Chapter 8
Part 9: The Prince Without a Father
Sofia stared at the register.
"You're lying."
Vale looked almost amused.
"That's what your mother said when she first discovered it."
He turned the book toward her.
The annotation had been signed by a royal physician who had died seventeen years earlier.
Attached to the page was a sealed medical report.
Sofia recognized the physician's name.
Dr. Edmund Hale.
One of the doctors who had attended Queen Madeleine during Victor's birth.
"This isn't proof," Sofia said.
"No," Vale agreed.
"It's a reason to start asking questions."
Outside the chapel, a car door slammed.
Vale glanced toward the stained-glass window.
"Your escort is becoming impatient."
Sofia kept her voice steady.
"What do you want me to do with this?"
"Ask Madeleine who Victor's father is."
"Why would she tell me?"
"Because you're the only person in the kingdom she fears more than Gabriel."
Sofia frowned.
"She doesn't fear me."
Vale smiled sadly.
"Everyone fears the person who can reveal what they've spent their life concealing."
He closed the register.
Sofia reached for it.
Vale withdrew it.
"Not yet."
"You expect me to trust you?"
"Certainly not."
He replaced the book beneath the altar.
"But you should understand something.
Gabriel did not create the lie that destroyed Claire."
Sofia's chest tightened.
"You said he framed her."
"He signed the accusations.
He endorsed the forged evidence.
He benefited from the conviction."
"Then he destroyed her."
"Yes."
Vale's eyes darkened.
"But the plan began with someone who had far more to lose from Claire's return."
Footsteps approached from the rear of the chapel.
Victor emerged from the shadows.
He had heard enough.
"Who is my father?"
Vale didn't turn.
"Your Highness."
Victor walked toward them.
"Answer me."
Sofia saw that his hands were trembling.
Vale regarded him with something resembling pity.
"You've inherited Gabriel's temper."
Victor grabbed the front of his coat.
"Who is my father?"
Vale didn't resist.
"That," he said quietly, "is a question you should ask your mother."
Victor shoved him backward.
Vale struck a wooden pew.
Sofia stepped between them.
"Victor, stop."
The prince looked at her, desperate and furious.
"He knows."
"I know."
"Then make him answer!"
Before Sofia could respond, the chapel bells began ringing.
Midnight.
The first bell echoed across the hill.
Then a second.
A third.
A piercing alarm erupted from Victor's phone.
He glanced at the screen.
Captain Ward.
Victor answered.
"What's happening?"
Ward's voice came through distorted by static.
"Your Highness, return to the palace.
Immediately."
"Why?"
"There's been an attack on the underground archive."
Sofia went cold.
"My father?"
Ward hesitated.
"We haven't located Thomas Bennett."
"And the queen?"
Victor demanded.
Another pause.
Then Ward said the words that made Victor's face collapse.
May you like
"Queen Madeleine has been arrested."
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