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The genial smile on his face boils her blood. The careful, practiced way he excuses herself the moment she walks into the room, so he wouldn't have to be left alone with her? Infuriating. She steps in the way of the exit, metres in front of him.
"You're just gonna keep avoiding me?" Grace demands, folding her arms.
"I'm not avoiding you." he lies, that annoying calm look on his face. Like he hadn't just watched Eloise get executed three days ago. "I just...need to be alone."
Fine. Since he's playing dumb, Grace decides to get straight into the juicy stuff. "There's no way you're fine being 'exiled' and whatever when it's her fault. Aren't you mad about that?!"
"I'm okay, Grace." Desmond smiles that same phony smile. "I know it sounds impossible-"
"That's because it is, and you're lying." When her words don't get the intended impact, she decides to be crueller. "Eloise betrayed you, and you're the one being punished for what she did! You're just going to pretend that's fine? Walk it off, like you never even loved her at all?"
There it is - Desmond flinches, smile becoming taut. "She had no choice."
"Do you really believe that?" she taunts, glaring at him. "You're going to let yourself be manipulated by her again, even when she's already dead?!"
"Grace."
She watches him clench his fists - taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Still trying to act calm and collected. "She didn't manipulate me-"
"She didn't?" Grace asks, with mock surprise. "Oh, so she killed Kai on accident? And she hid the body, on accident, and you were framed on accident-"
"Tozu threatened her." Desmond says shakily. "It was just like what happened with Eva-"
"It was Eva's fault then, and it's Eloise's fault now!" Grace declares. "Only this time, you knew what was going on! You knew what she did, and you still kept quiet for her!"
"I had to-"
"So were you just going to die, if Damon didn't find the truth?" Grace challenges. When he doesn't respond, teeth gritted, she pushes him further. "Would you have let everyone die just because you were too whipped to-"
"Nobody would have believed me!" he yells, voice echoing across the empty room. "Eloise would have convinced everybody that I was lying - the only reason Damon took my side is because he had evidence, not because he actually trusted I was innocent!"
"None of us trusted you because you didn't even try to defend yourself!" Grace retorts. "You just let her walk all over you-"
"I didn't let her do anything." Angrily, he advances towards her. "Grace, do you genuinely believe that if I told Wolfgang what really happened to me, he would have believed me over Eloise? Could you look me in the eye and say that with your entire chest-"
"I would have believed you."
Desmond scoffs, shaking his head. "You hate me - why would you even-"
"I hated both of you." Grace defends. "Eloise was being shady - even without the evidence Damon found, I still didn't trust a word she said."
"And that's some kind of achievement? You hated her for no reason: you saw she had your blackmail and made it everyone's problem, harassing her for days on end. All over a blurry picture and some vague statement-"
"It was more important than that-"
"-that didn't have any kind of meaning! If you'd put even a tenth of that energy into actually listening to Wolfgang and giving Diana her blackmail, then maybe-"
He cuts himself off, stepping backwards, but it's too late. Grace has already pieced together what he would have said. Her mind goes to Diana, dead in the boiler room. Lying in the water. The piece of paper, calling Diana to receive her blackmail, burned into her mind.
"I'm sorry." he whispers, looking away.
"You're not sorry."
"...No. I'm not."