Page 22 of Royal Caleva: Luis

“What?” Grace muttered sleepily.

“It’s Mikel,” Eve said as the phone vibrated again.

Grace bolted into a sitting position. “Oh my God!”

“Ready?” Eve asked, her finger poised over the screen.

Grace nodded, her hair catching a crimson gleam from the soft dawn light.

Eve took a deep breath as she swiped to answer. “Hello, Mikel. I’m going to put you on speaker so Grace can hear the news from you too.”

“Let me know as soon as you are ready.” Mikel’s voice was kind with understanding.

Eve hit the speaker symbol and looked at Grace again. Her daughter sat sideways on the bed so she was facing the phone in Eve’s hand as though it were Mikel himself. Her shoulders were squared, and her jaw was tight. Eve gave Grace’s knee a squeeze. “Go ahead, Mikel.”

“I am honored to inform you that Grace is el Rey Luis’s daughter. The DNA matched at ninety-nine point nine percent.” Mikel’s voice rang with conviction. “The king asked me to convey how elated he is about this news. He looks forward to meeting Grace as soon as possible.”

Grace’s eyes were wide, and she flattened her palms against her cheeks, mouthing, “Holy crap!” without making a sound.

“That’s…quite something,” Eve said. “I guess I’m not surprised after seeing the family resemblance.” However, the results were shocking. Until this confirmation, some part of her had believed the story was all a crazy lie the evil Odette had fabricated to upset Luis. “But it’s still hard to absorb.”

An understatement. Panic and happiness danced a tango in her chest. Happiness because Grace had a father at long last, a father who truly wanted his daughter. But this man would disrupt their lives down to the very foundations. He lived in—no, he ruled—a foreign country. Luis might sweep Grace off to Caleva, where Eve would become just a visitor. Eve could almost feel Grace slipping away from her, and the panic intensified.

“I understand.” Something in his tone told her he did, and that steadied her.

She had to focus on Grace in the here and now.

“We’d like to invite Luis to dinner…” She glanced at the clock. “Tonight, at seven.” She and Grace had discussed it earlier as they lay talking in the big bed together. Eve wanted to make the first meeting between father and daughter as smooth as possible. Having it on Grace’s home turf would give her daughter one less thing to be nervous about.

Grace had been dubious. “Do you think our house is grand enough for a king?”

“I think it’s grand enough for your father. That’s how you should think of him,” Eve had said.

Now Eve wondered if her daughter was right about the house…and the food she would have to prepare. She would be cooking for a king. Nerves butterflied in her stomach, but it was too late now.

“Perhaps you would like to issue the invitation yourself?” Mikel said. “I will text you his direct number. Please do not attach his name to it in your contacts.”

“No, of course not.” She was getting a direct line to a king. How bizarre was that? At least she could have some fun with deciding what his pseudonym should be.

She heard the ping as Luis’s number arrived as a text.

“By the way, he is awake, so feel free to call at any time,” Mikel said. “Buenos días.”

Eve set the phone on the bed and took several deep breaths to settle herself. “How do you feel, sweetheart?”

Grace sat cross-legged in her T-shirt and pajama shorts, her hair in tangled waves around her shoulders, a dazed expression on her face. “I—I don’t know. It’s too far out of my ballpark, this whole royalty thing.”

Eve took Grace’s hands in her own. “Let’s forget the princess part. Instead, think about meeting your birth father. How do you feel about that?”

“Excited, I think.” Grace’s eyes lost their stunned blankness as she nodded. “Especially because now I know he didn’t abandon me back then.”

“I think you’ll like him a lot.” Eve wanted this encounter to be nothing but positive for Grace. “He will certainly like you.”

“You think so?” Grace asked.

Eve cupped Grace’s smooth cheek. “You’re brilliant, hardworking, compassionate, funny, warm, and you look just like him. No father could resist that combination.”

“And you’re not biased at all.” But Grace smiled for a moment before she grew serious again. “Mom, I don’t need any parent except you. You’re the most wonderful mother—and father—anyone could want. That’s not why I want to meet…Luis. Or whatever I should call him.”

---