"I do not accept it. I simply do not!" Davys raged as he glared at Valerya and threw her resignation letter at her face. After her declaration, he had calmly led her to his study, while Auguri Anna followed silently behind them.
"Well, you have to accept, because I gave you sufficient notice. I'll officially leave in a week. You have no constitutional right not to accept," Valerya countered.
"Well, I'm the freaking president! How's that for constitution?" he said. "You can't leave me, I won't let you," he said more calmly.
"Sorry to disturb your romantic conversation with your mistress, but I'm standing right here. And yes, Ms. Valerya, I do accept your resignation," Auguri Anna stated stiffly.
"And who asked for your input?" Davys retorted. "Get out!" he ordered. His wife looked at them both before stamping her foot and storming out of the room.
He turned to Valerya and muttered, "You were saying?"
She calmly picked up the letter from the floor and placed it on the table. "I wrote it the night you saw me and Sebastian in your father's room. I thought of everything, Davys. I weighed the pros and cons. The job security, the prestige, the housing, the extra vehicle, the exorbitant salary, all from being your head of security. But I could not for the life of me keep doing it. I feel like I die a little bit inside anytime I see you with your wife. That is why I have to leave."
"I don't want you to go."
"What do you expect me to do? I can't breathe here. I feel suffocated," she replied. "I want to go back to my job. I know my duties would be different now as second maestro, but I'll adjust."
He walked slowly towards her and grabbed her by the arms. She tried to push him off but he held on more tightly. He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face to the side before his lips could meet hers.
"You hate me that much?" he asked.
"I can't stand you."
"Why?"
"Because you killed your father," she said.
His jaw went slack and he let go of her, stunned. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. He looked so terrified, that Valerya almost felt sorry for him.
"Don't insult my intelligence," Valerya said. "The only reason I won't tell on you is the empire. It is everything to me. I know if I reveal what I have learned, it would throw the empire into anarchy and chaos. At best. I have always put the empire above everyone, and I would continue to do so. But the least you owe me is an explanation. Tell me why you did it."
He looked at her for a while, weighing his options, before his shoulders sagged in relief. "I had my reasons."
"Nothing justifies what you did."
He looked at her and blurted, "If you're going to judge me, this conversation is over."
"I won't. Continue," she said quickly.
"I've been wanting to do it for a very long time. He was passing these laws… and was working on a project. I can't tell you the details, but he killed anyone who as much as breathed a whisper of it to anyone. He needed to be stopped. Now, I knew Vivien had been trying to kill me. The meetings with the president and the chief, all those theories, fake. I was only pretending not to know who was after me. I was waiting for the perfect moment to get rid of the president and her in one fell swoop. I only had to bid my time.
"I knew how her mind worked. I hired a top-secret agent. The same one who helped me sneak out the Vireot you know of, as well as others like her. He pretended to be a hitman and linked her up with someone who could get the job done. That way, I learned of her plan. Heck, I gave her the plan. I had a hologram created with a bullet with the president's name on it. As I was the chief organizer of the conference I knew the layout like the back of my hand. I knew where each person would be, what time speeches would be made, the time the assassination attempt would be made on me, as well as the exact position of my target. It was then or never.
"Everything went perfectly. My agent had swapped the hitman's bullet so even if it had hit me, I would have survived. The hologram, on the other hand, was too precise to have missed. The hitman got killed so he couldn't testify against my agent. Vivien got executed, and no one believed her. No one cared. The hologram was programmed to self-destruct. So the only evidence except myself, is my agent. And he would never talk. He has done worse things for me, besides, he is extremely loyal.
"But you punished Vivien's family severely," Valerya stated.
"Collateral damage. And besides, she did attempt to kill me. That is treason, and her family was to be executed. The only reason I spared them, was because she helped me, albeit unknowingly."
"You killed your father not because of any evil scheme he was plotting, but because you wanted so badly to be president."
"No it wasn't," he countered.
"Yes, it was," she insisted.
"What, you think I couldn't wait a few years? Do you think I wanted so badly to have all this responsibility heaped on my shoulders? Maybe it wasn't just for his experiments, maybe it was a little bit of everything. Maybe I hated him. Maybe I wanted to feel like for once in my life, I was doing something right."
"You're incredibly intelligent, I'll give you that. I'm leaving, Davys. I'll go back to my regular job, and you're going to accept my resignation. If you don't, I'll tell everyone what you did, even though I don't want to. I know doing so means giving up my life, but I don't care anymore. Stay away from me," Valerya said as she walked out the door. She didn't know it then, but that was a turning point in her life. And one of her last happy moments.