Your Guise Is Slipping, Miss Pearl

"Can you guarantee no one will find out? This time, they found out." Finnegan wanted to teach that man a hard lesson, but that man just dusted off his clothes and stood up.

He knew this man, Zayn Russell. Zayn was mean and violent, and he was known as someone you shouldn't mess with in the town. Also, he dropped out of school when he was in third grade and had been involved in illegal stuff in the village.

Hardly anyone stood up to him because he was strong.

Zayn smirked. "Mister Finnegan, maybe you should be asking yourself why?"

"What do you mean?" Finnegan narrowed his eyes at Zayn.

Zayn cleared his throat and turned to everyone. "Folks, think about it. We've done this many times before and never had trouble. So, why now?"Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

"Why?"

Those villagers were confused and couldn't figure it out.

"It's because someone snitched on us, and it's very likely our dear Mister Finnegan." Suddenly, Zayn turned around and pointed at Finnegan. "Why did he choose Esther out of everyone? Because he knows her. She's the spy he brought in!"

A spy...

Now the villagers got it. "So, you're saying Finnegan knew who Esther was. It wasn't by chance Esther ended up here. He did it to trap us!"

"Exactly. If I'm guessing right, that's the truth. And he probably told others that Esther was here."

Zayn turned again, his eyes icy. "Mister

Finnegan, why don't you get

explain? How did Esther get here? And how did outsiders find out?"

As Finnegan saw the farmers

thegrier, he tried to calm

them down. "I had nothing to do with it didn't tell anyone

here."

"That's hard to believe! We'll only trust you if you can show real proof you didn't tell!"

Finnegan was stuck. He couldn't prove his innocence.

He knew that Zayn had always disliked him. But he couldn't think of a good response right away.

When the villagers noticed

Finnegan's silence, they thought met

was guilty. So, they started accusing

him.

"Mister Finnegan, we thought highly of you. We always respected you. But you betrayed us!"

"You let us down. We didn't think you'd side with outsiders!"

"Let's catch him and make him talk!"

"Yes, let's find out the truth!"

Although Finnegan had always been calm, he frowned at this. "Are you going against me?"