Broken Princess: Ruthless Rulers Book 3

by Hart, Stella

  “So they formed the Order to try and stop it anyway?”

  “No. Like I said, they knew they couldn’t stop progress without being steamrolled into oblivion. The Order was born as a result of their desire to revert the progress.” Liz hesitated and cocked her head to the side. “Have you ever heard of the Hegelian dialectic?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s where a group creates a problem, knowing in advance how people are going to react to that problem. They begin agitating for something to be done about this issue. For change. Once the general public is angry enough about the problem, the group that secretly manufactured the issue in the first place unveils a solution. The people are so thrilled to have a plan to solve the problem that they accept it blindly and demand to have it implemented. They don’t realize they’ve been manipulated. They don’t realize the so-called solution has actually left them worse-off than before.”

  “What does that have to do with the Order?” I asked, furrowing my brows. “Is that what they’ve been doing?”

  Liz smiled. “Yes. Since the dawn of their existence.”

  “How? What’s their big fake solution?”

  She lifted a hand. “Patience, Willow. Like I said, this will take a while to explain.” She paused to clear her throat. “Anyway, as I was saying before, my family could see that society was heading toward pure democracy with a two-party system. Instead of trying to change that, which would’ve led to an inevitable pushback by the rebellious unwashed masses who were screaming for change, they decided to pretend to embrace this new democracy while subtly undermining it until the day they could rise again. The Order was established to help with this process. My family used it to obtain all of the connections they could possibly need to help things along.”

  “Help things along to where?”

  “To a new world order. Remember our motto? Novus ordo orbis. That’s what it means.” She smiled again. “We’ve been building our long-term plan and undermining democracy in this country for decades, and it’s all going to come to fruition soon.”

  “How?”

  “In various ways. Do you recall all of the scandals that have happened in the Democratic party over the last few years?”

  “Yes.”

  “We did that. We used Order members and their connections to obtain damaging information on prominent Democrats, and then we used that information to destroy them. At this point, there have been so many scandals in the party that the vast majority of their supporters have grown sick and tired of it. They have no chance of winning an election for decades to come.”

  “I see.” I tilted my chin to one side. “You’ve been destroying the Republicans just as much, haven’t you?”

  Liz smiled victoriously. “Yes. Our plan there was different. We used your mother,” she said. “We saw her political potential years ago, along with Theodore Rutherford’s. We knew how much the two of them would appeal to voters. So we used our connections to ensure that Rutherford would eventually become president, and we also ensured your mother would become his vice president.”

  “Then you killed Rutherford so you could frame my mother.”

  “Not right away. First, we installed Jamie on his staff as a senior aide. Jamie then forged a relationship with your mother and convinced her that she should be the president instead, and he promised to betray Rutherford and help her make it happen.”

  “Then you killed him.”

  Liz smiled again. “Yes. Jamie poisoned him at his birthday party, under my orders. He also set up that conversation by the pool with your mother, where he provoked her into saying certain incriminating things. He secretly filmed it all so it could be leaked to the media later in order to make her look guilty.”

  My brows furrowed. “But Jamie is about to be indicted, because that tape made him look guilty too. He’ll probably spend the rest of his life in prison.”

  Liz shook her head. “No, darling. The plan is for Jamie to pretend to flip on your mom and cut a deal with the DOJ in return for immunity. He’ll claim that it was all your mother’s idea, and that she was the one who poisoned Rutherford. He’ll also say she seduced him into helping her cover up the murder, and he was so blinded by his feelings for her that he didn’t realize how terrible it was until the last minute.”

  “So my mom will be completely destroyed,” I said in a hollow voice. “Even though she’s totally innocent.”

  “Yes. Because of that, the Republican party’s image will be ruined as well,” Liz said. “Thus, both major parties are completely wrecked in the eyes of the public. No one will want to vote for either of them.”

  “So that’s the problem you’ve manufactured. You’ve convinced the general public that the two-party system is broken and unsalvageable. Filled with snakes.”

  “Yes. Good girl,” Liz said, reaching over to pat my head like I was a well-behaved pet. “Can you guess what our solution is?”

  I let out a deep sigh. “The centrist party you’ve been supporting behind Chuck’s back. It’s really a front for the Hales, isn’t it?”

  “That’s right, darling!” she said, clasping her hands together. “The American Unity Party. The representatives currently in it—like Jeremy Carlton—are our puppets.”

  “What’s going to happen with it?”

  “We’ll use every connection we have to ensure they win the next election,” she said. “Fifty years ago, it would’ve been impossible for a third party to win, given the state of politics at the time, but over the last few decades, we’ve pushed things to the point where people will actually come out in droves to vote for them.”

  “And then you’ll use the party to erode people’s rights and freedoms, won’t you?” I said, upper lip curling with disgust. “You’ll do it so slowly that they’ll barely notice it’s happening.”

  “Exactly. We’ll do that until the AUP is the only viable party left. Any other contenders will be smashed into submission.” Liz let out a satisfied sigh. “America will eventually become a true one-party state, and then we can finally step out of the shadows and put ourselves back where we belong. In charge.”

