For a minute, I simply stared at the file, my brain still unable to accept the king’s assertion. It wasn’t possible. Violet was… not that person.

My mind suddenly flashed to the memory of her covered in the blood of the Porteque man, after she’d stabbed him to death. She had a tendency toward violence—that much I couldn’t deny. But…

My hands snatched up the folder and ripped it open.

Inside, I found an assortment of files and pictures. Violet… she was not a bakery girl, like she’d said. She had been in prison for the last five years and had murdered two females. The file even included pictures of her victims. It was… gruesome, to say the least. Her first arrest had come from attempting to smuggle her brother out of Matrus and into Patrus because he had failed the screening test. It seemed that after that, she’d snapped.

I sat back, a bitter seed growing inside me. I wanted to deny the information in front of me. I searched through the file again, looking for any indication that it had been fabricated. I couldn’t believe that Violet was responsible for all the death and carnage I had seen back at the lab. Yet the evidence didn’t change, no matter how much I tried to will it to.

The door opened as King Maxen let himself back in, breaking me out of my thoughts. He sat down across from me. “Her history isn’t pretty, is it?”

I was still struggling to process the information. It felt like I’d been hit by a ton of bricks. My brain moved slowly, unwillingly, toward the logical conclusion of these files. I shook my head. “No,” I rasped.

“She fooled everyone, Mr. Croft. Not just you, but even that partner of hers. She used him to get what she wanted and then killed him without a second thought.”

I nodded wordlessly, unable to speak. King Maxen allowed me a few more moments as I gazed down at the files again. Then, slowly, an icy grip began to coil around my heart, squeezing painfully tight. I could no longer deny that this was reality. The proof was before my very eyes.

The Violet I knew was a lie.

And there I had been, just minutes ago, mourning her death. Hell, I had walked through fire haplessly, pathetically, trying to find her.

She was alive. Escaped, and alive.

Rage and betrayal stabbed at me. I felt like an utter fool.

Her so-called innocence had been a lie meant to seduce me. She’d even kissed me, wrapped her body around mine like she was drowning… all lies.

My hands balled into fists.

“What is your plan?” I grated out.

The king made a show of collecting the papers, tapping them together until they were neatly stacked, and then placed them back into the file. I waited stiffly.

“I want you to find her,” the king said finally.

I nodded slowly, even as I swallowed hard. It made sense to send me, I supposed. I’d had the most contact with her, and was also the best suited to track her down.

“And what do I do once I find her?” I asked.

The king gazed at me, his eyes hard and flat. “Your priority is securing this.” He set a photo in front of me which depicted a silver egg. “This is integral for the continued survival of our society.”

Internally, I seethed with suspicion and doubt. I couldn’t care less about the rhetoric and propaganda: I knew the dark underside of Patrian life, and I wasn’t about to be bought off with pretty lies. But in this moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care— Violet and her betrayal were all that occupied my mind.

“I cannot stress the egg’s importance enough,” the king continued. “If it is lost, or if Matrus gets their hands on it, we will not be able to stand against them in the future… if it ever came to war.”

The king’s dark tone made me stare at him. I couldn’t miss the solemnity in his worn face.

“Again,” I said, “what do you want me to do with the girl?”

King Maxen leaned back. “If you can secure her and bring her back to Patrus for questioning, that is preferable. But if you cannot… kill her.”

Something in my chest rebelled at the thought. The thought of killing Violet was foreign and awakened feelings I wasn’t ready to process, so I pushed it down and nodded.

With that, the king rose and so did I, bowing before him.

“This will be a difficult task,