Chapter 3
Part 4: The Man Behind the Glass
Victor pulled Sofia to the floor.
A sharp crack shattered the window above them.
Glass rained across the carpet.
Madeleine screamed.
Victor dragged Sofia behind a heavy sofa while a second shot struck the marble fireplace.
"Stay down!"
Footsteps thundered outside.
Captain Elias Ward burst through the door with two guards.
"Your Highness!"
"West garden," Victor shouted.
"Someone's shooting from the west garden!"
Ward spoke into his radio.
"Lock down the western perimeter.
Medical team to the queen's apartments.
Now!"
He crouched beside Sofia.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
"Your Majesty?"
"I'm all right," Madeleine whispered.
Ward looked toward the shattered window.
"Whoever did this knew which room you were in."
Victor's expression changed.
He glanced at the leather folder scattered across the floor.
"Or knew what we'd just found."
Ward ordered his guards to escort them through the interior passageways.
The palace had become a maze of emergency lights and distant alarms.
Sofia clutched her mother's letter inside her uniform.
The bracelet was tucked securely beneath her neckline, beside the emerald pendant.
For the first time, the necklace felt less like a secret and more like a target.
They reached a service elevator.
Ward inserted a security key.
"Where are we going?"
Sofia asked.
"An old emergency suite beneath the east wing.
It's not connected to the main security network."
Victor frowned.
"Since when does the palace have an emergency suite there?"
"Since your grandfather ordered one built after an assassination attempt."
Madeleine looked sharply at Ward.
"Alexander never told me."
Ward gave her a grim look.
"He didn't trust everyone in the palace."
The elevator descended.
Sofia watched the numbers change.
Ground floor.
Lower level.
Sublevel one.
Sublevel two.
Then the elevator stopped between floors.
The lights flickered.
Victor pressed the emergency button.
Nothing happened.
Ward drew his sidearm.
"Everyone behind me."
A metallic scraping sound came from above.
Someone was opening the elevator access hatch.
Sofia's pulse thundered.
Ward raised his weapon.
"Identify yourself!"
A familiar voice answered.
"Captain, it's Daniel Mercer.
Palace engineering."
Ward lowered his gun slightly.
"Mercer?
What are you doing?"
"Trying to get you out.
The system was remotely disabled."
A small flashlight appeared through the hatch.
Mercer's face emerged.
He was a broad-shouldered man in his late forties, wearing a gray maintenance uniform.
Sofia recognized him.
He had repaired the kitchen heating system the previous winter.
He had once slipped her a cup of coffee when she was working a double shift.
"Follow the ladder," Mercer said.
"There's a service platform above."
Ward climbed first.
Then Madeleine.
Victor helped Sofia toward the ladder.
As she reached the top, Mercer caught sight of the emerald pendant around her neck.
His face changed.
For a fraction of a second, he forgot to breathe.
"Where did you get that?"
Sofia touched the necklace.
"My mother."
Mercer's eyes filled with something she couldn't name.
Regret.
Recognition.
Or fear.
He looked toward the others.
"Does she know?"
Madeleine froze halfway across the platform.
"Daniel."
Sofia stared between them.
"You know each other?"
Mercer slowly removed his maintenance badge.
"Your Majesty," he said to the queen, "we've been lying to this girl long enough."
Madeleine shook her head.
"Not here."
But Mercer was already looking at Sofia.
"My real name isn't Daniel Mercer."
He reached beneath his shirt and pulled out an old silver military identification tag.
"Sofia, my name is Thomas Bennett."
The world seemed to stop.
Sofia stared at him.
"No."
He took a step closer.
"Your mother told you I died in an accident."
"Stop."
"I didn't die."
Sofia backed against the concrete wall.
Her father had died when she was four.
She had visited his grave.
She had left flowers there every year.
May you like
Mercer's eyes shone.
"I'm your father."