  I shook my head slowly. “So the Order’s overall goal is to destroy democracy and form a twisted new kind of monarchy with your family as the rulers.”

  “Yes.”

  My eyes widened as a light bulb suddenly switched on in my mind.

  When Logan and I went to question Chloe about Q’s identity a few weeks ago, we were suspicious of my mother. Because of that preconceived notion, we heard what we wanted to hear through Chloe’s rasping mutters.

  We were wrong.

  She wasn’t saying ‘Q is for Quinn’, and when she stuttered the word ‘mother’, she wasn’t referring to my mom. She knew it was her mother, and she knew what the codename stood for.

  Q is for Queen.

  I gritted my teeth. “That’s where your codename came from. You picked it because you fancy yourself as the rightful queen of this country.”

  Liz smiled. “Yes. I know it seems a little on the nose, but I couldn’t resist.”

  I shook my head slowly. “Do you know how insane all of this sounds?” I asked. “I mean, your family has been biding their time for over a hundred and fifty years and destroying countless lives, just so they can eventually have a chance at ruling the country one day. It’s absurd.”

  “Well, we had to do it very slowly, or else it would seem like a coup,” Liz said, forehead creasing. “We needed it to look like a natural progression of society.”

  “I get that, but who the hell do you think you are?” I said, cheeks flaming with indignant fury. “What makes you think the Hales deserve to rule over anyone else at any point in history?”

  “We belong at the top because we’re the best. It’s our rightful place,” she replied, lifting her chin.

  “Bullshit.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Most people on this planet are idiotic sheep, Willow. They have no idea what’s best for t
hem or their country. But we do. We’re smarter and better in every conceivable way. Why do you think we’ve managed to amass so much money and power over the centuries?”

  I scoffed. “The Hales aren’t better than anyone. You’re just lucky that you were born into a rich family in the right time period. That’s all it is. Luck,” I retorted bitterly. “Oh, and as for the fortune you managed to amass… I’m guessing a sizable chunk of that was made via this mansion, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Running a modern slave market doesn’t make you or your family smarter or better than other people,” I hissed. “It makes you disgusting monsters.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Liz said, rolling her eyes. “You know as well as I do that people aren’t equal. Some are born to be slaves while others are born to rule.”

  I folded my arms. “Is that what you think I was born to do? To be a slave?” I asked. “Is that why you convinced my father to sell me to the Thornes when I was just a baby? So I could be Logan’s slave in the future?”

  “Not at all. I purchased you for the family for one main reason, and it had nothing to do with slavery,” Liz replied tartly.

  “What was it, then?”

  “Well, I knew the public wouldn’t turn on your mother right away when the Rutherford allegations came out, because it would seem too shocking. Too unbelievable. Like a soap opera.”

  “Right,” I said stiffly.

  Liz held up a palm to shush me so she could continue. “I needed something to undermine her credibility before all of that happened, so that the masses would already distrust her when the murder scandal finally came about as planned. When I found out your father was in debt to my husband all those years ago, I realized it was the perfect opportunity. If I bought you and ensured you would marry into a family of known Democratic party supporters one day—the Thornes—that would provide me with the exact ammunition I needed. People would wonder why the Republican president’s own daughter didn’t seem to support her party or policies, and they’d start to become wary of her. Around the same time, my associates and I would ensure that the murder scandal came to light. It would create a perfect storm.”

  I swallowed hard. “So all of these schemes of yours… they’re planned decades in advance?”

  “Usually, yes.” Liz smiled proudly. “I actually ended up needing you for something else, though. Something I didn’t foresee twenty years ago.”

  “What was it?”

  “Remember how I said my family planned to step out of the shadows eventually? Rule publicly for the first time?”

  “Yes.”

  “I wanted it to be Logan who crossed that line,” she said, a dreamy expression crossing her face. “Even as a young boy, he exhibited all of the characteristics of a great future leader. He was always so interested in politics, too. I planned to groom him to follow that interest so he would become president one day, around the age of forty-five or fifty. By that stage, the AUP would’ve been in power for a while. So really, he’d be more of a king than a president.”

  “But he lost interest in politics.”

  She nodded. “Yes. I didn’t foresee that happening. I’m not psychic, after all. But I realized I could use you to get him interested again,” she said. “He wouldn’t listen to me, because in order to hide my status from him, I’ve had to pretend to be nothing but his silly, air-headed old mother. But I knew he’d listen to you. His future wife.”

  I licked my dry lips. “So all of the things you said during our chats were lies designed to manipulate me into getting Logan on your side.”

  She frowned. “I don’t think I ever lied to you, Willow,” she said, tapping her chin with one finger.

  “Yes, you did! You told me your relationship with Chuck was forced on you because of a contract just like mine. All to make me feel sorry for you, I presume.”

