This fanfic is based of the series The Gender Game by Bella Forrest everything in italics belongs to her.

What if Lee never paged Violet or interrupted that one scene in the Gender Game. How would the series turn out?

Things that could have been

Chapter 1 - Spark

"Violet!" Viggo clutched my shoulders and shook me again, forcing me to look him in the eye. "What did you come to tell me about? What could have possibly been so important that you felt the need to travel to me in the middle of the night without your husband?"

His voice is panicked. How can I tell him I was going to frame him for the most heinous crime? How?!

In his exasperation, Viggo had moved closer to me still. I could no longer take the pressure of his imposing form in such proximity. Pushing past him, I strode into the living room, clutching my head, my back turned to him.

What am I doing? Can I really go through with this? Can I condemn Lee? Tim?

Now I couldn't think of a single good reason I could offer as to why I had come here. Why I had gone behind my husband's back…

I might have already done irreparable damage by coming here tonight. Piqued his interest in Lee's and my relationship to a point where it should never have been piqued. Viggo entered the living room after me. His tone had become calmer, quieter—more hesitant—as he said, "Has Lee… done something to you? Did you have an argument or…"

I knew it was now or never. I had to tell him. Tell him about the plan. Maybe he might help me find Tim. Maybe he might still accept me.

"Yes," I said, shaking my head firmly. "Nothing like that. But..." My pitch rose as I repeated, "But…"

The floorboards creaked. Viggo stood just a foot behind me now. I could hear his breathing. Breathe in his scent. My heartbeat quickened as his hand closed gently around my shoulder, endearing me to turn around.

"But… what?" he asked.

I faced him. Blood rushed to my cheeks as I took in his tired face, his forehead lined with confusion. The stubble around his jaw had grown noticeably since the last time I'd seen him a few days ago, adding to his jaded appearance.

I loved this man. I needed to tell him that.

His confusion stabbed me with guilt. But more than confused… he looked concerned. Concerned, just as he had been after finding me wandering the streets alone, the second night of my arrival in Patrus. As he had been when he'd held my arm tightly after our encounter with the gang members outside the Rosen-Cruz fight. As he had been when saving me from Porteque and covering up my murder. After I'd woken up to him in the helicopter. And just now, as I'd arrived outside his house with a motorcycle in the pouring rain.

Viggo Croft was a good man.

Better than my Matrian upbringing had ever allowed me to imagine existed on this side of the river, or on my side.

He was the best I'd known on either side.

As he sighed, apparently giving up hope of ever receiving an answer from me, I no longer needed to wonder how to respond.

"Viggo…"

His eyes locked with mine.

"I need to tell you something."

He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off.

"What I'm about to tell you might change your opinion of me forever. But no matter what, I want you to know…"

I took a deep breath.

"… I love you."

His breath hitched as his eyes widened. Those impossibly green eyes. Those eyes that had winked at me from inside the cage, those eyes…

When I gazed at his face, adrenaline surged in me. My pulse raced. For the first time, I knew exactly what to do. It didn't require any thinking. Any weighing of the pros and cons. Just instinct. Pure, inescapable instinct.

"If you're not going to talk, then I need to take you—"

Viggo's voice trailed off as I closed the small distance, between us.

"Sit. I'll explain." I commanded.

Stunned, he obeyed. The chair creaked slightly behind his bulk.

I sat myself against the wall, my knees drawn up.

"It all started eight years ago…"

I looked at him, trying to memorize that love one last time, before it vanished.

"You know of the test Matrus gives young boys right?"

He nodded.

"Well, my brother Tim, failed."

My eyes stung with tears as he clenched his fists.

"Is that why you reacted the way you did, in the alley?"

His deep voice resonated through me.

I nodded, slow.

"I wasn't going to let them take him. I hid him, figured a way to get him out of Matrus and across the river. My cousin Cad was going to help and house him. He would have been safe."

"Would have?"

"Things didn't go according to plan. I got him into Cad's boat, but there were wardens. I'd seen them and hid. But Tim had seen them too. He was so small, he didn't know any better."

