CHAPTER 137: IT WAS ME!

Carefully, Vivian weighed her words before speaking. She needed to be one hundred per cent sure she was not going to antagonize Edith, but at the same time, she should speak emotionally and rationally, since it was Edith.

She let out a sigh and started telling Edith the truth.

"Richard killed Reginald for some fucking reason that may or may not involve me. Your brother Edmond is aware of that. Why do you think your family allowed your engagement annulment so easily? The House of Shadows missing out on a betrothal with the House of War? Everyone knew everything, Edith, except you."

"YOU’RE LYING!"

Edith jumped off her seat, almost about to storm out of the room, but Vivian knew how to make her stop.

"As I said, you can ask your brother. He covered the whole thing up, as he always does," she said, and looked at Edith. "Who was running around now trying to cover up for Liam’s whole situation with the fake convoys?"

"It was simply a tool for political favors," Edith said.

"So political favors involve smuggling criminals across the city, moving contraband, stolen animals, and bending the law?"

"But... all evidence led us to believe that the Prince’s operation was hijacked by Waterlow criminals. The King has already punished Prince Liam for his misconduct."

"You seriously don’t know what a cover-up is?" Vivian rolled her eyes and dismissed Edith’s words. "Whatever! Just keep burying your head in the sand."

The aggressiveness of those words seemed to have found their way under Edith’s skin very precisely, as if Vivian knew just how to provoke her friend. Edith had to stand up and skip through the room once while almost feeling suffocated and angered.

"Whatever the reasons you may have had, whatever bad situation you are in, nothing justifies the murder and mayhem you caused."

Edith took a turn for provoking Vivian, who looked at her junior with her beautiful eyes wide, yet showed no hint of anger... yet.

"Are you sure about that?" Vivian asked, standing up with pain running amok through her body.

"What is there not to be sure about?"

"I understand why you came to see me today, Edith. You’re honest. You’ve seen things, that magic they are using to torture me through Beatrix, it is bothering you. Only honest people would be as stressed as you are in situations like these. Only they would be dishonest with themselves just to avoid disappointment once everyone they once believed in turns out to be a liar."

Vivian said as the expressions on Edith’s face betrayed her, then continued:

"Do you know why Beatrix does what she does for Ian? Because she has nobody else. She would harm herself for him because nobody in her family actually loves her.

"She wasn’t raised like you and me. The Morgans are extreme bastards when it comes to their daughters. In her mind, that slave-trading bastard called Ian is a future where she can be loved and cared for, that she kept fantasizing over and over all her life. Compare that to her family, who always called her useless and a marriage sow, she worships his image.

"And do you know what happens next? He abandons her the same way I was abandoned by Liam, the same way you were almost abandoned by Richard. Well, Richard is a guy’s guy, so thank fuck he didn’t hang you on some stupid shit feelings, but Beatrix is not, I was not. I literally almost killed myself that day they wanted me wed to the pig son of a baron from the countryside.

"Me? Marrying a pig? Because I upset Liam’s toy girl?"

"I admit it was excessive, but..."

"Excessive? I’ll tell you what’s excessive. I put on a mask and killed a few bad guys, and you know the first name they gave me? The Swan! See? Even those common-born fools couldn’t see it any other way. To them, I appeared like a swan: grace, beauty, elegance, even while killing and burning. But those imbeciles, in their infinite stupidity, wanted to marry me off to a pig.

"So... what would you have me do, oh, wise and law-abiding Edith of House Black? Petition for justice against the Royal Family? Ask for forgiveness on my knees? Tremble before the commoner girl and kiss her shoes?"

"..."

"No, Edith, I had to take matters into my own hands. Nobody would give me the justice I deserved, so I had to carve it out with my own blade. I had to slaughter the pig myself at the end of the day."

"What?"

"Yes, Edith. I am sorry I wasn’t forthcoming with you the first time we met."

"You mean..."

"It was me, Edith."

While not the most critical confession in comparison to the whole thing of Vivian being the Bloody Swan, Edith realized that the moment she met Vivian, she was someone cunning enough to evade her completely, someone who used every opportunity during their first meeting to manipulate her way of being a suspect.

That Vivian was now bold enough to admit everything, with a gaze that would not falter, admitting it all:

"I did it, Edith. With my very hands, I stabbed the piggy boy rather than taking my own life. I’d do it again, and again, and again, until I make a fucking mountain of pigs and declare myself its queen."

What would Edith do?

Attack, Item, Talk, Run.

Attacking Vivian to arrest her would mean she would have to go through everyone in this mansion.

The items on her were not sufficient to face Vivian, who is the undisputed queen of combat gadgets.

Talking was already done, as it seemed that Vivian would not say more than what she had to say.

Running would be difficult too. Vivian would not admit all that if she were planning on letting her go, and Edith could tell that there were people outside the room and in Vivian’s dressing room, probably armed.

She was truly out of options.

"Edith."

But it seemed that Vivian still had more to say. Edith turned to her but struggled to maintain eye contact. Vivian tilted her head, her eyes scanning Edith’s face carefully, before starting to strike the chords that needed to be struck.

"Be honest with yourself," she said and stood on her end of the bed, getting closer to Edith, who seemed rather unsettled by this approach. "You, me, and everyone who was ever hurt by that gang of backstabbing sons of bitches. Together, we can kick their asses and get justice for everyone."