  She arched a brow and smiled. “No, I actually didn’t say that. All I ever said was that the circumstances were similar. And they were. My marriage to Chuck was the result of a contract. But not like yours. In our case, Chuck was forced to marry me.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “My family wanted and needed his family close to ours in order to carry out certain parts of our plan. So my father and uncle essentially bought Chuck from his parents in a similar fashion to how we bought you from your father.” She paused and let out a snort of laughter. “Why do you think Chuck is always screwing around with whores and talking down to me? He can’t stand me. He never wanted to marry me. But he was forced to do it, and he knows he can never divorce me. My family are too powerful to let him get away with breaking his contract.”

  “Jesus,” I muttered.

  She shrugged. “See? I didn’t lie to you. I just presented the information to you in an ambiguous way.”

  “But what about the bruises?” I asked, shaking my head with confusion. “You told me that Chuck has always been an abusive husband. Why would your family let him get away with hitting you and treating you so terribly when they intended on making you the supreme leader of their cause one day? And why would you put up with it?”

  Liz let out a tinkling laugh. “Oh, honey. Chuck has never hit me. He wouldn’t dare,” she said. “Also, I never claimed that he beats me. All I ever told you was that he has a bad temper, which is true.”

  “So that was just another thing you did to manipulate me? You gave yourself the bruises and made me think you were a poor, innocent abuse victim, so I’d feel inclined to help you and do whatever you asked of me?”

  She lifted her chin again. “That’s mostly true. I didn’t give myself the bruises, though. I actually have a very rare form of hemophilia. Do you know what that is?”

  “It’s a blood clotting issue.”

  “Yes. Obviously it can be life-threatening if it goes untreated, but as long as I take my medication every day, I’m fine,” she said. “Unfortunately, despite the meds, I still bruise very easily if I’m not careful. Even the tiniest thing can leave a huge mark on my skin if it brushes against me a little too hard.”

  I sighed. “So that’s why Logan never seemed concerned about the bruises.”

  “Yes. He’s always known it’s a health issue. Not the result of abuse.” Liz smiled. “But you didn’t know that, did you? And you never asked. When you saw me looking sad and meek around you, covered in bruises, you jumped to conclusions instead. You assumed I was a victim, and you thought you could manipulate me by offering to help me out of my situation.”

  I swallowed hard again. “I played right into your hand.”

  “Yes, you did, and you performed amazingly. You did as I asked and got Logan interested in politics again, and you convinced him to spend more time with me, too. It really couldn’t have gone any better.”

  “God,” I murmured, looking down at the bed. “I can’t believe how dumb I’ve been.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, darling,” Liz said, patting my shoulder. “I’m very good at what I do. No one knows who I really am, except the people I choose to tell.”

  I gulped as something occurred to me. “What about Chloe?” I asked, raising my eyes to Liz’s face again. “She knew, didn’t she?”

  She sighed. “Yes. That was a terrible miscalculation on my behalf.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Every Order leader has to pick a successor one day, and they must groom that individual and prepare them for the position. I chose Chloe.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she always reminded me of myself,” she said. “I knew Logan would make an amazing public leader one day, but I thought Chloe would thrive as a leader behind the scenes. Like me. So I let her in on a few things when she was sixteen. Tried to introduce her to the world she’d eventually take over.”

  “it didn’t go well?”

  Liz shook her head. “No,” she said, eyes clouding over. “At first, she seemed excited, which was what I expected. After all, who wouldn’t be thrilled to learn that their famil
y is going to rule the whole country one day?”

  “I guess that’s true,” I grudgingly admitted, twisting my hands in my lap.

  “It didn’t last. The more she found out, the more her excitement waned. When I told her about the contract binding you to our family, she seemed upset, and when she discovered the true source of most of our fortune, she seemed even more troubled. She said she needed some time to think it over.” Liz hesitated, straightening her shoulders. “I agreed. I understood how shocking this new information was to someone so young and inexperienced. I figured she’d come around in time, just like I did after my uncle told me everything when I was a teenager.”

  “But she didn’t?”

  Liz pressed her lips into a flat line. “No. To make matters worse, she had her own dark secrets.”

  “Like what?”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly. “She informed me that she was pregnant to a boy she knew.”

  “Who?”

  She waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. He was a nobody from a poor, no-name family,” she said, nose wrinkling. “If she kept that baby, it would’ve ruined everything. She was adamant, though. She wanted to keep it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I pleaded with her to give it up, of course. I told her she didn’t have to get an abortion if she didn’t want to. We could send her away to have the child in secret, and we would tell everyone that she was at a Swiss boarding school to explain her absence. When she recovered and returned, it would be like nothing happened.”

  A cold sensation struck at my core. “You wanted her to leave the baby at this mansion, didn’t you?” I asked. “To be raised as a slave and sold when he or she was old enough.”

  “Yes. I thought Chloe would realize it was for the best.”

  “You honestly thought she’d see it that way?”

  “Yes, but unfortunately, she wasn’t as similar to me as I thought. Like I said, it was a serious miscalculation. I suppose I let my maternal feelings override my natural instincts.”