Tears slid down my cheeks, burning patterns across my skin.

"He called out and they spotted us. The last thing I remember was fighting off the wardens, Tim screaming my name and then darkness."

Viggo was silent but I could see the hurt in his face. He was hurting for me.

"I bounced around a lot of correctional facilities, I broke so many laws trying to find him."

I laughed to myself.

"I'd given up by the time I turned 19. I only had a few more years of detention then my life could back to normal."

I paused, trying to find the words. My silence unnerved him.

"What happened?"

"I got into a scuffle with this girl, Dina, after she tore up the only photo I had of Tim. I was so angry, I couldn't think. She had these removable braces, she snuck past the wardens. She was swinging at me and I was swinging back."

He shifted.

"All I could think was, I shouldn't be doing this, I needed to get out of there. But she wouldn't give up, she was on top of me, bearing down on me. I grabbed her wrist and pushed back and then… it stopped."

"She gave up?" he asked.

I shock my head, my brown hair twisting around me.

"I'd bent her wrist back towards her throat. She still had the braces, Viggo."

"God…" he whispered

"There was so much blood, I couldn't do anything. She died and I was sentenced to death as per Matrian Law."

"So how are you here?"

I swallowed.

"That's where it gets complicated… Instead of being taken to my death I was brought to Queen Rina's palace. A scientist named Jenks…"

"Jenks? The scientist that created the test?"

"No… no, his son. He offered me a chance to wipe my slate clean, if I completed a mission for them. A mission that required me to come to Patrus."

Viggo stared hard at me, his eyes narrowing.

"Continue."

"He told me if I retrieved something that was stolen from them I could be free. The choice between coming to Patrus or dying was an easy one but I didn't know much. All I knew it was an silver egg that was extremely valuable to Matrus and in order to retrieve it I was going to be married to their spy in Patrus."

"Lee?"

"Lee."

He swiped his hand over his face. He looked exhausted.

"I agreed."

His eyes shot to me again.

"I had a condition of my own though, in exchange for returning with the egg and without disrupting the relations between the two nations, I was going to get to see Tim again. My baby brother."

"What happened, Violet?"

"I came here, married Lee, that you know. He told me the plan was to use the upcoming banquet to retrieve the egg. We were going to see off some explosives, possibly killing people and steal the egg back. But the plan required…"

"What did it require?"

"It required someone to frame for the crime, to cover our escape. Lee knew he wanted to use one of the wardens…"

Viggo went stiff in the chair.

"ME?!"

"Yes, he said you were the perfect person to frame, someone who had a grudge against the Patrian system, someone who wouldn't hesitate to do something extreme, if it served a purpose."

He rose sharply.

"I don't want to hear anymore."

"Viggo, please listen."

He paced but was silent again.

"I was against it from the beginning framing an innocent person, but I went along with it because of Tim."

Viggo faced softened.

"My job was to get close to you, learn your movements and make sure you were where Lee wanted you on the night of the banquet. I was doing that, but something happened, something I didn't count on. It changed everything… everything."

He stared out of the window into the darkness.

"I fell in love with you. I couldn't do that to you. You're a good man, Viggo. I couldn't…"

Tears ran down my cheeks and I swiped them again.

"Is that why…"

I knew what he was asking. Was that why I came tonight?

"Yes, I came tonight to tell you of Lee's plans so you could stop it. There's plenty of evidence in the house that will seal his fate."

"But your brother…"

"I hope Tim still alive out there somewhere and I'm going to find him."

"Violet…"

"I understand if you hate me now. I'm leaving Patrus at dawn and I'll find Tim or die trying."

Without realising it I was twisting and untwisting my shirt, my nerve were getting to me. I desperately wanted him to say I was wrong, and he loved me too, but he was deathly silent.

"I love you Viggo, so much."

I rose, my knees threatened to send me back to the floor. I turned towards the door.

"Goodbye, Viggo."

I reached the front door, ready to leave for good when his hands slammed either side of my head.

"Do you think I'd let you leave just like that…"