Chapter 105: It's him. It's been him this entire time.

“That’s genuinely bad.” Felix nodded slowly to himself. “I really didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea about me on top of all this.” He tilted his head slightly. “But did you feel any better after doing it? Spreading the rumors, I mean.”

Vivi nodded, hesitant. “At first, yeah. Only at first. But it spread a lot further than I ever meant it to.”

“Fair enough. But why decide to kill people over it? That whole fake Hakimi agenda.”

“I didn’t.” Vivi’s head snapped up, voice sharp with denial. “I never told anyone to kill a single person. I was just as shocked as everyone else. I actually thought the men I paid had been the ones killed. I regretted it the second I heard. Couldn’t even bring myself to go see the body.” Her hands twisted in her lap. “Then word got around that Hakimi was going to confess everything, publicly, so I went to the square myself to see it happen. And that’s when you caught me.”

“You didn’t kill him.” Felix said it plainly, thinking it through out loud. “And I doubt the Duke did either, not with how much of a mess that would’ve made instead of cleaning anything up.” He glanced down at his own empty bowl, then over at hers, still sitting full and untouched. “You gonna drink that or just hold it forever?”

Vivi looked down at the bowl in her lap, almost surprised to find it still there, and finally scooped up a spoonful, swallowing it down. “It’s really good.” She kept eating, one spoonful after another, her shoulders slowly loosening with each one.

Felix leaned back into the sofa, arms crossed. *I can’t say I’m all that shocked she wasn’t behind the killing. Someone else took advantage of the chaos she started for their own reasons. Another one of Hakimi’s enemies, maybe.*

“Shouldn’t Hakimi be the one who killed them?” Vivi glanced over at him, scraping the last of the soup from the bottom of the bowl.

“No. He’s not even in town right now. I told him myself to stay clear of all this.”

Vivi’s brow furrowed. “What exactly is your relationship with Hakimi?”

“Nothing.” Felix pushed himself up off the sofa. “I don’t like that asshole any more than you do, honestly. But he’s got my wife. Doesn’t leave me much choice but to hunt down whoever’s behind these rumors.”

“Wait, what?” Vivi stared at him, clearly struggling to process it. “Hakimi has your wife?”

“Yep.” Felix shot her a small wink. “Guess your rumors weren’t entirely made up after all.”

Vivi just stared, completely at a loss. “Huh?”

“It’s late.” Felix headed for the door. “I’ll come back around later. Stay put here for now.”

Felix walked out into the crisp air, the door shutting behind him, his hands in his pocket while his mind was already moving quicker than his body.

Vivi is the source, but not the murderer. There must have been someone who took up her lead and escalated it to murder. Someone who wanted to discredit Hakimi badly enough to murder him.

He kicked away a stone from the ground, re-playing the sequence of events in his mind.

The imposter was murdered as soon as he left my custody. He was beaten, poisoned, his throat slashed, and disposed of near the west gate. The person responsible knew exactly where I would take him, which means they were following. They were either following me or following the imposter closely enough to act as soon as I released him.

How many people knew I had him at all?

The answer came quickly to him, although he did not realize that he had stopped walking.

No one. No one other than the merchant who led me to him. Rodrick.

He walked on and on, the pieces falling into place one by one now, more quickly than he could keep up with.

Rodrick knew names. Exactly who to direct me to. His name, his field, where he worked, facts I spent weeks trying to verify for myself. A businessman who apparently had himself extorted by the same hooligans that he was all too willing to help me hunt down. But then, immediately following a dead body, he shows up at the scene asking me if I was the one who did it.

Verifying. Verifying if I actually saw anything that linked back to him.

Felix froze right in the middle of the deserted street.

It’s him. It’s been him this entire time.

Motion filled the palace early in the morning, with maids bringing garlands and flowers down the hallways, while servants carried large pieces of fabric upstairs to the railings, while somewhere in the front hall, hammers beat rhythmically, and decorations started appearing on the walls and staircase. It was like something was preparing there, although no one spoke about it directly.

She strode through everything with determination, coming to Diana’s door and opening it without waiting for a reply.

Diana was lying on the bed, wearing her pajamas, with wide-open eyes looking blankly into the ceiling above.

“Lady Diana.” Barbara walked towards her rapidly. “You need to get up.”

“Don’t disturb me.” Her reply came emotionally flat.

“It is really not going to be possible today.” Barbara opened the closet and started picking dresses. “Lady Mirabelle’s sister will be here this morning. Nicole also. You are expected to welcome them properly, which requires you to be dressed and downstairs within the hour.”

Diana didn’t budge. “I don’t care who is coming.”

“You will care,” she said, “when your mother comes looking for you herself and discovers that you are still lying here like this.” Barbara had found a pale-blue dress and placed it over the end of the bed. “Come on, now. Please.”

“Why are they even bothering to come?”

Her hands paused for just a moment above the fabric, and there was something thoughtful about her face for a brief moment, before she covered it up. “I’m not sure I know the whole reason. Just that it is an important matter and that you are supposed to dress accordingly no matter how you are feeling.”

Finally, Diana sat up, unwillingly, and focused her attention on the dress lying on the bed in front of her. “Alright.”

“Good,” Barbara became more relaxed and went to her side. “Let’s prepare you for that.”