Chapter Thirty Nine.

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I could feel the weight of the betrayal heavy on my shoulders and I felt sick at the thought. How could we have been so blind? How did we not notice that his death had been a rouse? Of course it made sense now how the video of him only showed his face when they broke into the room, but conveniently his body is turned away from the camera when they were killing him, so it was clear that we had all been fooled.

I turned slightly to my left to look at Pedro.

His face was long, his mouth hanging open and his eye welled with tears. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, and in all honestly, it felt like we all were. We'd each accepted his death as the truth, so seeing him standing there alive was unbelievable at first, but then the root of how and why sank in and all you're left with is dismay.

Poor Pedro opened and closed his mouth over and over, his body shaking as he stared at Patrick. One look was all I needed to know that Pedro had no idea what Patrick had been up to. Thankfully, Octavia reached out to hold Pedro's hand, giving me the opportunity to turn my back on him for a moment.

I glared up at Patrick as he walked to the front, stopping to stand beside Demetri.

"How could you do this to us?" I demanded. "To Pedro?"

Patrick tisked his tongue. "To Pedro?" He repeated me. "I did this for Pedro."

Pedro shook his head at my side. "For me?" He yelled. "You betrayed me and everyone I love!"

Patrick rolled his eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, darling." He cooed.

"Why did you do this?" I asked again, my patience thinning. "What good is Rose to you?"

Patrick turned his head to admire himself in one of the long mirrors, then smiled turning back to face me across the room. "Pedro has always deserved to rule." He said evenly. "From the day I met him, it was obvious. Being a Master in the king's trusted advisors wasn't a place for him, the throne was his true destiny." He told me. "King Gordo was an imbecile and he embarrassed himself and his people." Patrick shook his head and his rebels nodded in agreement with him. "My original plan almost worked out, if it hadn't been for you." He spat at me.

I furrowed my brows and Calvin came to my side. "What does Rachel have to do with anything?" He asked. "What original plan?"

Demetri and Patrick smiled at each other. "You thought you'd taken care of all of the rebels who had attacked the castle and killed your father, but you didn't." Patrick said matter-of-factly.

"You?" Calvin murmured, his eyes wide.

Patrick grinned. "Yes, me." He laughed cheekily. "I was pulling strings behind the entire operation, but everyone knew to never give up my name because if the first plan was a failure, I was going to come up with the next one."

Pedro was leaning his weight on Octavia and staring up at Patrick in complete disbelief. "You were behind killing our king?" He asked. "I never wanted that! I respect the monarchy!"

Patrick sighed. "I knew that you did, which is why I needed to change it." He told him. "I wanted to ensure that you'd have the highest position possible, and that we'd finally have a king who was worth a damn, and I thought Calvin would be that." He waived his hand at Calvin. "He was so much more kingly when we'd made our plans. We were going to kill Gordo, have Calvin reign, and finally have the ruler we wanted while my Pedro sat at his side as the hand of the king, but then Rachel had to ruin that all." He glowered at me then turned back to Calvin. "She weakened you, and we no longer saw in you what we wanted, so I planned to kill you and once you were gone, Pedro would become the king, as he always should have been. However, Rachel wasn't really dead, and not only that but she was carrying the true heir to the kingdom and eventually people would find out and Pedro would be out of a job again, so I had to go back to the drawing board."

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